RAW WARF
lorence’s famous Duomo is one of those sights that looks great
from any angle. I especially like glimpsed views like this, which
show how it nestled in the heart of a historic city. My edits here
are geared towards enhancing the tones and drawing the eye in
towards the largest brick dome in the world. After the initial image
toning steps in Camera Raw, I’m using Photoshop’s excellent Blur Gallery to add
a shallow-depth-of-field effect, blurring out the foreground details
and street buildings so that the focus is on the distant basilica.82 DIGITAL CAMERA^ APRIL 2020 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
3
Vignetting
and colour
adjustments
Blurring is one way to draw the eye
to the important areas of the image:
another way is to add a subtle
vignette. So I make a duplicate of all
layers with Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Alt+E,
then go to Filter > Camera Raw Filter.
In here, I use the Radial Filter to
darken the edges of the frame, then apply the Artistic 2
Profile to give the image a warmer feel. I find it often
helps to sell an effect like this if you round things
off with a few final tweaks to the tone and colours.Warrior 1
James Paterson
2
Blur the foreground
I want to blur out the details in the foreground to
draw attention to the basilica. To begin, I duplicate
my layer (Ctrl/Cmd+J), then use the Quick Selection Tool to
select the cathedral and sky. Once done, I add a Layer Mask.
With the cathedral isolated, I highlight the bottom layer and
apply Field Blur (Filter > Blur Gallery > Field Blur). This lets you
create fall-off in focus by adding pins across the image, then
setting different blur strengths for each. I blur the street
and side buildings, for a shallow-focus effect that gradually
becomes sharper as it recedes into the distance.1
Camera profiles
Whenever I edit Fujifilm
raws, I like to experiment
with the raw profiles that call upon
famous Fuji film stocks, like Provia
and Velvia. These can be found within
the Camera Raw Profile Browser under
Camera Matching. (The profiles here
differ depending on the camera used.)
After choosing Velvia, I switch to the
Adjustment Brush and paint over the
sky (making sure Auto-Tone is ticked
in the Adjustment Brush settings so
that the brush seeks out the edges
of the sky). I dial down Exposure and
Highlights to pull a little more detail
out of the clouds. Now I’m ready
to switch to Photoshop.Stron
g^
BlurStron
B g^
lurWeaker
BlurVignetteVignetteVignetteVignetteDarken
Sky