Edit with local adjustments

James Paterson teases out lost details from the shadows and highlights for perfectly balanced landscape photos

Fix high-contrast scenes in Adobe CC

Have you ever shot a landscape under glorious conditions then rushed home to look at the results only to find they are slightly underwhelming? It’s happened to me more than once. This doesn’t necessarily mean you did something wrong, it might simply be that the image needs a little coaxing into life.

Often the challenge with landscapes is in recording detail in both the brightest and darkest parts of the scene. When the sun is low in the sky this can be doubly difficult, as the highlights will be strong and the shadows can be very deep. As such, on initial inspection the scene can be a disappointment, with detail-less dark areas or blown-out skies. However, just because the detail isn’t visible at first, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not there.

As long as pixels aren’t clipped to pure black or white, then there’s a good chance we can tease detail out of the tonal extremes and bring balance to the image. This is especially true if the image is a Raw file as Raws have greater dynamic range than JPEGS, which means they hold extra detail in the highlights and shadows. But even JPEGS can be enhanced to obtain detail from these areas.

We‘ll do so here using the local adjustment tools in Camera Raw (you’ll find near-identical tools in the Lightroom Develop Module). The key tools are the Graduated Filter and Adjustment Brush. They let us isolate and adjust areas with ultimate control…

1 Lift the land

Open the photo in Camera Raw (or Lightroom’s Develop Module), then go to the Basic panel and lift Exposure and Shadows, like so, to brighten the land. Our scene is a bit hazy, so set Dehaze to +20. You can make the shot warmer by pulling Temp and Tint to the right.

2 Darken the sky

Now sky is a bit bright. Grab the Adjustment Brush from the toolbar, go to the settings and check Auto Mask. Hit Y to toggle the mask on and paint over the sky to isolate it as shown. Hit Y to hide the mask, then reduce Exposure, increase Clarity and Dehaze as shown.

3 Boost the rocks

Hit N for a new adjustment, then uncheck Auto Mask and paint over the dark rocks. Increase Exposure and Shadows. We can use Range Masking to target the darker tones. Set Range Mask: Luminance, hold Alt and drag the white point in to exclude the highlights.

4 Enhance the castle

We can make another adjustment so that the castle stands out. Hit N again and check Auto Mask then paint over the castle. Increase Clarity and Dehaze to enhance the detail. If you need to subtract from any mask overlays, hold Alt and paint to remove areas.

5 Balance the brightness

The top left of the image is a bit too bright, and the bottom right too dark. Grab the Graduated Filter, click the Exposure minus icon next to Exposure, then drag down from top right towards the centre. Next, click the Exposure plus icon and drag up from the bottom right to balance out the tones.

6 Draw the eye

Finally, a subtle radial filter can be applied to draw the eye towards the subject by lightening the area. Grab the Radial Filter tool from the toolbar and drag a circle over the castle. Check ‘Inside’ on the right then increase Exposure slightly to lift the area.