Sandia Sunset
© Joe Bridwell
Several years ago, I shot a Sandia sunset as a point-and-shoot JPEG. Highlights seem blown out; the blue sky is pale. As software capabilities progress, it often pays to revisit such shots. Let’s see how the Target Adjustment tool (TAT) from Lightroom 2 can enhance clouds.
With advent of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 and CS4, there's been lots of hype in the online video tutorials world about local, nondestructive gradient filter and adjustment brush tools. For landscape digital photographers who love Magic Hour, this translates to the gradient tool and adjustment brush which can create truly spectacular sunrises and sunsets. So, you might ask, "Did Adobe hide any other really neat tools somewhere?"
Yes, they did; it's called the Targeted Adjustment tool. Or, as Scott Kelby says, "TAT, for short." The TAT is that little round target-looking icon on the top-left corner of the Tone Curve panel in the Develop module. It looks like the TAT portion of this image. When you move your cursor over it, two triangles are added to the cursor cross - pointing up and down. The cross samples the image portion; the triangles modify the Tone Curve.
When you click on that little target icon, your cursor changes to the cursor seen here. This remarkable tool lets you interactively adjust the Tone Curve by clicking-and-dragging it right within your photo. The crosshair is actually where the tool's change is located - the target with triangles is there just to remind you which way to drag the tool. This chosen point is also reflected in the Tone Curve itself as a circle.
TAT really strengthens your ability to make subtle Tone Curve adjustments. When you look at the tone curve, you'll see two things:
1. A point on the curve were the tones you're hovering over are located.
2. The name of the area you're adjusting appears at the graph bottom.
For example, consider a shot where captured clouds have little emphasis. To darken these clouds, just click on them with TAT and drag straight downward. Or, if clouds are dark, drag straight upward to lighten. You might say, "This is a super neat way of adjusting contrast! Thanks, Adobe (and Joe)..."
But that's not all... scroll on down to the HSL panel in the Develop module. Once again, you'll see the TAT tool. Here, TAT adjusts Color, instead of Contrast. Dragged upward to increase or downward to decrease saturation.
Several years ago, I shot a gorgeous sunset over the Sandia's as a point-and-shoot JPEG. In intense light orange regions, while highlights were not blown out, I used Tone Curve’s TAT to reduce those regions to a more apt color.
With all deeply rich color in the clouds, the blue sky was slightly under saturated. A second application of HSL’s Luminance TAT is to darken just the blue sky.
Tips (Tit) for TAT... now you can easily add or subtract drama and/or passion from remarkably photogenic sunsets which truly complement regal landscapes!
Yes, they did; it's called the Targeted Adjustment tool. Or, as Scott Kelby says, "TAT, for short." The TAT is that little round target-looking icon on the top-left corner of the Tone Curve panel in the Develop module. It looks like the TAT portion of this image. When you move your cursor over it, two triangles are added to the cursor cross - pointing up and down. The cross samples the image portion; the triangles modify the Tone Curve.
When you click on that little target icon, your cursor changes to the cursor seen here. This remarkable tool lets you interactively adjust the Tone Curve by clicking-and-dragging it right within your photo. The crosshair is actually where the tool's change is located - the target with triangles is there just to remind you which way to drag the tool. This chosen point is also reflected in the Tone Curve itself as a circle.
TAT really strengthens your ability to make subtle Tone Curve adjustments. When you look at the tone curve, you'll see two things:
1. A point on the curve were the tones you're hovering over are located.
2. The name of the area you're adjusting appears at the graph bottom.
For example, consider a shot where captured clouds have little emphasis. To darken these clouds, just click on them with TAT and drag straight downward. Or, if clouds are dark, drag straight upward to lighten. You might say, "This is a super neat way of adjusting contrast! Thanks, Adobe (and Joe)..."
But that's not all... scroll on down to the HSL panel in the Develop module. Once again, you'll see the TAT tool. Here, TAT adjusts Color, instead of Contrast. Dragged upward to increase or downward to decrease saturation.
Several years ago, I shot a gorgeous sunset over the Sandia's as a point-and-shoot JPEG. In intense light orange regions, while highlights were not blown out, I used Tone Curve’s TAT to reduce those regions to a more apt color.
With all deeply rich color in the clouds, the blue sky was slightly under saturated. A second application of HSL’s Luminance TAT is to darken just the blue sky.
Tips (Tit) for TAT... now you can easily add or subtract drama and/or passion from remarkably photogenic sunsets which truly complement regal landscapes!
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