MARCH 2020 DIGITAL CAMERA^99Look at the flat and drab
conditions this landscape shot
was taken in! But there is enough
tonal range in the raw file to be
able to rescue it. A small amount
of wide-angle distortion visible
in the raw image^1 , can be fixed
immediately using the Transform
Panel in either Lightroom or
Adobe Camera Raw. Selecting the
Guided Upright Tool, I can level everything up really easily.
With that done, it is time to deal with the lack of contrast^2
and add some black into the shot. I take Blacks back to -60,
then boost Dehaze by +30 to intensify the midtones.
A Daylight White Balance setting has made this shot too cool(^3). I don’t want to make it too overpowering, so I’ll only warm it
slightly. Any more warmth and that muddy water would become
too orange. I can, however, boost the saturation of the green
in the HSL panel^4 , to bring out the great colours in the post.
Finally, since that post is so dominant in the foreground, let’s
remove the white bird droppings, too^5. I can do this with
the help of the Clone Tool: in this instance, it’s better for
me to carefully select from neighbouring pixels myself
rather than letting Lightroom choose them all for me.
Image Rescue
Steps to save an uninspiring shot
1 3
2
4
5
Tint it
Q
What is the Tint
slider for in
Lightroom?
Sherry Briton
A
Most of your temperature
control will be done with
the White Balance slider,
but its bedfellow the Tint
slider can be useful for doing further
correction, particularly on images
shot in strange, artificial lights.
For example, fluorescent lights can give
off a slight green colour cast, which may
require pushing the Tint slider towards
magenta to compensate. This is exactly
what I needed to do in this aquarium
image, adding +35 on the Tint slider.
Auto scenic
Q
Can I use AWB for
all my landscape
photography?
Kenny Borthwick
A
You can, and a lot of the time
Auto White Balance will do a
pretty decent job for you. But
in more extreme situations,
especially towards the warmer end of
the colour temperature range, AWB can
potentially remove some of the atmosphere
you want in your landscape image. By
shooting raw you can reintroduce this
with a quick tweak of the WB slider.
When you are developing your photo
skills, using AWB means there is one less
thing to confuse you; but as you progress,
start setting the WB to fit the light situation
in front of you. If I want to retain the warmth
in a scene, for example, I’ll change the White
Balance setting to either Cloudy or Shade.
I used Shade WB to keep the warmth in
this photo of Venice. If I had relied on Auto
WB, it would have neutralised the colour.
Blurred beach
Q
I took a set of long
exposures on a
sandy beach, but
even though I used a tripod,
they are all blurred! Why?
To m We s t
A
My best guess, Tom, is that
your tripod moved slightly
during the exposures. This
can happen a lot if your tripod
is on sand and close to, or even in, the water.
It only takes a tiny bit of ‘sinking’ as the
sand shifts for an issue to occur on an
exposure running into several seconds.
Some tripods come with flat circular
‘pads’ to sit the legs on and prevent them
sinking, but I just look around for three
large flat stones and make sure the tripod
is sitting firmly on them. It’s still possible to
get some movement, but it certainly helps.