Need to auto-contrast inverse of subject, as if auto-contrast had been applied to the entire image

Question

Windows 11 laptop with the most current version of Photosop.

This is mostly for bird images when the sky is most of the background. After all the ACR and photoshop tweaks, in photoshop, often the sky is undesirable. Auto contrast when applied without any masks often does a wonderful job of fixing it, but I don't want it affecting the subject. Unfortunatedly, if I select sky or inverse of subject, after I apply auto-contrast, the result is comically bad.

I know this can be accomplished with layers, but I'm having a hard time with this. At some point, ChatGPG got me in the right place, and I got what I wanted in Photoshop, but when I exported the jpg, the change was lost.

Can somebody please simply explain the right steps to get what I want? To be clear, I want the sky to look exactly how it looks when I apply auto-contrast to the entire image, but I don't want the subject affected, and I of course then need to export a jpg with the change applied.

Mark37430984r9lw · Accepted Answer

Disregard - I got it working:1. Open your image in Photoshop.Duplicate the Background layer (Right-click > Duplicate Layer or press Ctrl+J).Select the Background layer (not the duplicate).Go to Select > Sky to automatically select the sky.With the sky selected, activate the duplicated layer (Layer 1).Click the 'Add Layer Mask' button to mask Layer 1 to only show the sky.In the Layers panel, make sure the image thumbnail (not the mask) on Layer 1 is selected.Apply Auto Contrast by going to Image > Auto Contrast or pressing Ctrl+Shift+L.Export the result by choosing File > Save a Copy and selecting JPEG as the format.

Stephen Marsh · Answer

Assuming a flattened image as the start point:

1) Select > Subject (the selection may need refining)

2) Cmd/Ctrl + J to copy the selection to a new layer or better yet, duplicate the Background layer, and apply the selection as a layer mask

3) Select the Background layer and run your auto contrast (consider adjustment layer or smart object conversion if you will save a layered PSD master working file)

4) Save a Copy, Export As or Save for Web to JPEG

This sounds similar to your current workflow , so perhaps the issue is step 4. More info and screenshots may be required. Good luck!

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