How to Make selective tonal adjustments

Develop Persona

Choose File > Open and pick a high–contrast or backlit scene. Open a raw format file, and Affinity Photo will switch to the Develop Persona. If you open a JPEG, you’ll need to click on the Develop Persona in the top–left corner.

Boost contrast

Our shot is now more evenly exposed, featuring detail in both the shadows and the highlights. However, overall contrast looks a bit flat. Make sure the Enhance panel’s box is marked and drag the Contrast slider right.

Enhance color

In the Enhance panel, drag the Saturation slider right for a global color boost. By dragging Vibrance to a higher value, you can boost the saturation of blues and greens without oversaturating caucasian skin tones.

Global adjustment

By dragging the Basic panel’s Exposure slider right, you can brighten the shot (like opening the aperture on the camera). This global adjustment boosts shadow detail but it also blows out the sky. Set Exposure back to 0.

Increase clarity

In the Enhance panel, increase the Clarity slider to 50 per cent. This increases midtone contrast, helping subtle details like the clouds stand out. Brickwork also tends to pop out using this selective tonal adjustment tool.

Draw a gradient

In the Tools panel, select Overlay Gradient. Drag down from the top of the frame to draw a gradient. A pink mask indicates the area that will be affected. The effect will reduce towards the bottom of the gradient.

Lighten shadows

To make selective tonal adjustments, mark the box next to Shadows & Highlights. By dragging the Shadows slider right, we can lighten up the backlit underexposed shadows without overexposing the brighter sky.

Tweak highlights

Boosting Clarity will make some highlights become brighter. In the Shadow & Highlights panel, fine–tune the settings by dragging the Highlights slider left by 20 per cent. This will help keep detail in the brightest highlights.

Gradient exposure

In the Exposure panel, drag the Exposure slider left to selectively darken the sky. This adjustment falls off as the gradient reaches the castle, mimicking the dark skies produced by a graduated ND filter on a camera lens.