Relight scenes in Raw images

Turn flatly lit landscapes into better-looking images with a sense of light and shade when you use controls in Camera Raw to change the weather in your raw-format images

Photo editing guru Jon is full of ideas to help you edit to perfection

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Photography is all about making decisions. From the location choice to the way you frame the scene, and from the focal length you use to the depth of sharp focus, all the steps that lead to you gently pressing the shutter are a series of options. If you shoot in your camera’s raw format, these options continue and extend into the post-processing arena, because with a raw file, nothing is fixed. Raw allows you to carry on making choices, fine-tuning

the image you’ve captured until you arrive at the best version – or versions – of the picture you wanted to create.

It’s a good reminder that pictures are made rather than taken, and that postprocessing decisions can be just as fundamental to the overall result as positioning your camera or timing your shutter button.

The starting point for this shot is nicely framed, but the composition is let down by flat, overcast conditions. There’s a hint of sunlight breaking through the grey, but it’s not enough to make the original picture satisfying. However, a little work in a raw converter allows us to focus on a better outcome, and reimagine the picture with a blue sky and some directional, dappled sunlight. The end result is a big departure from the original, as it effectively relights the scene – but it only uses what’s already there to bring about a more inviting image.