Part II: Working with Camera Raw Images 242 FIGURE 8.28 The Adjustment Brush panel provides a limited number of adjustments that can be made to targeted areas of your image. Mask options Adjustment options Brush options Mask overlay color Setting the Mask options The Mask options include New, Add, and Erase. Whenever New is selected, a brush stroke over your image creates a new mask with new settings and places a new pin. After the first brush stroke, the Mask option automatically changes to Add. When Add is selected, the brush strokes you make are added to the currently selected mask. You also can select Erase, which allows you to use the brush to erase areas in the currently selected mask. Note Don’t be confused by all this talk of brushing on a mask. You are probably wondering how an adjustment can be applied through a mask. Actually, each new mask is applied to the entire image and the Adjustment Brush erases portions of it so the adjustment can filter through. n Using the pins The pins that are placed every time a mask is created with the adjustment brush are only general indicators of the area where the adjustment is taking place. A pin is placed at the beginning of the first stroke you make in creating a new mask. To see the areas that are being affected by your adjustment, hover over the center of a placed pin, and the mask temporarily appears over the adjusted areas. Figure 8.29 shows an image with two pins placed. The pin on the moon is outlined in green (as you can see by the black circle inside of it), indicating that it is selected. Adding or erasing affects the mask this pin is associated with. 13_584743-ch08.indd 24213_584743-ch08.indd 242 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Chapter 8: Processing Photos in the Camera Raw Workspace 243 FIGURE 8.29 Create a new mask that places a new pin whenever you want to make a separate adjustment. The second pin is placed at the bottom of the photo. The cursor is hovering over it, and the mask has appeared white, indicating that the mountains are being affected by the adjustment. You can toggle off the visibility of the pins by clicking Show Pins or using the V key. Setting the Brush options The Brush options are similar to brush options you find throughout Photoshop. They determine what each of your brush strokes looks like. You can change the following options to customize your brush: l Size: This option sets the size of the brush. The brush appears over your image as a solid circle surrounded by a dotted circle with a crosshair in the center. You can change the size by using the slider or the bracket keys. l Feather: Feathering makes the edges of your Adjustment Brush gradually transparent so that the adjustments blend better with your image. The solid circle inside the brush indi- cates where the feathering begins, and the dotted circle around the outside of your brush indicates the amount of feathering being applied. l Flow: Change the Flow to control how quickly the adjustment is applied. l Density: Similar to opacity, the Density determines how translucent the adjustment is. 13_584743-ch08.indd 24313_584743-ch08.indd 243 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Part II: Working with Camera Raw Images 244 l Auto Mask: This option confines the edges of your brush strokes to areas that are a simi- lar color to the center of your brush stroke. l Show Mask: To keep the mask on while you work, select Show Mask. You can change the color of the mask by double-clicking the mask color and selecting any color you like. Setting the Adjustment options You can set the Adjustment options either before or after you create a mask. As you brush to create the mask on your image, the adjustments are applied as they are set. After you have finished apply- ing the mask, you can make changes to the adjustments as long as the pin for that mask is selected. The adjustments you can make should be familiar to you by now: l Exposure: Adjusts the amount of light in your selected area. This is a uniform adjustment and can create clipped highlights and shadows, so be aware of these areas as you tweak your exposure. l Brightness: Adjusts the amount of light in your selected area, but instead of creating clipped areas, the pixels at the end of the image histogram are compressed, so the adjust- ment is not uniform. l Contrast: Adjusts contrast mostly in the midtone ranges of the selected area. l Saturation: Adjusts the amount of color in the selected area. l Clarity: Adjusts local contrast to add depth to the selected area. l Sharpness: Adjusts the contrast between edges in the selected area. l Color: Adds a color to the selected area. Now that I’ve introduced you to the options in the Adjustment Brush panel, I show you how to make targeted adjustments step by step, so you can see how it is done. Figure 8.30 is a photo of the moon. It’s notoriously difficult to take a photo that shows the face of the moon and have detail anywhere else in your image. By making targeted adjustments to this photo, you can deepen the details on the face of the moon and at the same time brighten the landscape so it is softly visible. Make targeted adjustments to the photo of the moon by following these steps: On the Web Site You can download Figure 8-30 from the Web site and follow the steps to learn how to use the Adjustment Brush. n 1. Open the image Figure 8.30 in Camera Raw. 2. Click the Adjustment Brush tool to open the Adjustment Brush panel, as shown in Figure 8.30. 3. Click the Show Mask option to display your brush strokes. 4. Set your Brush options. Resize the brush so the solid inner circle is about the same size as the moon at 14. Set the Feather option so the dotted circle is slightly larger than the moon at 13. Set the Flow to 50 and the Density to 100. Double-click the Mask Overlay Color to set it to any bright color, except white, that you choose. 13_584743-ch08.indd 24413_584743-ch08.indd 244 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Chapter 8: Processing Photos in the Camera Raw Workspace 245 FIGURE 8.30 You can use the Adjustment Brush to enhance the detail of this image. 5. Center your brush on the moon and click. This places the perfect mask over the face of the moon. 6. Deselect Show Mask so you can view the changes you make with the Adjustment options. 7. Set your Adjustment options. Reduce the exposure and/or brightness until the detail is clearly visible on the face of the moon. Add contrast, clarity, and sharpness to bring the detail into focus. 8. Select New to create a new adjustment mask. Click the Show Mask option again. 9. Reset your Brush options, reduce the size of your brush to 9, and increase the feather to 43. 10. Drag your brush across the mountains to create a mask over them. 11. Deselect the Show Mask option. 12. Reset your adjustment options. 13_584743-ch08.indd 24513_584743-ch08.indd 245 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Part II: Working with Camera Raw Images 246 This time you want to set the Exposure and Brightness up until you can see the moun- tains clearly. Careful, there’s not much color detail, so you want to keep the adjustment to a soft glow rather than creating a garish white-out effect. Because you want a softer look, set the contrast, clarity, saturation, and sharpness to 0. Your final image should look similar to Figure 8.31. Despite the number of steps in this exercise, the adjustments to this image were made in a relatively short amount of time. FIGURE 8.31 With targeted adjustments, you get both the detail of the moon and good lighting on the mountain. Creating a Graduated Filter Another way to create an adjustment over just part of your image is to use the Graduated Filter. The Graduated Filter does just what you might think it does; it creates a gradual adjustment over a targeted area of your image. Except for the selection process, it works very similarly to the Adjustment Brush. The image in Figure 8.32 has good color and exposure—except for the sky, which is overexposed. Using the Graduated Filter, the overexposure can be improved. 13_584743-ch08.indd 24613_584743-ch08.indd 246 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Chapter 8: Processing Photos in the Camera Raw Workspace 247 FIGURE 8.32 The sky in this image is washed out and overexposed, but the Graduated Filter can improve that. On the Web Site You can download Figure 8-32 from the Web site and follow the steps to learn how to use the Graduated Filter. n Let me show you how it works. Follow these steps to create a Graduated Filter: 1. Select the Graduated Filter to open the Graduated Filter panel, as shown in Figure 8.32. It should look familiar to you; the options are identical to those used in the Adjustment Brush panel. 13_584743-ch08.indd 24713_584743-ch08.indd 247 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Part II: Working with Camera Raw Images 248 2. Set the Exposure and the Brightness down. You need to decrease the exposure of this image, so setting these options first gives you a good preview of the changes being made. You can tweak the settings later. 3. Add a Graduated Filter by dragging from the top of this image down. I drew a diagonal line through the largest wedge of the sky, as you can see in Figure 8.33. The green line (which is the top line in this figure) indicates the area where the Graduated Filter is applied most heavily. It is applied on both sides of the green line. The red line (the bottom line) indicates the outermost edge of the feathering that makes up the Graduated Filter. No adjustments are made to the outside of the red line. FIGURE 8.33 The Graduated Filter indicators show you where the filter is being applied. 4. Adjust your selection. You can expand, rotate, or move the Graduated Filter indicator using the icons that appear as you hover over it. Tweak it until you think you’ve got the best results. 5. Edit the Adjustment settings. Tweak the adjustments until you get the best results. You probably want to try Steps 4 and 5 interchangeably a few times until you get the hang of how the Graduated Filter works. When you are finished, the exposure in your image should be greatly improved, as shown in Figure 8.34. 13_584743-ch08.indd 24813_584743-ch08.indd 248 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Chapter 8: Processing Photos in the Camera Raw Workspace 249 FIGURE 8.34 Color and depth are added to the sky by using the Graduated Filter. Creating Artistic Effects You can’t create many artistic effects in Camera Raw just yet, but you can add grain or a vignette to your image using the Effects panel. Both can add depth and interest to a photo, and as always in Camera Raw, these edits are completely reversible. Open the Effects panel by clicking the Effects tab in the Adjustment tabs, as shown in Figure 8.35. This panel provides sliders to add and customize grain or a vignette to your image. Adding grain When you add grain to your image in Camera Raw, it is added to areas that are out of focus more heavily than it is added to the focused areas. This adds depth and interest to the softness created by a short focal length. Use the following sliders to add and fine-tune grain in your image: l Amount: Until you adjust the amount of grain above 0, no grain is added to your photo. This is a rare setting in Camera Raw, because it is always set to 0 when an image is opened. Many of the other settings remain right where you left them. Adjust the Amount slider up to add a little or a lot of grain to your image. l Size: This determines the size of the grain added to your image. l Roughness: This adds contrast between the grains to enhance the roughness of the texture. You can see the effect of adding grain to an image in Figure 8.36. 13_584743-ch08.indd 24913_584743-ch08.indd 249 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM . appeared white, indicating that the mountains are being affected by the adjustment. You can toggle off the visibility of the pins by clicking Show Pins or using the V key. Setting the Brush options The. brush appears over your image as a solid circle surrounded by a dotted circle with a crosshair in the center. You can change the size by using the slider or the bracket keys. l Feather: Feathering. of the first stroke you make in creating a new mask. To see the areas that are being affected by your adjustment, hover over the center of a placed pin, and the mask temporarily appears over