Pretty much every RAW photo needs adjustments; the way a RAW files looks when it comes out of the camera is quite flat and undersaturated, which is by design. The original RAW processing will add contrast and color, but then you’re likely going to do more. Sometimes the default, “auto” adjustments are enough, and sometimes you will manually adjust the sliders to get the image looking its best. But then there are special photos that require extra treatment. A little extra contrast here, some sharpening there, darken that background, brighten that face, make the sky bluer, pump up the saturation on the flowers… all local adjustments. This article shows two examples of where to use global, and where to use local adjustments, using DxO PhotoLab 2 ELITE Edition.

Here are the two photos I’ll be working with:

The first primarily needs exposure adjustment plus brightening on the face, and the second needs noise reduction, cropping, darkening of the big rock in the foreground… and we’ll see what else they need as we go! (post continued on DxO's Blog; link below…)

Learn more about DxO PhotoLab

To read the rest of this article, please visit the DxO Blog!