Digital Camera World (2019-06)

Photo Answers

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com

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This pleasant pastoral scene lost its mood

when the camera took an average meter

reading, leaving the sky lacking in detail

and the land missing any tonal contrast.

Using Adobe Camera Raw, I can fix these

issues easily. To start with, as it looks

slightly off, I simply double-click the

Straighten Tool, just to make sure

the horizon is perfectly level^1.

Now I can start on the sky^2. In the

Basics Panel, I reduce the Highlights slider

to -100 and increase Dehaze by +20. This

brings lots of detail back into the clouds,

and adds a little crispness to the fields,

too. I want to create a better tonal contrast

between the green and yellow of the fields,

to show the way the sun is giving dappled

light between the clouds^3. I can do this

in the HSL Adjustments Panel. Selecting

Luminance, I can darken the greens

slightly and lighten the yellows before

switching to Saturation and de-saturating

the green by taking its slider back to -25,

so the foreground field is less verdant.

Finally, I paint another Adjustment

Brush over the foreground shadow^4 ,

then reduce the Exposure of the selected

area by -50. The finished image has a

greater contrast range, and is certainly

much more visually interesting.

Key words

Q

Should I keyword

my images in

Lightroom when

importing them?

Colin Hope

A

It’s not essential, but it

will certainly help you find

images later. As you say,

you can keyword by typing

in appropriate words at import, or you

can drag individual images or groups

of images over a keyword that already

exists in the Keywords panel.

If you have forgotten to keyword

at import and want to apply the same

keywords to the whole folder, select

the images in the Library Module,

then type the keywords you want to

add into the Keywords Tags panel.

Phone text

Q

I want to add text

to some iPhone

images and put

them on Instagram. Is

there an app that will

let me do this?

Sue King

A

There are several apps

that allow you to do this,

Sue. Some are free, and

others have a small

charge. The two I’ve played around

with are After Photo and Phonto.

They both let you add all kinds of looks,

style and colours for the text you are

writing. Snapseed is more of an

all-round mobile imaging app, but

also allows you to add text to images;

so if you want something that gives

you extra processing creativity

and text, then take a look.

Image Rescue

A shot that’s been flattened by the camera’s meter reading is a

common occurrence, but there is something you can do about it