About local adjustments

The controls in the image adjustment tabs of Camera Raw let you affect the color and tone of an entire photo. To make adjustments to a specific area of a photo, like dodging and burning in traditional photography, you can use the Adjustment Brush tool and the Graduated Filter tool in Camera Raw.

The Adjustment Brush tool lets you selectively apply Exposure, Brightness, Clarity, and other adjustments by “painting” them onto the photo.

The Graduated Filter tool lets you apply the same types of adjustments gradually across a region of a photo. You can make the region as wide or as narrow as you like.

You can apply both types of local adjustments to any photo, customizing and refining them to your liking.

Getting local adjustments “right” in Camera Raw may take some experimentation. The recommended workflow is to select a tool and specify its options, and then apply the adjustment to the photo. Then you can go back and edit that adjustment, or apply a new one. As with all other adjustments applied in Camera Raw, local adjustments are nondestructive. They are never permanently applied to the photo.

For a video tutorial on making local adjustments in Camera Raw, go to www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4008_ps.