White Balance / Highlight Recovery Plug-in Information

[ Get the plug-in ]

How highlight recovery works

Applying gain on the R, G, and B channels will cause one or two of these channels to exceed white level. Normally these values above white level are clipped. However, it is possible to use this information to make an intelligent guess about the other channel(s) that did not have gain applied. The ungained channel(s) will usually contain clipped values; highlight recovery will make an intelligent guess about what the original unclipped values were. If the original image does not contain perfect white balance, then highlight recovery offers the possibility of increasing dynamic range compared to no highlight recovery.

RAW

You will get technically superior results by shooting to a RAW format and applying any white balance and highlight recovery there. This tool is for situations where you do not have a RAW file to work with.

Gallery

Original. This image is from a scanned photo (shot on film).

Normal white balance, no highlight recovery. *This image has its luminance normalized to match the next image for the sake of comparison. Due to mixed color temperature lighting, there is no white balance that can make all the whites appear white.

White balanced with highlight recovery. Roll-over the image to compare with the version without highlight recovery. Note the additional highlight detail near the barrel of the gun.

Get the Plugin

Download: [PC] [Mac] | Installation instructions + manual

Changes:

v1.0.4 (PC only) - Plugin now compatible with older processors that lack SSE2 instructions. Fixed tab order.
v1.0.2 - Fixed bugs with the eyedropper in 16-bit and 32-bit modes.
v1.0.1 - Compatible with Irfanview and Paint Shop Pro.