ABSTRACT
It is often possible to unleash the hidden potential of an image without the hassle of making fiddly selections. This chapter demonstrates how the tonality of an image can be enriched using duplicated layers, blend modes and a couple of filters to shape and sharpen. Before photographers start their culinary masterpiece they should prepare the main ingredient – the image. This should include optimizing the histogram via a manual or auto Levels adjustment. To start working on the tonality photographers need to separate the ‘luminance’ or brightness values from the color component of the image. The Shadows/Highlights adjustment feature is an excellent tool for targeting shadow or highlight tones that need to be massaged in isolation and brought back into the range of tones that can be comfortably printed using an inkjet printer. The Shadows/Highlights adjustment feature is the most sophisticated tool for lowering excessive contrast in Adobe Elements.
