Adobe 29180155 - Photoshop Elements 4.0 User Manual page 84

Specifies which input levels are mapped to black in the final image. Moving the slider to the right increases
Shadows
the areas that are mapped to black. This sometimes creates the impression of increased contrast in the image. Using
the Shadows slider is similar to using the Black Point slider for input levels in the Levels command.
Hold down Option while moving the Shadow slider to preview where the shadows are clipped. Move the slider until
the shadows begin to get clipped, and then reverse the adjustment slightly. Color indicates areas that are being clipped
in one or two channels, and white indicates unclipped areas.
Adjusts the brightness of the image, much as the Exposure slider does. However, instead of clipping the
Brightness
image in the highlights (areas that are completely white, no detail) or shadows (areas that are completely black, no
detail), Brightness compresses the highlights and expands the shadows when you move the slider to the right. In
general, use the Brightness slider to adjust the overall brightness after you set the white and black clipping points
with the Exposure and Shadow sliders.
Adjusts the midtones in an image. Higher values increase the midtone contrast, and lower values produce
Contrast
an image with less contrast. Generally, use the Contrast slider to adjust the contrast of the midtones after setting the
Exposure, Shadow, and Brightness values.
Adjusts the color saturation of the image from –100 (pure monochrome) to +100 (double the saturation).
Saturation
To adjust sharpening in camera raw files
The Sharpness slider adjusts the image sharpening to provide the edge definition you want. The Sharpness
adjustment is a variation of the Unsharp Mask filter, which locates pixels that differ from surrounding pixels based
on the threshold you specify and increases the pixels' contrast by the amount you specify. When opening a camera
raw file, the Camera Raw plug-in calculates the threshold to use based on the camera model, ISO, and exposure
compensation. You can choose whether sharpening is applied to all images or just to previews.
Zoom the preview image to at least 100%.
1
Click the Details tab.
2
Move the Sharpness slider to the right to increase sharpening and to the left to decrease it. A value of zero turns
3
off sharpening. In general, set the Sharpness slider to a lower value for cleaner images.
If you don't plan to edit the image extensively in Photoshop Elements, use the Camera Raw's Sharpness slider. If you
do plan to edit the image extensively in Photoshop Elements, turn off Camera Raw sharpening. Then use the sharp-
ening filters in Photoshop Elements as the last step after all other editing and resizing is complete.
Reducing noise in camera raw images
The Detail tab in the Camera Raw dialog box contains controls for reducing image noise—the extraneous visible
artifacts that degrade image quality. Image noise includes luminance (grayscale) noise, which makes an image look
grainy, and chroma (color) noise, which is usually visible as colored artifacts in the image. Photos taken with high
ISO speeds or less-sophisticated digital cameras can have noticeable noise.
Moving the Luminance Smoothing slider to the right reduces grayscale noise, and moving the Color Noise
Reduction slider to the right reduces chroma noise.
When making Luminance Smoothing or Color Noise Reduction adjustments, it's a good idea to first zoom in on the
preview image for a better view.
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 4.0
User Guide
79