Adobe Lightroom

The Graduated Filter is one of my favorite new features of Lightroom 2, and it has considerably reduced my need to send photos to Photoshop for additional local adjustments. It is worth noting that like any software adjustment, you can only work on data that is actually in the photo to begin with, so it is always worth your while to start with the best capture possible to give yourself a better starting point for any future tweak in your digital workflow.

The Graduated Filter tool allows you to make adjustments to exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, clarity, sharpness and color. Not just individually either, you can apply any combination of adjustments with a single Graduated Filter. On top of that you can add multiple Graduated Filters to a single photo that function completely independently of each other. It is an incredibly versatile tool!

The Graduated Filter has two modes—Buttons and Sliders—that you can toggle between by clicking the Show Effect button. I usually prefer to work with the sliders because it just feels more intuitive to me.

The best way to learn about this tool is to see it in action, so let’s walk through an example of how I used it to make adjustments to a photo. Keep in mind that before applying the Graduated Filter I did set white balance and make basic global exposure adjustments.

The first thing I wanted to do was make the hillside in the background pop a little more. This is a photo of Barry Glacier where it meets Prince William Sound in Southern Alaska. It was a beautiful blue-sky day in July. Due to the amount of rainfall and daylight that occurs that time of year the plant life was vibrantly green. By exposing for the snow in the glacier the background is a little darker than I’d like even after the global adjustments I’ve made.

One of the important considerations of using the Graduated Filter is that you need to use it along a natural straight line to make the transition between the effected and non-effected areas look natural. The jagged diagonal line of the glacier works just fine in this instance.

Step 1.

Press D to jump to the Develop module (if you are not there already), then press M or click the Graduated Filter icon in the Tool Strip to activate the Graduated Filter tool.

I wanted to bump up the brightness, saturation and clarity just a little, so while working in Slider mode I made minor increases in each of those sliders. Don’t worry about getting it perfect here, because you can always go back and edit your settings after applying the filter.

Step 2.

To apply a Graduated Filter click on the point where you want the effect to begin and drag away from the area that you want to adjust. In this case I clicked along the top-edge of the glacier and dragged diagonally down toward the water, which applies the full effect of the filter on the hillside in the background.

The further you drag the wider the area of transition between the effected and non-effected areas of the photo. In this case I didn’t want the transition to be very wide so I only dragged a short distance and released the mouse. As soon as you start to drag you will see an adjustment pin (the gray circle with the black dot) appear where you first clicked, and three white lines that show the area of transition between the effect you are applying.

Step 3.

Reposition the filter as needed. You can click and drag the pin to move it to a better location, move the cursor just off the pin to rotate the lines that delineate the effected area, and/or click and drag either outside line to change the width of the transition zone. You can do this as much and as often as needed to get the effect you are looking for as long as you are in Edit mode (note the black dot on the pin tells you which filter you are adjusting and the word Edit is highlighted in the Filter panel).

Here’s a tip, hold the Shift key while you drag to create a perfectly horizontal or vertical adjustment.

Step 4.

Readjust any of the sliders to fine tune the effect. As long as you are in Edit mode you can tweak and tweak and tweak your settings to your hearts content.

If you want to compare how the photo looks with and without the filter you can click the on/off button at the bottom of the filter panel. While the filter is on you can also press H to show/hide the adjustment pin and the adjustment lines.

In my case I also wanted to make the water pop a little as well as give it a bit of a bluish tint, so I added another pin that bumped the contrast, brightness and clarity along with adding a little more blue. Again, attempting to bring the image more in line with my minds eye at the time of capture.

That’s the basics for how to use this handy new tool. Give it a test drive yourself and remember you can always delete a pin by placing your cursor over it and pressing Delete, so there’s no reason not put it though its paces.