That pesky white line...

[David Rigg]

Lightroom Version Number

8.4.1

Operating System

1. Windows 10

I run into this occasionally when using a gradation and a range mask. Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong? That white line where the awning meets the sky is NOT acceptable.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

This may be due to the sharpening. Sharpening basically increases the contrast of lines, by darkening the dark side and brightening the lighter side. So (too much) sharpening will have created that line already. Then with the graduated filter and the range mask you exaggerate that line. Shadows/Highlights tend to do this too.

Was the original image shot in JPEG? Judging from the focal length it looks like it was shot with a smartphone. JPEGs are sharpened in camera.

 

[David Rigg]

Hmmm, not sure why LR saw it as 3.7 mm. It was actually a 16mm Nikkor. All shot RAW.
I haven't added any sharpening other than the default 40. NO sharpening added to the gradient. See settings in screenshot. I would venture to believe that it could be related to the HDR process, but it sometimes shows up in similar High contrast edges in long exposures.

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

You could try to remake the HDR in Photoshop. That does deliver better results sometimes.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Setting the smoothness of the luminance range mask much lower might help. The higher the smoothness, the wider the halo around dark edges.

 

[David Rigg]

Setting the smoothness of the luminance range mask much lower might help. The higher the smoothness, the wider the halo around dark edges.

It did HELP but not completely eliminate the line. See SS.

 

[David Rigg]

You could try to remake the HDR in Photoshop. That does deliver better results sometimes.

Thanks for the suggestion. Making the HDR in PS does actually solve the problem.

I'm not a big fan of how PS handles the overall look of the highlights.

It corrects out to an acceptable illustration but the highlights still are a bit funky.

I think my shadows are a bit under exposed, LR seems to do better interpreting the files over all. These are just web illustrations and I'm being picky. But was just wondering if others had experienced the same thing.

I also noticed that PS added a lot more noise to the shadows than LR. PS seems less tolerant of the exposure deficit.

Anyway, thanks for the reply.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

The problem in Lightroom is that you use Shadows +100 and Highlights -100. That definitely creates these halos. Try to do this with local adjustments and range masks instead, then you can use Exposure in the local adjustment rather than Shadows/Highlights. If you are willing to share the DNG via Dropbox or another file sharing site, I can give it a try with a special technique I have developed for this.

 

[David Rigg]

The problem in Lightroom is that you use Shadows +100 and Highlights -100. That definitely creates these halos. Try to do this with local adjustments and range masks instead, then you can use Exposure in the local adjustment rather than Shadows/Highlights. If you are willing to share the DNG via Dropbox or another file sharing site, I can give it a try with a special technique I have developed for this.

Thanks Johan.

I PM'd you the Dropbox URL. If you need the source files let me know.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

OK, here's two screenshots of what I could do in Lightroom. The trick is that I do not use Shadows and Highlights at all, but use two Radial filters with Luminance range masks. Both filters are made so large that they cover the entire image, and both are set to 'Invert' so that they work inside the circle. One radial filter has a range mask that selects the highlights, and in that filter I use a negative Exposure to lower the highlights. In the other filter the range mask selects the shadows, and in this filter I use a positive Exposure correction. The result is a highlights and shadows correction, but without the halos that the real Highlights and Shadows sliders cause. I've sent you a link to the DNG so you can download it again and see what I've done. I could have done this with Graduated filters too, but I have chosen to use Radial filters (and made a preset that adds them both in one click) because I rarely use Radial filters for anything else, so my preset won't reset existing Radial filters. I think you probably used a radial filter to add that orange glow on the side of the RV, so be careful that you do not reset my filters (don't use some preset to do it).

 

[David Rigg]

OK you got me... I cheated on that glow on the side of the Coach.

Thank you so much for your input. I learn something every time I log onto this forum.

This technique certainly makes a difference! I will add it to my bag of LR tricks.

One last dumb question: Is there or will there ever be an option to make "Radial" filters square or rectangular?

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Hal P Anderson]

Is there or will there ever be an option to make "Radial" filters square or rectangular?

If any of us knew, we wouldn't be able to tell you. My personal opinion is that it isn't likely, but I've often been surprised.

 

[David Rigg]

If any of us knew, we wouldn't be able to tell you. My personal opinion is that it isn't likely, but I've often been surprised.

Thanks Hal,

It would be a nice feature, but then again so would "Layers"... I won't hold my breath. :smuggrin:

 

[GrahamP]

The trick is that I do not use Shadows and Highlights at all, but use two Radial filters with Luminance range masks. Both filters are made so large that they cover the entire image, and both are set to 'Invert' so that they work inside the circle.

I have not used this for shadows and highlights, but I do use the same technique for other adjustments. In particular, if there is a lot of noise, such that overall noise reduction risks softening the image details too much, I will use a large radial filter to add noise reduction to darker areas, where it is usually more prominent, by using a luminosity mask to limit the additional noise reduction to the darker areas.

Conversely, I will use a luminosity mask limited to the brighter areas to reduce whites, in cases where an overall reduction would dull the remainder of the image, which is particularly useful when there is a threat of white clipping in several areas which it would be tedious or impractical to address via the brush tool.

The uses for this kind of technique are many. A graduated mask pulled outside the image so as to apply to all of it would work equally well, but I also prefer to use inverted radial masks, not least so that I can easily find the pin (in the centre of the image) if I need to revisit it, instead of having to look for a graduated filter pin at the edge of the image.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

The uses for this kind of technique are many. A graduated mask pulled outside the image so as to apply to all of it would work equally well, but I also prefer to use inverted radial masks, not least so that I can easily find the pin (in the centre of the image) if I need to revisit it, instead of having to look for a graduated filter pin at the edge of the image.

Yes, that was one of my reasons too. I made a preset for these two filters, but I often had to zoom out to find the pins. Now I have a pin in the upper half of the photo for the highlights and a pin in the lower half of the photo for the shadows. Easy to find and easy to remember.