Hi Ralph,


Looks like you are using an old version of DPP. Why not download and install the latest, version 3.7.2 ?


In my opinion there are two ways of doing this, the technical correct way, or doing the adjustments that suits you to get the results you are looking for. I am using both methods. It is all a question of what you want to achieve.


For images where the highlights are burned out I don´t use DPP. I think Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom will give much better results. Canon have recently introduced a Highlight and Shadow tool in DPP. I you download the latest version and are working with RAW-files you can try it. I don´t like it at all. It is a very poor implementation IMO. ACR or LR are doing much better with their Recovery tool.


1) The Brightness slider under the RAW-tab in DPP is basically an exposure slider. You are changing the overall exposure. If you click "View" and "Highlight alert" and "Shadow alert" you will get a warning if the exposure is "incorrect". Highlights are marked with red and Shadows marked in blue. You can adjust the exposure by using the Brightness slider and/or try the Highlight and Shadow tool if necessary.


2) Hmm, I would probably use a mask in Lightroom or Photoshop. If you want to stick to DPP you can try applying selective curve adjustment ( S-curve ) found under the RGB-tab.


Adjusting the vertical sliders under the RAW-tab or RGB-tab is identical to setting a black point (drag the left vertical slider to the right) and a white point (drag the right vertical slider to the left). You are are adjusting the dynamic range. You can find a much better description in the DPP help-file.


How much adjustments can be done before noise is an issue? That is very subjective. If the choice is between a noisy image or no image at all I don´t mind a little noise.


3) I was working on a portrait a few months ago and one of the images had areas with no colorinformation. The highlights were totally blown out. I adjusted them in Photoshop. I used Clone Stamp Tool or Spot Healing Brush Tool. When I do extensive editing I prefer to work with the raw-file or a 16-bit TIFF file.


4) I have used Gaussian only a couple of times. I start by making a duplicate layer, then under the layers button set it to overlay, I then apply Gaussian Blur starting with a value of 4-5, adjusting layer opacity.


Sharpness is of course always the last step. For easy sharpening I use Unsharp Mask. Radius 0.2, Amount 300+





- Johnny