How can I increase contrast without losing detail in shadows and midtones?
Asked 3/10/2020
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When I raise contrast or adjust levels, darker areas lose visible texture and detail, such as bark or interior features. If I brighten the image again, those details reappear. Is there a technique to increase contrast selectively so important shadow or midtone detail is preserved, or alternatively to make the dark areas go fully black so the detail cannot be recovered?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
25
A well know technique is called "luminosity masks". You create a selection mask where the pixels selection level is:
- 100% or near 100% in the luminosity range that you want to change,
- 0% or very low in the luminosity range you don't want to change,
- intermediate for pixels between these two ranges
This done by:
- making a grayscale copy of your image
- Applying Curves to isolate the range of interest by making it white and making the unchanged range black (the borders of the range shouldn't be too abrupt)
- Using the result image as a selection mask
For instance you can make a selection focused on the mid-tones, so you selection mask looks like this:
Or with your image like this (white indicates lack of selection)
And you can then play with the mid-tone contrast without harming shadows and highlights:
The same technique can be applied to select the darks and then lower them without turning all the shadows into charcoal:
Originally by user75947. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user75947
6y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. The usual way to increase contrast without crushing important detail is to edit selectively rather than applying a global levels change.
A common method is to use a luminosity mask: build a grayscale mask that targets only a chosen tonal range (often the midtones), with white where the adjustment should apply, black where it should not, and soft transitions between. Then apply Levels or Curves through that mask to boost contrast in those tones while protecting shadows or highlights.
Related classic techniques are dodging and burning, or blending bracketed exposures when the scene’s dynamic range exceeds what the camera can capture well.
If your goal is the opposite — to hide the detail so it cannot be brought back by later brightening — then raise the black point using Levels or Curves. That forces the darkest tones to pure black, permanently clipping that shadow detail.
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