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When shooting landscapes,
photographers will use a neutral density filter in order to get a well exposed foreground as well as background.
Without it the sky can look gray or if the sky is well exposed the foreground will turn out too dark.
The neutral density filter is dark at the top and graduates down to transparent at the bottom
so that the entire image is well exposed.
Photoshop can replicate this graduated affect.
For this exercise we’ve prepared a data file called "neutral_density_filter.tiff"
But to open it, we’re going to the File menu then selecting Open As.
Locate and select our data file "neutral_density_filter.tiff"
The in the Open As drop-down arrow. Select Camera Raw
Then select the Open button.
Once the Camera Raw 5.0 dialogue box opens find the White Balance arrow and click on it.
Afterwards select Auto from the list.
Click and drag the Exposure slider to around plus 1.00
Then on top on the Camera Raw Tool bar, select the Graduated Filter tool
While holding down the Shift key, click at the top of the image and drag the mouse pointer straight down to the horizon line.
In the Graduated Filter panel, drag the Exposure slider to negative 0.75
Drag the Brightness slider to around negative 10
Click on the Color Swatch next to Color.
Then in the Color Picker dialogue box, use the Dropper to select a rich blue tone.
When finished click on the OK button.
Uncheck the Preview box to see what the image looked like before.
Turn it back on to see how much better it looks with the changes we’ve made.