How to push your raw files in ACR and Lightroom without introducing halos around the edges

 

 

If you make extensive edits to a raw image in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom, you may introduce halos and glowing edges. These distracting issues arise most often when making heavy changes to shadows and highlights in an image, such as when you are trying to recover details from a scene which had more dynamic range than your camera could capture. Fortunately, there are different techniques you can use to reduce or altogether avoid halos. Blake Rudis of f64 Academy demonstrates four tips and tricks in the video below.

Rudis' first tip actually applies at the point of capture. Rudis recommends capturing images in an exposure bracket, such that you have images with good detail in different parts of the image, from the darkest areas to the brightest areas. For example, you can capture three images, one with a neutral exposure, another with +2 exposure compensation and a third image with -2 exposure compensation. Different scenes may require different settings. When you open these three image files in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom, you can then merge to an HDR. The default settings will often give you a pretty good starting point, although in the example below, Rudis reduced highlights and increased shadows. To see how Rudis further processes his image without introducing halos, watch the full tutorial video below.

(Via f64 Academy)