DISCOVER SKYLUM LUMINAR
T
HISIMAGEWAS
ta kenduringone
ofmy photography
workshopsin Patagonia,
whichis an amazingplaceto
photograph.It mightseem
asif theoceanis stormyand
severe,butit’sactuallyLake
Pehoéin Patagonia,South
America– borderingChile
and Argentina.Althoughwe
wereexpectinga sunrise
earlyin themorning,my
groupandI wereincredibly
lu ckyto witnesstheflaming
le nticularclouds.Theswirly
natureis etherealandadds
somuchto thefinalshot–
it ’s beautiful.One of thebiggestissues
wecameup againstwasthe
heavyspray.Thismadeit
impossibleto useanyND
filtersto geta longershutter
speed,becauseof thestrong
wavesandsprayhittingthe
fr ontelementof my 14-24mm
le nsconstantly.Thisis why
the originalphotographmay
seema bit overexposed.I still
knewI wantedto capturethe
te xtureandmovementwith
a sl owershutterspeed,but
I had thesafetyof realising
I wouldbe ableto relyon
Luminaranditsrangeof
gradienttoolsto selectively
evenouttheexposure.22 PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY
1
Selectively
ev enoutthe
exposure
Myoriginalshotlooked
a li ttleoverexposeddue
tothesettingsneededto
ca pturethemovementof
th e water.However,I made
su reto getit as closeas
possiblein-camera,which
is veryimportant,andkept
enoughdetailin thesky
torecoverit. To do this,
I cr eateda gradientwiththe
AdjustableGradientfilter.
UsingtheSetOrientation
control,I selectedtheskyandthenloweredtheExposurea
to uch,as wellas boostingtheVibrancyby movingthesliderright.
This gavea moreevenexposurein thewholescene,anda great
st eppingstoneto completetherestof theedit.
2
Fine-tune the
exposure with
Adjustment Layers
The Adjustable Gradient filter did
a great job, but I wanted to really
fin e-tune the contrast with a Curves
fil ter. To do this, I clicked on the
im age layer in the Layers panel.
Once selected, I pressed the ‘+’icon,
and chose the Add New Adjustment
Layer option. Clicking the Brush
Ic on, I then chose the GradientMask
option and clicked and draggedon
th e image to set the area to affect.
I then added a Curves filter, and
lo wered the midtones and raised
th e highlights slightly.DANIEL KORDAN SHARES
HIS EDITING SECRETS
PRO AMBASSADOR
AboveDanielknewthathecouldslightlyoverexposehisshot and
thenrelyon Luminarto bringbackthedetailsin theskyduring the
editing process.BEFORE
TIP
MAKEMORE
PRECISEEDITS
Aswellas FiltersandLooks,
Luminarallowsyouto use
AdjustmentLayersand
Masksforselective
editing.