This is a great example of how the harsh mid day sun throws unsightly shadows over unwanted portions of your subjects. This is a bad photograph, which would have tuned out much nicer if I had been able to shoot later in the day under more even, less direct, sunlight. Shown below is the original photo. (Some minor adjustments were made to color, contrast, and definition/sharpness.
Shadows at 25%
Shadows at 50%
Shadows at 100%
As you can see the feature brightens only the underexposed portions of the photograph, the face of the statue and some parts of the trees to the right. The sky is virtually untouched. This was done in Aperture 2.0, where you only have the option of going to 100% with the shadows feature. However if you were using Photoshop you would have the option to infinitely adjusting the intensity of the shadows feature, however you could only go to 100%, as the slider would reach its maximum. You would then apply the adjustment and manually select the adjustment again. Since you had applied the adjustment to 100% already, the next time you applied the shadows function the adjustments to the picture would have remained. Thus, if you adjusted the shadows function by another 100% you would have actually increased the shadows by 200%. The picture would look terrible, and it is not something that I would recommend, but it serves as a good example of the functionality of the program(s). For this image you would have better luck turning it to black and white or adding an artistic filter of some sorts. However, the grain/noise would likely be more pronounced in a black and white photograph.
When you increase the shadow you also increase the noise of the photograph as shown below.
Statue
Berlin, Germany
Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 11mm
Aperture 13
Shutter 1/250
ISO 400
Much of the detail of the face of the statue is masked in darkness due to the angle of the sun. The easiest way to deal with this would have been to use a flash, although unfortunately I didn't have that luxury.
In many post production products you are able to brighten underexposed areas selectively. This is an adjustment sometimes called "shadows". If you used a brightness adjustment it wouldn't differentiate and the entire picture would be brightened. While the underexposed areas would be corrected, more or less, the correctly exposed areas would become overexposed. Shown below is is the same photograph at different strengths of the shadows adjustment.
Shadows at 50%
Shadows at 75%
As you can see the feature brightens only the underexposed portions of the photograph, the face of the statue and some parts of the trees to the right. The sky is virtually untouched. This was done in Aperture 2.0, where you only have the option of going to 100% with the shadows feature. However if you were using Photoshop you would have the option to infinitely adjusting the intensity of the shadows feature, however you could only go to 100%, as the slider would reach its maximum. You would then apply the adjustment and manually select the adjustment again. Since you had applied the adjustment to 100% already, the next time you applied the shadows function the adjustments to the picture would have remained. Thus, if you adjusted the shadows function by another 100% you would have actually increased the shadows by 200%. The picture would look terrible, and it is not something that I would recommend, but it serves as a good example of the functionality of the program(s). For this image you would have better luck turning it to black and white or adding an artistic filter of some sorts. However, the grain/noise would likely be more pronounced in a black and white photograph.
When you increase the shadow you also increase the noise of the photograph as shown below.
Shadows at 0% (No adjustment)
Shadows at 100%
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