STEP 3. Define Your Photo Character
Black is very important because it decides the character of your photo.
SHADOWS function can either increase or decrease the brightness of dark area.
I will show the difference using the example below.
First, I made the dark area brighter
Then I made the dark area darker. Please see the photo below and compare it with the original and brighter one.
The result is totally different atmosphere.
1. If you make dark area darker, the photo will have contrast. Your photo will have a clear, cool, or stylish image.
2. If you make the dark area brighter, the photo will lose its contrast. But, the total appearance will be soft and pleasant.
If you would like to show the detail of dark area, I recommend that you keep the details of the dark area clearly. If you adjust the dark area and this can be seen slightly on your smartphone like the photo on the left side. On the other hand, the dark area may not be seen like the photo on the right side.
The dark area on your smartphone is slightly different from other devices such as another smartphone, tablet and laptop. It comes from the difference of each display’s characteristics.
Let us continue to adjust the example photo
I adjusted highlight in previous chapter and the face of the young model is still a bit dark. In this case, I will increase SHADOWS function to brighten her face.
I adjusted SHADOWS up to 60 while checking her face. I would like to increase it more but the photo became too whitish so I stopped increasing.
At this point, the dark area in the photo had been boosted up from Step 1. So your photo becomes somewhat whitish. It is OK because the photo needs more color. It will be improved in the Last Chapter, “Adjust Color”.