03 Brightness, Shadows and Highlights

The only tonal control you have is with the Brightness, Shadows and Highlights sliders. The Brightness slider makes the picture darker or lighter (obviously), while you use the Shadows and Highlights sliders to pull back any shadow or highlight detail that’s been lost by applying the filter.

04 Adding a vignette

I want to take this effect a little further by adding more filters, and to do this you click the Add Filter button under the tools panel in the right sidebar, then choose another filter from the list on the left. I’ve added the Vignette: Lens filter to darken the corners of the picture.

05 Adding a border

Now I’ve added a third filter, Image Borders, to create a frame around the picture. Again, make sure you click the Add Filter button first – if you don’t, you’ll simply replace the existing filter.

06 Changing effects

The great thing about Color Efex Pro’s filter stacking system is that you can go back and change any of the existing filter properties. In this instance, I can re-open the Old Photo tools and choose a different Style from the menu – the Vignette and Image Border filters stay in place.