Canon school

Remove distracting clutter, create a cleaner composition and correct exposure problems

Use DPP to counteract the constraints of shooting in the streets

01 Import and Edit

Download our Street_start.cr2 file. Browse to its thumbnail in Digital Photo Professional 4. Click the Edit Image button. We’ll improve composition first so that we don’t waste time adjusting tones in areas that will be cropped out.

02 Crop It

Click the Crop and Rotate tab. Set the Cropping Aspect Ratio to 4:3 to preserve the landscape shape. Click-and-drag the crop overlay to lose the clutter at the left and zoom in. Drag inside the overlay to place the girl near the centre.

03 make a global adjustment

Click on the Basic tab to apply the crop. Boost underexposed tones by sliding Brightness to 0.50. Set the Picture Style drop-down to Landscape to increase the contrast. Set Auto Lighting Optimizer to Strong to reveal shadow detail.

04 make SELECTIVE adjustments

Go to the Advanced panel and selectively lighten Shadows to 3.0 without overexposing the highlights. Drag Highlight to -4.0 to claw back texture and detail in the brighter clouds (without interfering with the shadows).

05 reduce noise

Brightening an underexposed shot may reveal ugly luminance and colour noise. Click the Adjust Image Detail tab. Set the window over a shadowy area. Leave Reduce Luminance Noise at 7.0. Push Reduce Chrominance Noise to 12.0.

06 save a version

When you’ve finished fixing the shot click Save. By default you’ll save it as a JPEG file. If you plan to print it leave the Output Resolution at 350dpi. You can drop this to 150 to create a smaller file that’s more suitable for sharing online.