Fixing Clipped Reds in the Sky
This winter has offered some amazing sunsets and sunrises where the sky has been dominated by very strong red tones. I swiftly found out that the brightest reds turned yellow if I exposed in my regular fashion — see image below. They can, though, to a certain degree be restored by pushing the Highlights slider in Lightroom to the left — alternatively take down the Exposure. I also found that editing so strong reds can be quite challenging. I honestly do not find clipped reds very appealing. That the reds are clipped means that we lose detail in the clouds and the warm colors look as if they are smeared across the sky.
The next image is two stops darker than the first image and the reds are now preserved.
However the reds in the encircled area are severely clipped.
In Lightroom I right click on the raw file and in the new pop-up menu I create a visual copy of the original. I now move over to the visual copy and push the Temperature slider in Lightroom so far to the left that I regain detail in the clipped area — see image below.
After having done all necessary adjustments in Lightroom for the original I export both the original and the visual copy to Photoshop as layers. I make sure the copy is the top layer and add a black mask. With a soft brush and low opacity I paint with white until my Temperature adjustment for the copy is revealed. I also added a Selective Color layer as a clipping mask so that this layer only affected the visual copy layer. Here I had to adjust the magentas so that the revealed colors matched the colors from the bottom layer, that is, the original.
After a few more layers in Photoshop the image took on the appearance below. The warm tones are relatively well controlled. I have chiefly used Selective Color adjustment layers for my color work.
Strong and clipped colors can also be controlled by a Lumenzia Saturation mask (check out the video).
I am confident there are plenty of other ways to avoid, control and handle clipped reds. This is merely how I prefer to do it.
“I usually don’t get those red burners very often, but when I do I almost never process them because I can’t get the sky right. I hadn’t thought about double processing the sky itself…genius!” (Max Foster)
