8/12/2019 Tips - Water Drop Images (2) - Image Enhancement

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Mask the filter effectTarget the Photo Filter layers mask by clickingits thumbnail, make sure the foreground colour

is black (if its white, hit X to swap the colours around),

and paint over the green feathers to hide the Photo

Filter adjustment in this area, so that the cooling filter

effect enhances just the purple and blue tones.

Sharpen the details

Double-click the Zoom tool to jump to 100% view,then hold down the spacebar and scroll to the

sharp water drop. Set Sharpening Amount to 60 and

Radius to 1.3. Double-click the Hand tool to zoom back

out, then hold down Alt and drag the Masking slider to

around 60 to restrict the sharpening to the white areas

on the mask, which contain the finest detail.

Boost the greensClick the New Adjustment Layer button in theLayers panel again, and choose Hue/Saturation.

Set Hue to +18 to subtly shift the colours in the image.

Take the Brush tool and target the mask, but this time

paint over the orange and blue parts of the feather to

hide the effect, so that its restricted to the green areas.

Tweak the tonesOpen the start image in Adobe Camera Raw inElements well start by making a few tweaks

to the tones using the sliders on the Basic panel. Set

Exposure to +0.20, Shadows to +17, Whites to -28,

Blacks to +26 and Saturation +15, then click the next

tab along to bring up the Detail panel.

8/12/2019 Tips - Water Drop Images (2) - Image Enhancement

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Dodge and burn layerTarget the top layer, then hold down Alt and click

the Create New Layer button in the Layers panel

to open the New Layer dialog. Name the layer Dodge

and Burn, select Overlay from the Mode menu, and

check the box that says Fill with Overlay-neutral colour

(50% grey). Click OK to create a new, grey-filled layer.

Retouch the imageClick the Create New Layer button in the Layerspanel. Select the Spot Healing Brush tool, and

tick Sample All Layers in the Options panel, so that

you can retouch the image on this layer and leave the

original image information unaltered. Paint over the

distracting white specular highlight to remove it, and

repeat for any other distracting marks or lines.

Dodge and burnWe can now paint white or black on the greylayer to lighten or darken areas of our image.

Take the Brush tool, set the foreground colour to black,

and press 2 to set the brush opacity to 20%. Brush

over the bottom and top-right corners to gradually

darken them, then press X to switch to a white brush,

and brush over the drops to lighten the highlights.

Blur rough areasTake the Brush tool again, press X to make theforeground colour white, and zoom in on the

bottom-right corner of the image. The sharp orange

feathers here look a little messy and distracting, so

paint over this area to reveal the blur effect and soften

the feathers. Theres a similarly distracting sharp area

on the left side, so paint over this too.