Attention to detail

James Paterson teases out hidden details from shadows and highlights in Raw images in Photoshop CC for perfectly balanced landscape photos

- James Paterson

Have you ever shot a landscape under glorious conditions then rushed home to look at the results, only to find they are slightly underwhelming? It’s happened to me more than once. It doesn’t necessarily mean you did something wrong… it might be that the image needs a little coaxing into life. Often the challenge with landscapes is in recording detail in the brightest and darkest parts of the scene.

When the sun is low in the sky this can be doubly difficult, as the highlights will be strong and the shadows can be very deep. As such, on initial inspection the scene can be a disappointment, with detail-less dark areas or blown out skies.

However, just because the detail isn’t visible at first, it doesn’t mean it’s not there. As long as pixels aren’t clipped to pure black or white, then there’s a good chance we can pull detail out of the tonal extremes and balance the image. This is especially true if the image is a Raw file as Raws have greater dynamic range than JPEGs, which means they hold extra detail in the highlights and shadows. But even JPEGs can be enhanced to tease out extra detail.