How is the best way to remove the bright whites in the sky?

[_d_2]

I'm trying to get a very muted, middle tone look out of this, as I want to have a sentence in about 32pt white text go across the center.

I'm thinking this would be in curves, but I'm not figuring out how to basically bring any bright white areas over a certain value to under that value in brightness.

Any input greatly appreciated.

[K´mo]

As you are working with curves: Pull the upper right corner dot down.

[_d_2]

Yes, been working in curves. And I've tried that, which is helping a little, but still feels like the whites are staying hot, like below.

[bzareenk]

Maybe you want read in detail how to use curves, so that you get your things done accurately.

Using the Curves adjustment in Photoshop

[_d_2]

Thanks, Bahaar. I'll check that out.

[K´mo]

Ok, maybe you want something like this:

I made a levels-layer and set the blending mode to multiply. Then used advanced blendind:

So in Underlying layer hold alt and move the dark slider's half way up to right. This sets that effect is more on highlights and fades to blacks. After that adjust layers white output slider to left as in first picture.

Then you can mask this so that cityscape stays as it is.

[_d_2]

Thx K'mo, very interesting. Kind of a silvery quality to it.

[Guest]

You may try changing levels and curves both.

Use dodge tool with shadows to work on darker areas.

You may also make some selection with magic wand, give the edges a little feather and then make changes in curves and levels.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Hey, nice image.  I don't know that I am entirely getting what you want to achieve, but I wouldn't want to spoil the image, so:

• Convert to 16 bit because it is so close to B&W
• Make the cityscape a Smart Object so you can keep going back in and fine tune.
• Use Camera RAW filter local adjustment brush, and paint out the highlights with Highlights and Whites strongly reduced (I think I used -100%) and maybe reduce exposure a tiny bit (remember this is just the local adjustment tool.  I also increased Clarity a bit for the entire image because it is such a dramatic image.
• Add the Type layer, and give it a touch of Outer Glow using black set to Multiply.  Outer Glow can be a finicky style to control, so I start with opacity all the way up to see what is happening, and then reduce opacity for the final effect.

Yes nice work (d).

[_d_2]

Thanks, Trevor. Great tips. Really like the Camera Raw filter idea. I haven't used it yet, but seems like it has a lot of power. The whites/blacks/shadows control is nice.