Pixel Targeting

Targeting Adjustments by Color or Tone

While tools are used to make a variety of global adjustments to an image, and the Edit brush makes it possible to adjust specific sections of the image, Pixel Targeting allows for the targeting of distinct tones, colors, and skin tones for selection. A number of adjustments can be applied to a photo's individual colors or tones, or just to skin tone, by using Pixel Targeting. For example, open an image in the Exposure tool and note that the exposure is adjusted over the entire image. However, to only adjust the exposure of the blue sky in the image, use Pixel Targeting to target the color blue, and thereby only increase the exposure on the sky.

 

Pixel Targeting is available in the following filters:

To perform targeted adjustments with Pixel Targeting:

  1. Open any of the above tools under the Filter main menu item.
  2. At the top of the dialog associated with the selected tool, click the Pixel Targeting button.
  3. Configure the settings for Luminance Range and Color Range in the Pixel Targeting panel, as described below.
  4. Adjust the selected tool's settings. The adjustments will affect the targeted color or tones.

The Pixel Targeting Pane

 

The Pixel Targeting pane consists of three sections:

  • Presets
  • Luminance Range, and
  • Color Range.

Pixel Targeting Pane Sections

Presets Make a selection from the Presets drop-down list, or click the Save Preset icon to populate the new preset to the Presets drop-down list.
Save Preset Opens the New Preset dialog. Enter a name for the preset, then click the OK button to add the new preset to the adjacent drop down list.
Delete Preset Select a preset in the adjacent drop down to open the Confirm Delete dialog. Click OK to delete the preset from the drop down list.
Enable Pan Hand Click to enable the cursor to change to a hand used for panning the image.
Preview Click to enable a preview of the preset.
Reset Click the icon to remove all of the current image edits and return the image to its original state.
  Show Mask Preview Click the icon to view a preview of the mask that highlights the pixels to be targeted.

Luminance Range

The Luminance Range field set is used to target tones of brightness for adjustment. Enable the Luminance Range checkbox to enable the associated functionality.
Invert Selection Click the icon to change the selected pixels to the unselected pixels.
Indicator Line Click the icon to add an indicator line to the Tone Grabber display and produce an eyedropper for indicating where a tone from the image appears in the graph.
Tone Grabber   Use the four slider tabs to make a tonal selection. The area inside the blue box represents the tonal selection. The top two tabs cannot slide past one another. Each of the bottom tabs cannot slide past their own top tab when sliding toward the center. The tonal range is between 0 and 255. A diagonal line between the top and its associated bottom slider tab will produce a feathered selection effect (64 to 0 in the Luminance Range example). A straight line connecting the top and associated bottom slider tab will produce a hard cut-off (192 to 192 in the Luminance Range example).
Add Detail   Increase the slide value to sharpen the crispness around the edge of the selection.
Detail Range   If the Add Detail slider has been advanced past a value of "0", the Detail Range slide is enabled for controlling the range of the edge detail added by the Add Detail slider.

Color Range

The Color Range field set is used to target specific colors for adjustment. Enable the Color Range checkbox to enable the associated functionality.
Invert Color Click the icon to invert the selected colors on the wheel.
Color Indicator Click the icon to display and produce an eyedropper for selecting color pixels in the image. Click with the eyedropper to make a color selection.
Color Wheel   Use the Color Wheel to adjust precise colors in an image. The Color Wheel is particularly useful for common requests like making a blue sky more blue, or brightening dark water that is meant to depict a bright lake. The selected color is displayed in the circle below the Enable Wheel checkbox. For more information on the Color Wheel, see Adjusting Color with the Color Wheel.
Enable Wheel   Located above the Wheel Selection circle displaying the selected color, enable the checkbox to make the associated wheel active.
Add Wheel + Click the icon to make changes to another color using an additional color wheel.
Wheel Selection   Located directly beneath the Enable Wheel checkbox, click the inside circle to select the associated color wheel. The selected color is represented by the wheel.
Delete Wheel Deletes the currently selected color wheel.
Smoothness   Increase the slider to adjust smoothness, which acts like a feathering tool to soften a color's edges.
Skin Targeting   Using the Skin Targeting slider will disable the rest of the Color Range field set and allow only skin tones to be targeted.

 

Right-click a slider to reset to the default value.

 

Pixel Targeting becomes even more powerful when paired with Selections or the Edit Brush. These tools in combination with Pixel Targeting make it possible to target very precise areas, such as only the blue of a person's eyes, rather than all of the blue in the image.

 

Click Reset to clear changes and reset to default settings.

Save setting values as a preset for future use. Using the Save Preset button on the Pixel Targeting panel will only save Pixel Targeting settings, and not the settings on the tool. Tool settings must be saved separately.

See also: