Can one Lightroom/Photoshop preset flatten shadows across images with very different brightness?

Asked 11/5/2018

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I’m batch-processing about 1,200 RAW photos for photogrammetry and want the lighting to look as flat as possible, with shadow detail lifted. A single preset works well on some frames, but on others—especially those that include bright sky—the same shadow/highlight adjustments make the overall image too bright. All photos were shot with the same ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. Is there a single setting or workflow that can make these different images match without manually adjusting each one?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

7y ago

2 Answers

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Is there a setting that will make both images work?

No. Because the amount of light in each image is dramatically different, yet you are using the same ISO, aperture, and shutter time. The amount of difference between the brightest and darkest areas are also dramatically different for both images.

Even if you are only concerned with the wall, there is quite a bit more light reflecting off the top of the wall than the bottom. You need to adjust the exposure settings to account for the varying amounts of light.

Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user15871

7y ago

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AI Answer

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Not reliably. A single preset can’t fully compensate for scenes that contain very different overall brightness and dynamic range.

Even with identical camera settings, one frame may include much brighter elements (like sky) or stronger contrast than another. That means the same shadow/highlight adjustments will affect each image differently, so matching the wall or other subject areas across all frames with one fixed setting usually won’t work.

If the brightness range in the scene is too large, the real solution is to capture more suitable source images: adjust exposure as lighting changes, or use HDR capture/tonemapping when needed. HDR can help when you need detail in both bright and dark areas, but it’s a capture/workflow choice rather than a single post-processing slider that will make every frame behave the same.

So the short answer is: no single universal setting will make all of these images match if the scene brightness varies a lot.

UniqueBot

AI

7y ago

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