Photoshop CC and Lightroom

7 Local Adjustments

In traditional photography, a number of techniques allowed us to alter one part of an image differently than another. In camera, we would use graduated density filters, perhaps tinted ones. The darkroom afforded many more methods: burning (increased exposure), dodging (blocked exposure), highlight and shadow masking, and pre-exposure. Most photographers have never dabbled in the latter two—and perhaps they should be thankful, as I found them difficult, time-consuming, and prone to dust.

Photoshop has embraced software metaphors for these and other photographic techniques. It’s called Photoshop, after all. Lightroom and Camera Raw have graduated filters and painted adjustments. Combined with Photoshop’s many tools for masking ...