HOW TO Master Photos’ editing controls

High contrast

In a high–contrast scene that lacks shadow and highlight detail, use the Brilliance slider to simultaneously lighten shadows and darken highlights. Fine–tune Shadows and Highlights independently to claw back more detail.

Composition

To tackle a tilted horizon, click Crop. Drag the rotate wheel to counteract the tilt. A grid will appear to help you get a straight horizon. Select a value in the Aspect panel to crop your shot to a common print size and shape.

Color casts

In mixed lighting some skin tones can look too cold (blue) or warm (orange). In the White Balance panel set the drop down to Skin Tone. Click the eyedropper on skin to automatically counteract cold or warm casts.

Noise reduction

In low light the iPhone may use a high (and noise–inducing) ISO value. When editing a .JPG you can smooth out noise using the Noise Reduction slider. Raw files add extra Luminance and Color Noise sliders for more control.

Creative portraits

If you snap a shot using Portrait mode then you can adjust Depth and Light from in the desktop version of Photos. The High–Key Mono lighting effect removes any background to create a studio style portrait.

Filters

To creatively grade your shots’ colors and tones in a few clicks go to the Filters section and experiment with the nine different effects. You can dial down the strength of each effect using the adjacent slider.