PhotoKit-EL
Layers Series
While
PhotoKit-EL comes with a variety of effects for correcting common
image problems, the real power of PhotoKit-EL is the ability to
build up a series of effects for total image correction. It's
common that more than one effect needs to be run on an image.
Doing so will increase the layer count and adds
to the file size but with careful layer management, the results
are worth it.

In
the previous section you learned how to run PhotoKit-EL, turn the
layer off and on and how to use the Eraser to control the results.
In this section multiple effects will be run in a series to produce
a final result that significantly improves the image-but at the
expense of creating multiple layers. Above is the result of a single
'Boost Contrast 3' effect. Below we'll add a second PhotoKit-EL
effect, the 'Darken Top 1/2' from the Darken Gradations Set. This
adds depth and makes the sky darker at the top.

While
that adds an improvement, there's more to do. Even though the image
was shot under late afternoon light adding an additional warmth
to the shot will improve it. Adding warmth to most sun lit shots
is common. However, to further improve the final image adding some
image sharpness will crispen up all the details. Below is the result
of adding two additional effects, 'Warming 3' from the Color Corrections
Set and 'Edge sharpen 3' from the Sharpener & Smooth Set.

As
you can see, the layer count is adding up. If you were to save
this image now it would be almost four times the file size as the
original flattened image that you started with. To really use
the PhotoKit-EL layers, it's important to learn how to manage them.



While
you could just flatten the image from the Layers palette and get
back to the original file size, you would lose the ability to do
any further editing or change your mind about the results.
A smarter approach would be to simply merge the top layers down
until you have a single adjusted image layer.



In
the screen shots above, the command to 'Merge Down' was repeated
three times to get a final single adjustment layer. Double clicking
in the layer name allows you to rename the layer to something more
descriptive. We've renamed the final layer to 'Adjusted'.

To
show how a few PhotoKit-EL steps can make a big improvement in
your image, move your mouse over the image below to see a Before
& After.

Now
that you've learned how to use PhotoKit-EL to make a series of
image corrections, it's important to understand how to save your
images. Please read the Saving section by clicking HERE.