Teach_Yourself_Photoshop_Elements_2

CREATIVE PROJECTS

How ND rad filters are classified

8

Crop and tidy up

Take the Crop tool and select Use Photo Ratio from

the Crop Preset menu in the Options. Crop in on the

image to exclude some of the towpath, and some of the water

at the bottom of the frame. Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate the

Background layer, then use the Clone Stamp tool to remove

distractions such as the hose pipe and the person on the path,

Alt-clicking to sample nearby areas of clean pixels.

7

ACR adjustments

Open the starting image in Adobe Camera Raw in

Elements. To enhance the colour and contrast set the

Contrast slider to +23, and Clarity and Vibrance to +20.

To reduce the clipped highlights set Highlights to -55 and

Whites to -42, and set Shadows to +23 to add some fill light

to the shadows. Click Open Image to open the image in

Elements’ Expert/Full Edit mode.

9

Adjust the levels

The buildings look a bit washed out, so we’ll

selectively darken those areas. Add a Levels

adjustment layer, and set the Midtones slider to 0.85 to

darken the midtones. Target the attached layer mask by

clicking its thumbnail, and paint with a black brush over the

areas where you want to hide the adjustment, such as the sky

and darker foreground objects.

10

Boost the colour and contrast

To boost the colours in the scene, add a Hue/

Saturation adjustment layer and set the

Master Saturation to +6. Next, add a Brightness/Contrast

adjustment layer, and set Brightness to 6 and Contrast to 12.

Click the top layer, and press Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E to

create a merged layer. Go to Enhance>Adjust Sharpness

and set Amount to 50

 and Radius to 1.3 pixels.

STRENGTH (F-STOPS)

MANUFACTURER’S TERMINOLOGY

HOYA, B+W & COKIN LEE, TIFFEN

1 ND2, ND2X 0.3 ND

2 ND4, ND4X 0.6 ND

3 ND8, ND8X 0.9 ND