Adding Neutral Density Filter in Photoshop

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By John Sweeney - 16th of January 2007

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Wish you had applied a neutral density filter to your picture?

Have you ever taken one of those pictures with lots of sky, perhaps the sky is cloudy or full of detail but the foreground is somewhat dark, and, you wish that you had had a neutral density filter on your lens when you took the picture, as this would have corrected the imbalance and given a more pleasing overall evenly lit shot, yes, well, not to worry, you can correct this in Photoshop.

1. Open you picture in Photoshop, make a duplicate of the picture by right clicking with your mouse on the blue bounding box at the top of your picture. This is so you can compare the finished article with the original and see what a difference there is between the two pictures.
   
2. You now need to create a new fill or adjustment layer, this can be done by clicking on the black and white circular icon at the bottom of the layers pallet, (Remember to open the layers pallet, F7 on your keyboard) then select levels. Once you have made the selection you will be presented with a new pallet with lots of up and down lines like a chart showing the highs and lows within your picture. Below the chart you will see 3 sliders, one on the left, one in the centre and one on the right. All you need to do is move the right hand slider to the left until the whole lower or foreground is much much brighter and the detail in the sky seems to disappear, then click OK.
   
3. You will notice that in the layers pallet you now have a new layer but, just to the right of the image icon you have a rectangular box, this is a layer mask and the remainder of the work to be done will affect this box, and the results will show within the box. Click on the rectangular box to make sure it is selected.
   
4. Now we need to make sure that the correct colours are showing on our toolbar, black over white. If there are any other colours in those boxes just click the mini black and white boxes below the colour boxes and the colours will quickly be restored. If it's just a mater of white being on top and black underneath then just click the letter X on your keyboard to change the colours over.
   
5. Now select the gradient tool (G on your keyboard) and look at the contextual bar, there you will see 4 or 5 icons showing the differing types of gradients, you need to select the first or Linear gradient. Then place your cursor in the centre of your picture about an inch above the horizon, click on the left mouse button and drag it down to about an inch below the horizon, then release it. This then applies a black to white gradient from top to bottom of your picture and your sky is restored to where it was before you applied the levels alteration. If you want to enhance the picture further select the brush tool and make sure that it is quite large, then click on it and drag it across from left to right along the centre line of your picture, this will bring some colour and a little density back into the horizon.
   
6. Now compare the picture with the duplicate, note the differences, it does work doesn't it. One Neutral Density Filter applied.
   
7. Flatten the image and save it.