Gradient Mask

countryjimbo

I'm trying to use a Gradient Mask in CS2 to darken or add contrast to a sky while not effecting the rest of the picture. The default gradient settings appear to be darker on the bottom rather than the top. Am I trying to use the correct tool for this job? If so I'd appreciate some pointers.

Fenster

if you're shooting in raw, you're better served adjusting the exposure for the sky in your raw editor, then adjusting for the ground and combining them via layers. Or even using the merge to HDR tool.

elven

If you want to do it via the gradient mask, you'll have your original image on the bottom layer, then your adjustment layer, like levels or curves or even a photo filter. The gradient mask on your adjustment layer starts off white and that shows the effect of the adjustment. So what you want to do, is make it all black (click on the gradient mask icon in the layers pallette and then press ctrl+I to invert it) then add a white to transparent gradient from the top down - try changing the opacity of it to 60% then building it up to taste so that you don't go too heavy on your first pass. Remember, on a mask, the white bits show through and the black bits hide. You can even paint on it instead of using a gradient, if you have some tricky areas to blend.

That make sense?

countryjimbo

Elven - I followed your instructions and got it working. However it didn't produce the effect I was looking for.

Fenster - I agree that HDR or combining layers would produce a better result and I'm working on my first HDR image at the moment.

Thanks to both for your advise.

GristlyEnd

You could try a contrast mask.

Duplicate the layer, desaturate, invert, change blend mode to overlay then add a gaussian blur of between 90 and 250. Watch out for halo's, the higher the blur the less chance of them.