Miranda Releases Shadow Recovery Pro Plug-in
By
Mike Pasini, The Imaging Resource
(Thursday, September 25, 2003 - 16:59 EDT)
Fred Miranda has released his $19.50 Shadow Recovery Pro plug-in. Designed for use with images from either digicams or scanned film, it's compatible with Photoshop 6, 7 or higher, as well as Elements 1 and 2 (PC and Mac).
The plug-in was inspired by an old problem in digital photography, blown highlights. To capture any detail in the highlights during exposure, detail in the shadows usually has to be sacrificed. But, unlike blown highlights, some shadow detail is still captured and can be recovered with various image editing tricks.
Fred explained, "Since highlights are difficult to recover when not exposed properly, I have developed this plug-in to focus on recovering the hidden shadow detail. SR Pro replaces lengthy and complicated masking techniques, speeding your workflow and leaving you with natural and reliable results."
SR Pro features 12 intensity levels complemented with several options to reduce shadow noise including:
- Normal runs shadow recovery without applying any shadow noise reduction.
- Color runs the desired shadow recovery level and also reduces Chroma (Color) noise from shadows for digicams that produce color noise in the shadows.
- Color + Luma runs the desired shadow recovery level while reducing chroma or luma noise. "This setting is great when used with higher ISO, long exposure files," Fred said.
SR Pro Plugin also includes a "Add shadow contrast" tool to add contrast to your image without compromising mid-tone and highlight detail. It works primarily on the shadows while providing natural mid-tone blending.
More information, visit fredmiranda.com.
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