Bring some Clarity to your photos

Master one of the best detail-enhancing tools in Photoshop and Lightroom with James Paterson

- James Paterson

THE MISSION

Enhance details in photos without making them look tacky

Time needed 30 minutes

Skill level Beginner

Kit needed Lightroom or Photoshop

CLARITY VS TEXTURE

The Clarity and Texture are similar, but work in slightly different ways. Texture has a stronger effect on fine details in images. Clarity works more on lowerfrequency details. Applying negative Texture is an effective way to soften skin when the effect is painted in with the Adjustment Brush: it results in a smoothing of tones and colours, while retaining fine detail in the skin pores.

There are lots of tools that can help your images pop out of the screen or from a print, but few have as instant an effect as Clarity. Available in Camera Raw and Lightroom, Clarity works by increasing the contrast in midtones, the range of tones that sit either side of the middle grey point in an image. By increasing midtone contrast, the brighter parts of the midtone range become brighter, and the darker parts go even darker.