iCreate - UK (2020-04)

Photos

Before After

Weshowyouhowtolightenshadowswithoutproducing

unwantedpicturenoisewithPhotos’NoiseReductiontool

Reveal missing shadow detail

C

apturing detail in a high contrast scene can be a

challenge. Take our supplied start image for example.

The sun is directly behind the dog. On Auto mode the

camera has exposed for the brighter sky so the dog is plunged

into silhouette. One challenge we face is to selectively brighten

the dog’s under-exposed shadows without blowing out detail

in the correctly exposed sky. Fortunately Photos enables us to

make select tonal adjustments so that we can target the problem

shadows while leaving the highlights untouched.

When we shoot in a compressed JPEG format (as we do in

the iPhone’s Camera app) we may notice nasty picture noise

when we lighten dark shadows. We’ll show you how to use

the Photos app’s Noise Reduction tool to smooth out these

ugly artefacts.

How to selectively adjust shadows to lighten an under-exposed backlit subject

Selective adjustments

Lighten shadows while preserving highlights

Download

available

10

Time needed

Developer

Apple, Inc

Difficulty

Brilliance

When faced with back-lit

subjects this is the first place

to start! This clever tool

simultaneously lightens the

under-exposed shadows, reveals

more midtones and reduces

highlight brightness to create a

more even exposure.

Shooting backlit subjects

To capture detail in a backlit subject you

could try manually setting the camera’s

flashto On.If you’recloseenoughto the

subjectthentheflashwillfillin someof

theshadowdetails.If yourcamerahasa

HDRmodethentrythat.Thiscaptures

threeseparateexposuresandthen

combinesthemintoa compositeshot

thatrevealsmoredetailin theshadows

andhighlights.

Knowledge base

Luminance

Anotherwayto lightenor

darkenspecificareasis to

choosea colourswatch.By

choosinga skyblueswatchwe

canselectivelydarkenthesky

andboostitssaturationto give

it moredramaandimpact.

Shadows

Lighten under-exposed shadows by dragging this

slider right. Correctly exposed highlights will remain

untouched. If you do need to claw back detail in the

brighter areas drag the adjacent Highlights slider left.

Reduce noise

When you brighten up under-

exposed shadows you’ll notice

grain or picture noise. Drag the

Reduce Noise slider right to

smooth away these ugly artefacts.