Photo Plus

HOW it works RECOVERING shadow Detail

Discover how to adjust tonal levels using histograms and sliders for instant exposure improvemen­t

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01 Histogram This undulating graph represents the shadows, midtones and highlights in your photo. The width indicates the spread of shadows on the left, midtones in the middle and highlights towards the right, while the height of the graph represents the strength of particular tones. 02 Boost the Brightness Drag the Brightness slider right to begin to lighten underexpos­ed shadows, though be careful not to clip correctly exposed highlights. 03 Before/after comparison This icon displays a before and after version of your image, to help you discern the effect of your postproduc­tion adjustment­s. Click on the adjacent fly-out icon to change the layout and stack your photo comparison­s horizontal­ly, vertically or even split them down the middle. 04 show shadow/ Highlights warning

Click here to turn on a clipping warning. Underexpos­ed shadows will appear as patches of blue. Blown-out (clipped) highlights will appear in red. Don’t try and remove all clipped areas or you’ll have no contrast. 05 auto lighting optimizer This tool attempts to automatica­lly correct an underexpos­ed image to lighten the shadows and create more contrast. You can then fine-tune the results using the Low, Standard or Strong settings. This tool produces quite subtle results, but it’s a good place to start when trying to reveal more detail in a scene’s underexpos­ed shadows. 06 midtone slider

By dragging this vertical slider to the left you can remap a photo’s underexpos­ed midtones to a lighter tonal level and reveal more detail in underexpos­ed regions. 07 shadow levels

This slider controls the strength of the shot’s shadow levels. For darker shadows, drag it right until it touches the histogram graph. If the shadows are too underexpos­ed you can lighten them by dragging this slider left. 08 selective shadow adjustment

This advanced slider selectivel­y lightens underexpos­ed shadows by making behind-the-scenes adjustment­s to the shot’s tone curve; here, the histogram above the curve has been pushed up where it overlaps the shadows and midtones to lighten tones in those areas.

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