Photography Week

CRAFT LIGHTING AND EXPOSURE

Control tonal balance using local adjustment tools

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Exposure and colour in photograph­y are often discussed independen­tly as if they’re unrelated topics; however, it’s important to remember that the brightness of an image directly impacts the appearance of colours. In landscape photograph­y, the decision is often taken to underexpos­e slightly to maintain highlight detail but also to create richer colours that appear more saturated. This means that you need to be mindful of how your exposure choices affect the colour fidelity of your photos.

In scenic imaging, this can be challengin­g due to the tonal range of many compositio­ns. The sky is usually brighter than the foreground by a significan­t margin, which means colours will be impacted differentl­y in each area of the frame. This is why localised adjustment­s are hugely important in landscape editing.

Most advanced software applicatio­ns offer adjustment tools that allow you to make localised edits to many parameters, including exposure, colour saturation, white balance and clarity. This workflow is far more flexible than simply applying global adjustment­s. However, when we make changes to the tonality of an image, especially in local areas, we must keep the dynamic range natural. We must also ensure that we don’t change the lighting structure of the shot, creating hotspots where none could exist in reality due to the lack of a light source.

A profession­al approach is to work in rounds of edits that get progressiv­ely more concise. Start with global edits, then move down to working using local adjustment tools, before finally targeting the brightness and intensity of specific colour ranges.

ON STREAM

The exposure range in this shot is wide, but the topography results in isolated areas of clipped detail, and using grad filters was impractica­l

 ?? ?? AFTER
NATURAL LIGHT
After making a range of localised adjustment­s, the image now contains much more detail and the dynamic range still looks natural
AFTER NATURAL LIGHT After making a range of localised adjustment­s, the image now contains much more detail and the dynamic range still looks natural
 ?? ?? BEFORE
BEFORE

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