About the Image(s)

This one was taken in the Smokies after the Charleston Conference. A three shot bracket using a Canon 7D and 100-400 lens at 120mm F16 and iso 200 with a two stop differential around a base shutter of 0.4 sec. The blend was in Aurora 2019. There were a couple of highlights that even the dark exposure wasn’t going to fix, so they were dealt with using the Healing Brush. I recently found a reference that indicated if you hold down the SHIFT and ALT keys (SHIFT and OPT on a Mac) and hold either the > or < keys while doing so you can rotate the angle the Healing Brush or Clone Stamp transfers data on. I tried it first using the angle feature on the Healing Brush control but you are going by trial and error. Using the key short cut you can sample the source area, move the brush over the target and then hold down the keys until the direction is correct for where you want to fix. I know it sounds like work, but it is actually quite effective. Most of the rest of the adjustments consisted of selective dodging and burning and (don’t fall off your seat) adding a vignette to control the edges.