I’ve been a little slow to download the newest version of Adobe’s Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). But I’m glad that I finally got over that and had time to check out some new features.
Selection is power in post-production
Photographing Sandhill Cranes before dawn can lead to a bit of noise in an image during capture. Blurred wing tips can be fine if you push in that direction for effect.
But in this case, I wanted the bird to be frozen. To stop the birds wings in flight you need a relatively high ISO otherwise the wings will show motion. The resulting noise due to the increased ISO can be handled using the masking features in ACR.
I selected the sky and lowered the Texture and Clarity. Increased the Saturation and Vibrance to match my memory of the day. The Crane was selected and I increased the Texture, opened the shadows and decreased contrast all of which made it stand out more from the background.
New Masking panel
With the new masking panel you can make multiple masks, combine mask techniques and easily make selections using the Adobe Sensei AI engine.
In previous versions you had access to these tools, but you had to invoke whether you wanted to use the gradient or spot tools. Now you can use the selection tools and apply changes to the entire image easily.
Mask tools
Masking has become easier than ever. Choose from the multitude of tools. Below you can see which tools I used in this tutorial.
Select Sky
Selecting the sky was easy. I needed to do a little adjustment to the mask made using the brush tool at the tips of the wings.
Select Subject
Using Select Subject, the default red mask color was difficult to see with the pink sky background. So, I changed the color to lime green to have more success in seeing the transition. I still had a little adjustment in the wing tips, and added a color to the mask. It was done with that one additional click. Be sure to mix and match the various tools, adding and subtracting as necessary.
This is my first time using the new masking palette in ACR, and I gotta tell ya I’ve only scratched the surface of its power!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob