iPhoto Adjustments - Highlights & Shadows
This article is part of a series where I will cover the image adjustment features of iPhoto. Many users do not make full use of the adjustments offered by iPhoto. With iPhoto 08, Apple has introduced image adjustments that were usually only previously found in professional image editing applications.
Highlights & Shadows
The highlights can be considered the lighter areas of a photo. However, it should not be confused with the overall brightness of a photo, as when you adjust the highlights it does not change the overall brightness of the photo, but concentrates the adjustment on areas considered to be highlights, leaving the lower and mid tones alone. It is easier to understand after you have made highlight adjustments on a couple of photos. Increasing the highlights will darken the highlights, that has the effect of increasing the detail in the highlighted areas.
Shadows are the converse of highlights. Adjusting the shadows will adjust the darker areas of the photo, whilst leaving the mid and high tones alone. Increasing the shadow will lighten the shadow areas, that has the effect of increasing the detail in the shadow areas.
To display the image adjustments HUD (Head’s Up Display) in iPhoto, either of the following will work.
- Select a photo in the browser and click the ‘Edit’ button in the toolbar at the bottom, or
- Double click a photo in the browser and then select the ‘Edit’ button in the toolbar at the bottom
To demonstrate the effects that the Highlights & Shadows adjustments have on a photo, we will be using the following photo of the Sydney Opera House with a couple of passing Sydney Ferries. The image Adjustment HUD is shown to the right. Adjustments can be made in either windowed or full-screen mode.
The Highlights & Shadows adjustments also change the tone curve displayed, similar to the Levels adjustments detailed in the iPhoto Adjustments - Levels article and the Exposure & Contrast adjustments detailed in the iPhoto Adjustments - Exposure & Contrast article.
Each color is represented in a value between 0 and 255, and are represented on the graphs scale as between 1 and 100%.
Highlights Adjustment
The highlight values can be adjusted between 0 and 100, with 0 being the default initial value.
As you increase the highlights slider the image highlights will darken, and increases the detail visible. You can see the areas of highlight darken, such as the sails of the Sydney Opera House and the wake made by the ferries. However, the water and background seem relatively unchanged. The result on this photo is to subdue the impact, making it appear a more cloudy day.
Shadows Adjustment
The shadow values can be adjusted between 0 and 100, with 0 being the default initial value.
As you increase the shadows slider the image shadows will lighten, and increase the detail visible. The effect is the converse of the highlights adjustments, where the darker areas such as the water and the background detail are now lighter, and the lighter areas such as the sails of the Sydney Opera House and the wake made by the ferries remain relatively unchanged. The result is also the converse, with the photo having a more hazy look, making it appear a more sunny day.
Summary
Adjusting the highlights and shadows of an image can have dramatic effects on the overall image. Be careful to only make subtle adjustments at a time. I found the following tip when researching my iPhoto Adjustment articles.
When you are adjusting an image using the Adjust HUD, if you press the Shift key, iPhoto will display the original image before the adjustments were made. This is a really quick way of previewing your changes and seeing what changes they have made to the original photo.
As with all adjustments in iPhoto, it is possible to reset the changes if you over adjust an image. If the ‘Edit’ -> ‘Undo’ option will not undo all of the changes, you can revert the image to its original using the ‘Photos’ -> ‘Revert to Original’ option. When using RAW images, the ‘Photos’ -> ‘Reprocess RAW’ option should be used.
Highlights and Shadows can be a powerful and effective way of making adjustments to your photos. In subsequent articles, I will cover the other available image adjustment features of iPhoto.
Tags: iPhoto, Photo Adjustment
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