STEP BY STEP

Strike the right tone...

1 Reveal the colours

Import boat_start.dng into the Develop module. In the Basic panel, set Temperature to 6050 for a cooler look. Set the Highlights slider to -96 to claw back brighter details. Drag the Shadows slider to +69 to reveal more colour in the underexposed hull of the boat.

2 Tease out detail

In the Presence section, drag Clarity to +56 to make the pebbles pop out. Drop Vibrance to -19 for a subtler wash of colour. The sky looks bland, so click the Graduated Filter tool icon. Set Exposure to -1.61, Contrast to +18 and Clarity to +23 to tease out fine detail in the clouds.

3 Deepen the sky

Drag the cursor down to draw a gradient that overlaps the sky and the top section of the boat’s cabin. This graduated tonal adjustment will gently darken the sky and increase its contrast. Tease out more colour information by dragging the Saturation slider to 72. Press M.

4 Mimic cross-processing

In the Color panel click the Blue channel. Set the Blue channel’s Hue to -48 to give the blues a classic green tint associated with crossprocessing. Drop Saturation to a more subtle -50. Click Reds and set Hue to +54 to add ahint of orange to the red paintwork of the boat.