Nothing says вЂњSnapвЂќ better than a wonky horizon! The horizon tool gives you a vertical line that you can adjust to bisect the horizon line at 90В°. For this post, weвЂ™ll look at the othersвЂ¦ Horizon IвЂ™m going to do a new post on the Geometry Tools in PhotoLab 4. The toolbar includes, from the left, Hand, Crop, White Balance, Horizon, Force Parallel, Rectangle, Eight Points, Repair, Redeye and Miniature. These are specific tools that deliver very specific functionality. In the toolbar at the top of the interface, there are some other adjustments that donвЂ™t fall into the category of final tweaks or finessing. That completes the local adjustment tools that are available from the palette. Very useful for slightly overexposed skies. Once you have the gradient in the right place you can alter light, colour and detail using the sliders. It sets a gradient across the picture, you can choose the angle by moving the bottom handle. The Graduated Filter works in the same way as a hard glass grad filter on a camera. For example something metallic catching the sun can be desaturated so that it doesnвЂ™t catch the eye. Excellent for reducing the impact of distractions. It offers size, feather, flow and opacity controls and sliders affecting various aspects of light, colour and detail. The brush applies corrections to an are you brush over. This switch has the same function as the new mask button at the bottom right вЂ“ it closes the current live mask. The pop up at the bottom left offers size, feathering, flow and opacity. If I make a mistake with my Auto Mask or it doesnвЂ™t exactly get the edge I need, then I can use the eraser to delete the part of the mask thatвЂ™s causing the problem. This tool is not perfect, but it does a good job in the use case IвЂ™ve described. It will detect the contrast and omit the land from the selection. As an example, if I choose the horizon, I paint the centre of the tool at the edge of the skyline. Then as with the Control Point, choose the alterations you need. Simply brush the centre circle over the area you want to alter. The size can be adjusted in a pop up at the bottom left. It has two concentric circles in the tool. The Auto Mask detects borders using contrast detection (of colour or density). Once you have defined a control point you can drop it on other areas of the picture, creating a group with the same settings. You can create a вЂњnegativeвЂќ control point to remove the alterations or exclude certain areas. at the centre of the circle and then applies the adjustment(s) to all the similar pixels within the scope of the circle.

The Control Point samples the luminosity, contrast and colour of the pixels you have dropped it on ie.

You can alter the size of the affected area by dragging the circle in or out. The same icons are used in the tool section of the interface. Drop a control point on the area of the picture you want to alter and a popup menu will appear offering sliders in three categories, Light, Colour and Detail.

Control PointД¬ontrol Points are an innovation that first appeared in the Nik suite. Starting from the top (blue highlight) weвЂ™ll go around the circle describing each tool in turn. Once turned on, move your cursor into the image and right-click to reveal the Local Adjustments Palette.

Layers in dxo photolab 2