Shadow Control

When working with outdoor landscape and nature subjects we have a number of different ways of dealing with contrast. If we shoot film we can use graduated neutral density filters to try and tame the extreme contrast range between the sky and foreground. Dodging and burning are methods used in traditional printing, and if we shoot digitally (or scan) we can shoot multiple frames with different exposures and blend them in Photoshop.
But sometimes the effect that we need is more subtle than this, and our corrections need to be local and selective. Masking in Photoshop is the usual technique, but it's not easy, and many photographers are reluctant to put in the time and effort to master it. There's a solution, and it comes in the form of a new Photoshop plug-in calledShadow Control.
White Sands — Yucca & Sky. December, 2002
Canon 1Ds with 16-35mm f/2.8L lens at 23mm. 1/10sec @ f/16. ISO 100
This photograph was taken about 20 minutes before sunset on a cold December afternoon at ...