Brush in a little Magic

The Adjustment Brush in Camera Raw opened a world of possibilities for underwater shooters in their quest for the perfect image, as it’s not limited to just global corrections. The brush makes local corrections a reality and nondestructive changes to exposure, contrast, colour and other key adjustments are now possible and easily applied. It’s the perfect tool for underwater shots, challenging over/unders and all your topside images too.

Local enhancements to the water, giant clam, and dive guide are needed to improve the overall impact of this shot.

Let’s check it out!

For starters, the adjustment brush yields the best results on images already globally optimized in Camera Raw. In other words, try applying your overall image corrections regarding white balance, exposure, contrast and colour first, then grab the Adjustment Brush and optimize the local areas in the image that demand attention. In this photo, local enhancements to the water, giant clam, and dive guide will help improve the overall impact of this image.

Select the tool by clicking the Adjustment Brush icon at the top of the Camera Raw window. The Adjustment Brush panel now appears on the right side of the dialogue box.

The panel contains effect options to change exposure, contrast, saturation and other adjustments. Most are slider based, easily applied by painting with the brush, and can be used individually or in combination to nondestructively enhance selected areas. There is also a section to control brush settings and an auto mask feature that helps make targeting an area a breeze.

The default setting of the brush applies a small amount of dodging to your photo but chances are you’ll want to readjust this setting to specifically address your own image concerns. To do so, set the effect option or options you wish to apply using the sliders then move onto the image to begin painting in your corrections.

Figure 1: Use the adjustment brush after global corrections in camera raw are completed. Most adjustments are slider based and all are non-destructive. Here the water column was improved.

In this photo, I lightened the water column by increasing the Exposure slider, Brightness and Saturation. The brush seems strange at first because you need to guess your initial setting before making your adjustments but don’t be overly concerned with this.  As you paint, you’ll immediately see the effects your brush strokes have on the image and if needed, you can correct enhancements on the fly by adjusting the sliders while you paint. During this process, a pin marker is placed on the image. This pin represents the collective group of all brush strokes associated to this adjustment.  (Figure 1)

Additionally, mistakes can be corrected by holding down the Alt/Option key to temporarily switch to Erase mode, allowing you to paint away any errant strokes.

To work on a different area in the photo, click the panel’s  “New” button and reset the sliders to their default settings by clicking the plus sign (+) to the right of the Exposure slider. The clam was optimized next adjusting exposure, clarity, and adding a significant boost to saturation to make the clam “pop.”  Sharpening the clam also helped generate additional visual interest.

Figure 2: This image displays the Auto Mask capabilities of the brush and shows how complex selections are easily brushed in. The mask is shown in red.

If you’re working in an area requiring delicate brush work or precision, try turning on the Auto Mask feature. It does a surprisingly good job at selectively masking only what you want enhanced. To view the mask, roll the brush cursor over the appropriate pin to temporarily display it as a coloured overlay. (Figure 2)

Colour adjustments can be applied locally too. For example, a third pin targets the dive guide’s wetsuit. After exposure, clarity and saturation helped optimize the area, the colour was modified using the Color Swatch.  Here a red hue was added to help restore the sun-faded wetsuit to its original bright color. The Color Picker can also help optimize water and sky as well. (Figure 3)

Figure 3: The Color Swatch icon accesses the Color Picker dialogue. It can be used to blend selective colours into an existing colour. Here it helps bring back the original colour of a worn out wetsuit.

The Color Picker

To revisit an area, click on the associated pin marker. This activates the pin, places the brush into “Add” mode, and allows you to edit brush strokes and adjust the current settings by reworking some, or all of the adjustment sliders.

Figure 4: The final image contains four adjustment areas. In addition, the clam was further optimized using the brush. After exiting the panel, some extra mid-tone contrast was applied and the water column further improved using the Hue/Saturation/Luminance tab. Cleanup to remove a little backscatter was all that was needed to polish up the image.

When finished with the Adjustment Brush click any tool icon at the top of Camera Raw to close the panel and continue making further enhancements to your image in Camera Raw if necessary.

This finished image contains 4 areas of localized enhancements, had a revisit to the Tone Curve panel to boost the midtone contrast, and also had a final adjustment in the Hue Saturation Luminance tab to help improve the colour in the water column before being saved as a master file.     (Figure 4)

Once you get the hang of this powerful new feature inside Camera Raw, you’ll find it will change the way you handle your raw images forever.

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