popcorn
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 227
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Post by popcorn on May 1, 2022 20:26:36 GMT
Hi Everyone,
I have never been a keen landscape photographer, but over the years have quite a few of these images on file. None of them do justice to the actual scene.
Mostly they look pretty lifeless, so I decided to edit a few.
I went back to my old faithful, Google.
Most of the videos and tutorials seem to be based on Lightroom and nearly all say the "Adjustment brush" is the goto tool to liven up landscapes.
My reading and watching confirmed that this appears to be true. It is such a powerful tool, so simple to use, so quick and so effective.
The only tool that serves a similar purpose in Elements seems to be the "Smart brush tool" but I soon found out that it has very little of the power of the "Adjustment brush".
I speed read thro' my Elements+ manual and could find nothing there either.
Have I missed something? is there a workaround that can give you similar image control over selected areas, nearly every adjustment becomes available in precisely the right place.
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Post by tonyw on May 1, 2022 23:00:21 GMT
A couple of ways to do this in Elements. You could use the selection brush tool to select the area you want to adjust and then use one of the Enhance Adjustments such as Levels to tweak the levels in that selected area. The other way would be to use an adjustment layer - so add a Levels adjustment layer use a regular brush to paint with black or white on the mask where you want the adjustment to be applied. Not quite as simple as in the latest Lightroom but you should be able to pretty much replicate the result.
Tony
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Post by Andrei Doubrovski on May 2, 2022 5:11:21 GMT
Hi popcorn, * The Adjustment Brush is actually a masking tool, that lets you "unmask" your custom adjustment settings in certain areas. So, you can get a very similar result by combining the ACR adjustments with the layer masking. ** For example, if you want to lighten the "earth" area and darken the "sky": - Open the photo in the ACR window and apply the "earth" settings (i.e., lighten all) - Open the Elements+ "Camera RAW" dialog and apply the "sky" adjustment (darken all) The second adjustment appears in the document as a separate layer. - Add to the new layer the black mask (Hide All) - Paint with white color to reveal the "sky". ![]()  *** Surely, using this approach without Elements+ is possible but it requires a few extra steps: - Edit the photo with the ACR plug-in and open it - Duplicate the document - Close the original photo - Re-open the original photo with the different settings - Copy the re-opened image into the duplicate document as a layer. - Mask the new layer. Hope this helps. |
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popcorn
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 227
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Post by popcorn on May 2, 2022 8:43:56 GMT
Andrei & Tony,
Once again, thank you.
I will give it a try
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popcorn
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 227
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Post by popcorn on May 2, 2022 15:25:18 GMT
Hi,
I tried it.
The problem is the image needs local enhancement in multiple areas.
I processed the image in ACR to get the best result I could with global processing.
I then opened it in the Editor ( Elements 2018 ). When I tried to open it in Elements+, I was informed that I had to save it first, re-import it and then open it in Elements+.
This I did.
In Elements+ "Raw connections" I then processed the image to bring out the sky. I added a black mask to the new layer that opened and, with the mask active, painted the mask with white to reveal the sky. Everything worked.
(Does this produce a different result to that produced by processing in ACR, opening the image in the Editor, selecting the sky and applying correction layers to the selection as suggested by Tony? Possibly the adjustments in ACR are more precise and there is a greater range? Also multiple corrections can be carried out on one visit to the "Raw Correction" dialog)
To process other areas in the same image that need local processing, can I now duplicate the first Raw Correction layer, open this in the Elements+ "Raw Correction" dialog and re-iterate the same process for each different local adjustment. I will give that "a go" now.
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Post by Andrei Doubrovski on May 3, 2022 3:41:58 GMT
Hi popcorn,
You don't need to duplicate the first layer.
Just run the "RAW Corrections" multiple times for the same document.
Each time the script creates a new layer >
you "black-mask" it >
and then "white-paint" to reveal the adjustment in the desired area.
The dialog remembers the last used settings.
If it's not convenient for you, check the "Open Copy" gadget at the bottom.
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Post by Andrei Doubrovski on May 3, 2022 3:53:12 GMT
BTW, in many cases, the sky can be enhanced without any masking by mere darkening the blue color range as shown in this video: youtu.be/sIGKLOgwl3Q?t=49 |
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popcorn
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 227
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Post by popcorn on May 4, 2022 7:01:40 GMT
Thanks Andrei,
The video opened a whole new world for me. I have actually watched it before, but this time I was more focused in the right direction. I will keep the link handy.
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popcorn
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 227
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Post by popcorn on Jun 3, 2022 19:22:08 GMT
Hi Andrei,
I apologize for the long gap between these posts but I have tried to display Elements+ and layers at the same time as demonstrated in the video above.
This looks like a handy trick but I can't find how to do it.
Could you please explain the technique?
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Post by Andrei Doubrovski on Jun 4, 2022 3:24:11 GMT
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