DaVinci™ Shadow Control Pro™
Shadow Control Pro is ideal tool for brightening the shadows and illuminating dark or unevenly lit elements of the image, without affecting the rest of the image.
Start the tool from the 'Image' menu:
The user interface that looks like this will come up:
At a first look it may seem a little intimidating, but in reality it's very simple. The default values have been selected to give the user a good starting point.
Tonal Width
It specifies at what brightness the shadows end. If the slider is all the way to the left, only the very darkest elements of the image are considered shadows. If the slider is all the way to the right only but the brightest constituents of the image will remain unaffected.
Radius
Radius dictates how the transition between affected and unaffected elements is processed. If the radius is small the transition is abrupt. Larger radius creates smoother transition. In general, this parameter needs to be modified only in the extreme cases.
Amount
Amount specifies the amount of brightening the shadows receive, with 0 meaning there is no brightening.
Color correction
Changing the brightness of the image elements can inadvertently affect their color. This control allows the user to compensate for that effect. Color correction of 0 means the color remains unaffected. Values less than 0 will reduce the color, while values larger than 0 will saturate the color. This is especially useful when, due to lighting situation, people in the shadows are illuminated differently from the rest of the scene and brightening them up will only intensify the difference.
General guidelines
Using this tool is actually very simple. The idea is to maximize the tonal width, while minimizing the amount. This will produce the most natural effect. So, when starting, first push the Tonal Width slider to the right until you see the change in the areas you don't want modified. Then tone the Tonal Width down a bit and modify the Amount slider until you get the desired effect. Radius should be changed after you are satisfied with Tonal Width and Amount settings. Finally, the last thing to do is adjust the color correction, if needed.
This image has been exposed for the sky, so the actual subject is dark.
Let's try to use the Brightness tool first and see what happens:
Well, the pilot is brighter, but we can't see the glider, or the sky. Let's try the Shadow Control Pro™:
In this case, the glider and the sky are left intact. The pilot is now clearly visible. Here's the original again:
Here are several more examples:
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