Amateur Photographer - UK (2019-09-13)

38 7 September 2019I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.ukI subscribe 0330 333 1113

Technique CONTRAST AND TONE

EffectsandSmartLooks
TheElementsQuickModeoffersswiftaccesstoa rangeof one-clicklooksviathe
‘Effects’buttonat thebottomright.Thisopensupanarrayof imagetreatmentsto
experimentwith,suchascolourtinting,vintagelooksandcrossprocessing.You’ll
alsofind‘SmartLooks’here.ThesearelooksthatElementsautomaticallygenerates
byanalysingtheimagecontent.Alltheseeffectsareappliedtoa duplicatelayer,so
afterchoosingoneyoucanheadtotheExpertModeandadjusttheintensityof the
effectusinglayeropacity, or make it work selectively in different parts of the image
with a layer mask.

TryAutoSmartfix

Thisautomaticcommandis designedtofix over-

orunderexposure,aswellaspulldetailsoutof

shadowsandhighlights,andcorrectcolourcasts

allat once.It canbeveryeffectiveat rescuing

imagesthataretoobrightortoodark.However,

withhigh-contrastimagesthetendencytopull

detailoutof theshadowsandhighlightscangive

photosanovercookedlook.Assuch,whenever

youapplyanautoadjustmentlikeSmartfix, it’s

worthdoingsoona duplicatelayer.Notonly

doesthismeanthechangeremainsnon-

destructive,it alsogivesyoutheoptiontodial

downthefix if theresultsaretooheavy-handed,

simplybyloweringthelayeropacity.Thismethod

canbeespeciallyusefulforcolourfixes,because

oftentheauto-fix willover-correctforcolour

casts.Byloweringthelayeropacity,youcanfind

the sweet spot where the correction works best.

AFTER

AFTER

BEFORE

BEFORE

AutoSmartfix

is designed

tofixphotos

automatically

One-clickQuick

modeenablesyou

toaltercolour

and tone fast