- Why use Camera Raw?
- Opening photos into Camera Raw
- The Camera Raw tools A
- Cropping and straightening photos
- Choosing default workflow options
- Using the Camera Raw tabs
- Using the Basic tab
- Using the Tone Curve tab
- Using the Detail tab
- Using the HSL/Grayscale tab
- Using the Adjustment Brush tool
- Using the Split Toning tab
- Using the Lens Corrections tab
- Using the Effects tab
- Using the Graduated Filter tool
- Using the Radial Filter tool
- Using the Spot Removal tool
- Saving and applying Camera Raw settings
- Synchronizing Camera Raw settings
- Converting, opening, and saving Camera Raw files
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Using the Graduated Filter tool
When shooting landscapes, you may have run into this common predicament: You set the proper exposure for the foreground, and the sky winds up being overexposed. To solve this problem on site, you can reduce the light on the upper part of the lens with a graduated neutral-density filter. To darken a sky in a photo that is shot without such a filter (Plan B!), you can use the Graduated Filter tool in Camera Raw.
With this tool, you create an overlay to define the area to be edited, then you apply the adjustment via any of a dozen sliders. The slider options are the same as for the Adjustment Brush tool.
To adjust an area of a photo using the Graduated Filter tool:
After adjusting your photo via the Basic and Tone Curve tabs,A choose the Graduated Filter tool
(G). The sliders for the tool display in the right panel.
A Despite our applying Basic and Tone Curve adjustments, the sky in this photo looks overexposed (washed out).
- Click the + or – button for any slider to “zero out” all the sliders except the one you click.
- To define where the filter edits will be applied, Shift-drag over an area in the photo, beginning from the location where you want the adjustment to be strongest. The filter will be applied fully at the green dashed border of the overlay, gradually diminishing to nil at the red dashed border. Note: If you want to draw the overlay on a diagonal, don’t hold down Shift while dragging.
Do either or both of the following:
Use the Temperature and/or Tint slider to make the filtered area warmer or cooler.
Use other sliders to adjust such characteristics as the exposure, sharpness, or noise in the filtered area (A–C, next page).
A After zeroing out the sliders for the Graduated Filter tool, we Shift-dragged downward in the photo (as shown by the arrow above), then chose slider settings to darken the exposure within the overlay area.
B To add more blue to the upper area of sky, we lowered the Temperature value.
C In the final image, the adjustment is strongest in the sky, fading to nil in the upper part of the ground.
To redisplay the main tabs, press H (for the Hand tool).
- At any time, you can lengthen or shorten the filter overlay by dragging or Shift-dragging the green or red dot. To reposition the whole overlay, drag the line that connects the two dots.
- To apply a separate overlay to another area of the photo, click New, then repeat steps 2–4. If you want to clone an overlay, hold down Ctrl-Alt/Cmd-Option and drag the dashed line that connects the two pins; or right-click a selected overlay and choose Duplicate from the context menu, then move the duplicate overlay.
- To hide the filter overlay, uncheck Overlay or press V.
- To remove a filter overlay, right-click a selected pin then choose Delete from the context menu; or hold down Alt/Option and click the overlay (note the scissors pointer); or click the overlay, then press Backspace/Delete.
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Editing a Graduated or Radial Filter Mask with a Brush
- Create or select a filter overlay. Click the Brush button at the top of the panel (Shift-K) to display brush options, then click the Brush + (add to) or Brush – (erase from) button. Press [ or ] to size the brush, then apply strokes in the preview. (You can also toggle the plus and minus buttons for the brush by holding down Alt/Option.) If you want to choose different sizes for the plus and minus functions of the brush, check Separate Eraser Size on the panel menu.
- In the panel, you can set the Feather value to control how much the brush edits fade into surrounding areas, and the Flow value to control the amount of adjustment. Check Auto Mask (M) to mask only the areas that match the first color area the brush touches (see also the sidebar on page 77).
- To remove all manual brush strokes from the currently selected overlay, click Clear.