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Graduated filters

Graduated filters are used most for outdoor shots where there's a bright sky and a much darker landscape beneath it. This is why landscape photographers often use grads on their lenses when they capture images.

But adding a graduated filter digitally gives you a lot more control. You can experiment with the strength, colour and position of the effect at your leisure rather than having to decide irreversibly on the spot. And with a 'digital' grad you can mask out tall objects so that they aren't darkened along with the sky.

There are two things to keep in mind. The first is that you have to judge the exposure so that you keep highlight details in the brightest parts of the picture – shooting RAW will help preserve highlights. If these details are blown out, you can't bring them back.

The second is to remember that grads aren't just for skies. There are many pictures that will benefit from a shaded darkening effect down one edge, across the base or diagonally across the image.

That's not all. Physical graduated filters can only darken, but a digital grad can also be used to lighten up an area of a picture that needs a 'lift'.

How to use the Lightroom Dehaze tool

November 11, 2020 by Rod Lawton

The Lightroom Dehaze tool is very powerful – often too powerful. It increases local contrast but also makes images darker and more saturated. It’s often better used with local adjustments and not on the whole image.

Filed Under: Featured, Lightroom, TutorialsTagged With: Dehaze, Graduated filters

How much color do you need: Kynance Cove in Cornwall

November 10, 2020 by Rod Lawton

How much color do you need? Color is a complex thing, and sometimes less is more. Sometimes flat-out, full-on saturation works, but sometimes it seems you just need hints of color to get an equally strong effect.

Filed Under: Featured, Ideas, LightroomTagged With: Color adjustment, Dehaze, Graduated filters

Porthleven power lines in Lightroom: one LUT, three graduated filters

September 30, 2020 by Life after Photoshop

Porthleven power lines in Lightroom: one LUT, three graduated filters. How a series of tools and effects can be used in combination towards an overall ‘look’.

Filed Under: Featured, Lightroom, TutorialsTagged With: Black and white, Graduated filters, LUTs, Vignette

DxO PhotoLab Graduated Filter, Control Points and Repair tool in action

May 25, 2020 by Life after Photoshop

This step-by-step editing walkthrough shows a number of DxO PhotoLab tools in action, principally the Local Adjustment tools, including the Graduated Filter and Control Point tools.

Filed Under: Featured, PhotoLab, TutorialsTagged With: Graduated filters, Retouching, Tint (white balance)

The power of adjustment layers and masks

February 14, 2019 by Rod Lawton

Adjustment layers started out in Photoshop as a way of altering the look of an image without actually changing its pixels. It was the start of non-destructive editing. Now, adjustment layers are everywhere, not just in Photoshop, and for me they are the key to successful image enhancements. There’s a second factor, though – layer […]

Filed Under: Exposure X, General, TutorialsTagged With: Adjustment layer, Graduated filters, Layers, Masks, Presets

Can you really take proper pictures with a smartphone?

February 11, 2019 by Rod Lawton

Well, I actually think you can. I like taking pictures with my iPhone. It’s partly a practical thing, as it’s the camera I always have with me. More than that, though, it makes me see things differently. I see compositions, shapes, light and shadow in a way that I might not when looking through a […]

Filed Under: Capture One, General, TutorialsTagged With: Black and white, DNG, Graduated filters, HEIF format, Mobile photography, Split toning

How to enhance a sunset with white balance and graduated filter adjustments

February 10, 2019 by Rod Lawton

Sunsets don’t always come out the way you want them to, so here’s a quick way to enhance them with a white balance adjustment and a graduated filter effect. This picture was shot using the auto white balance on a Nikon Z6 and while the colours are a pretty reasonable representation of how the scene […]

Filed Under: FeaturedTagged With: Graduated filters, White balance

Improve your compositions with two graduated filters not one

August 17, 2017 by Rod Lawton

Double graduated filter effect

If you want to add a dark and brooding sky to your black and white photos then a graduated filter is the obvious way to do it. As long as the sky still has a full range of tones, i.e. it’s not burned out to a solid white anywhere, you can practically do what you […]

Filed Under: GeneralTagged With: Black and white, Graduated filters

How to use the Luminar Adjustable Gradient filter

June 4, 2017 by Rod Lawton

MacPhun Luminar Adjustable Gradient filter

The Luminar Adjustable Gradient filter is a great tool for all kinds of photography, but for landscapes in particular. It tackles that thorny old problem of bright skies and dark ground and the brightness difference between them. You can fix this at the shooting stage by using a graduated filter on the front of the […]

Filed Under: Featured, Luminar, TutorialsTagged With: Graduated filters

Fine art black and white with the Fujifilm GFX

April 16, 2017 by Life after Photoshop

I was lucky enough to get a Fujifilm GFX 50S on loan for two weeks to review in Digital Camera and Professional Photography and I’m really impressed by the tonal range and subtlety it can capture. This became obvious when I started working on a set of shots from a drizzle-swept day on Exmoor. The sky […]

Filed Under: Featured, TutorialsTagged With: Black and white, Graduated filters, Vignette

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