Attitude Adjustment camera raw’s adjustment tools - The Adobe Photoshop CS6 - page 109

The Graduated Filter (which acts more like a tool) lets you recreate the look of a

traditional neutral density gradient filter (these are glass or plastic filters that are dark
on the top and then graduate down to fully transparent). They're popular with land-
scape photographers because you're either going to get a photo with a perfectly
exposed foreground, or a perfectly exposed sky, but not both. However, with the
way Adobe implemented this feature, you can use it for much more than just neutral
density gradient effects (although that probably will still be its number one use).

Fixing Skies (and
Other Stuff) with
the Graduated Filter

Step One:
Start by selecting the Graduated Filter
tool (G) up in the toolbar (it's shown
circled in red here). When you click on it,
its options panel appears (shown here)
with a set of effects you can apply that are
similar to the ones you can apply using
the Adjustment Brush. Here we're going
to replicate the look of a traditional neu-
tral density gradient filter and darken the
sky. Start by dragging the Exposure slider
to the left, or just click on the - (minus
sign) button two times to get to -1.00
(as seen here).

Step Two:
Press-and-hold the Shift key (to keep
your gradient straight), click at the top
center of your image, and drag straight
down until you reach the top of the grass
(as shown here). Generally, you want to
stop dragging the gradient before it
reaches the horizon line, or it will start to
darken your properly exposed foreground.
You can see the darkening ef fec t it has on
the sky and the photo already looks more
balanced. Note: Just let go of the Shift
key to drag the gradient in any direction.

(Continued)