A couple weeks ago, at the Adobe summer school here in Europe I hinted that Lightroom Beta 2 users would be pleasantly surprised at some of the new features coming out in Lightroom 2. Well... LR 2 is now out and I can finally tell you about one of my favorites, the Graduated Filter. Like the new Adjustment brush, the Graduated filter applies a localized correction, but gradually, like a neutral density filter. It's easier than ever to fix a sky that is blown out with one simple drag of the cursor. But there is much more you can do with the Graduated filter. Since you can apply as many of these filters as you want, and remove them, or edit them, the possibilities are nearly endless.

I've come up with a instructional video that shows you one of my concoction's, the
Super Vignette, which uses four graduated filter masks, each pulled in from one of the four edges of the picture. Not only do I apply a change in exposure, but I apply a -100 saturation setting as well. The effect draws the eye to the center of the image, as shown in Lightroom 2's before and after view (below), and gives it a very special look. If you want to follow along just go here.

PS> My new book Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure, which is based on LR 2 and the Tasmania adventure, is in production and should be out in 4-8 weeks. It can be pre-ordered from O'Reilly and amazon.com.