THEEDIT
98 PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY
AboveIt ’s a niceviewfromthetopof
Snowdon,buttheskylackspunch.
W
HENYOU’REWORKINGON
animagethathasa mixof blue
sky andfluffywhiteclouds,
orwherecomplexobjectsliketreesor
buildingsprojectintothesky,thisis a good
te chniqueto try.Insteadof darkeningthe
wholesky,whichcanlookunappealing
inthosecases,we’rejustgoingto darken
the bluepartsof it usinga featureof the
CameraRawor Lightroominterfacethat’s
calledHSLAdjustments.Rememberthat
you’llalsobe darkeningotherblueareas
intheframe,so pickyourimagescarefully.
BEFORE
AFTER
2
Darken blues
to give skies
a colourful boost
2
Workon
th e colour
and hue
There are two other
headings under the HSL
ta b – Hue and Saturation.
Cl ick on Hue and seeif
results improve by moving
th e Blues to the right
slightly, which will warm
th em. Next click on
Saturation and move the
Bl ues to the right to give
th em a boost in colour.
If you altered the Aquas
in Step 1, add some
saturation to them.
1
Lower the
Luminance
of the Blues
Open your RAW file and,
after making any general
editing changes, click on
the HSL Adjustments tab.
Next click on Luminance
header and find the Blues
slider. Drag the Blues
slider to the left until the
blue parts of the sky are
as desired. Move the
Aquas to the left a little
too, to prevent fringeing.
