Effects

Texture, clarity and dehaze

Three controls that all add apparent detail, at three different scales. Knowing which is which saves a lot of fiddling.

• Texture works on fine detail: skin, fabric, bark. Positive brings out surface; negative smooths it, which is the gentle way to soften skin.
• Clarity works on midtone contrast at a medium scale. It adds presence and weight, and overdone it produces the crunchy, haloed look that dates a photo instantly.
• Dehaze works on the whole frame, cutting through atmospheric haze. Useful on distant landscapes; going negative adds mist back for mood.

Vignette

Darkens or lightens the edges to pull the eye toward the middle. Beyond amount there are four shaping controls:

• Midpoint — how far in from the edge the effect starts.
• Roundness — from a rectangle hugging the frame to a circle.
• Feather — how soft the transition is. Low feather gives a hard, obvious edge.
• Highlights — protects bright areas from being dragged down, so a bright sky at the edge does not turn muddy.

Grain

Adds film-like noise, with amount, size and roughness. Beyond taste, a little grain is genuinely useful: it hides banding in smooth gradients like skies, and it takes the plastic edge off an image that has had heavy noise reduction applied.

Vignette and grain are frame-wide finishing effects and sit at the end of the pipeline. Apply them last, once the tones and colours are settled.

Texture, clarity and dehaze all work well through a mask — clarity on a subject but not the background is a common move.