80 MACWORLD FEBRUARY 2020
FEATURE PHOTO-EDITING TOOLS IN IOS 13 AND IPADOS 13lets you take in adjustments at a glance
when you want to modify them individually.
Tap the control, and Photos toggles it to 0 or
a neutral setting, depending on the tool; tap
again, and the previous value is restored.
You can also view the image with and
without current corrections. Tap the image
and corrections disappear. Photos displays
a label that says Cropped Original if the
entire image isn’t shown. You can tap to
get back to the current modifications or,
after a few seconds, the display toggles
back to that, too.
Instead of using Auto, you can swipe
and pick specific controls to adjust from
scratch. For example, increasing contrast
puts more tonal difference between
midtones, which can make an image look
starker—often bad for photos of people,
but good for those of objects. You might
also try Definition, which combines
sharpening and contrast in a photo’s
midtones,
enhancing
detail more
subtly.
Noise
Reduction is a
big help for
photos taken in
low-light
conditions,
which can
produce
speckling or other kinds of artifacts across
smoother areas of tone. Don’t pump it up
too much, or your images start to look ultra
smooth and artificial. Balancing Sharpness
and Noise Reduction can often
dramatically improve a picture’s clarity.
Exposure, Brilliance, Highlights,
Shadows, Contrast, Brightness, and Black
Point all adjust different aspects of an
image’s overall tonal range. Exposure
bumps all tones up, and can blow out
(eliminate detail) from the lightest areas.
Brightness and Brilliance carve out aspects
of tones to change, and can bring out
detail from a dark photo or enhance the
brightest parts—but so can Shadows and
Highlights, which affect only the darkest
and brightest tones. It’s worth
experimenting to find the right balance,
and this new editing environment makes it
very easy to play with values.
While Photos now includes Vibrance,The editing controls are easier to access and reveal changes made to each.