The Microcontrast slider gives textures and object outlines real ‘bite’. PhotoLab’s Contrast panel offers more than just a simple Contrast slider. First, I’ve used the Selective Tone panel to slightly lower the Highlights value and recover a little detail in the brightest parts of the sky. Now I can start making global adjustments. First, I make sure the Local adjustment tool is not active (just click the Hand tool, for example). That’s it for the local adjustments, but I can improve this picture a little further with some global adjustments made with the regular PhotoLab tools in the right sidebar.
It’s a very useful way of managing shadow and highlight recovery without affecting the rest of the image. The Selective Tone panel does a similar job to DxO Smart Lighting, but with more precision and control. I can also boost the colors, too, with a big increase to the Saturation and Vibrancy sliders and an adjustment to the Temperature to give this area a warmer tone to match the sunlit upper half of the picture. What works well here is an Exposure increase to brighten the shadows, a Contrast increase to maintain the depth of tone and an increase in Microcontrast to really bring out the textures and details in the old stonework. That first Control Point was used just to compensate for the Graduated Filter, but now I’ll use another in the lower part of the picture to brighten the areas in shadow. You can move Control Points around to find the best position and change the radius of the area they work over by dragging the circular boundary around them. Here, I just need to increase the Exposure value to compensate for the darkening effect of the Graduated Filter over the sky. To use a Control Point, just click roughly in the center of the area or object you want to adjust, then use the adjustment sliders. Making sure the Local adjustments button is still highlighted, I right-click on the image and this time choose Control Point.
These automatically mask the areas they are applied to, so they are a little more precise. The Erase tool (above) is one solution for objects darkened by a Graduated Filter, but it’s quite difficult to be precise with it, so here’s another approach – a Control Point adjustment. You can control the radius of the effect and within that, it’s only colors and tones similar to those under the control point which are adjusted. In this case, it’s the cathedral tower (also highlighted).ĭxO PhotoLab Control Points allow targeted adjustments to specific areas or objects in a photo. I can adjust the eraser properties (highlighted, bottom) and then brush over the areas of the Graduated Filter mask I want removed. One solution is to right-click to display the adjustment tool selector again and this time pick the Erase tool. There is a problem when you use Graduated Filters, both real filters and digital versions like this one – they don’t just darken the sky, but any objects that reach up into the sky are darkened too, like the tower in the center of this picture. It would be nice to give the sky a deeper dusk color, and I can do that in the second section with a Saturation boost, and an increase to the Tint slider, which shifts the sky color towards magenta.
The top one is for exposure and contrast adjustments, and all I need to do here is drag the Exposure slider downwards. With the mask selected you get a set of adjustments sliders alongside, organised into three sections. You might need to move it a couple of times as you experiment with the adjustments. You don’t have to be too exact right off because can move the Graduated Filter with the top control handle and the length of the transition with the bottom handle. To apply the filter you click on the sky and drag downwards. I’ll start by darkening the sky, so for this I need the Graduated Filter. This is where you select the kind of adjustment you want to make. Now right-click on the image to show this gadget (enlarged here to make it more visible). To add a Local Adjustment to an image, first click the Local adjustments button on the top toolbar. It’s one of the most useful tools for outdoor shots. This is the first and biggest adjustment, using a Graduated Filter to make the sky richer and more intense.