RawTherapee’s Graduated Filter Upside Down

Less than 2 minutes to read.

The graduated filter in RawTherapee or Lightroom is typically used to correct featureless skies, reduce overexposure in bright skies, or enhance cloud contrast to create a more dramatic atmosphere.

In this case, however, I’m using it to recover details in the snow, which became overexposed and lost texture after adjusting the exposure of the upper part of the image.

To achieve this, the filter—normally applied to the top portion of a photo—needs to be inverted so that it affects the lower part instead.

To achieve this effect, follow these steps:

1. Open a photo and adjust the exposure and other effects to your liking.
2. Activate the graduated filter and its widget.
3. In this example, I’ve intentionally increased the filter strength significantly to make the effect clearly visible.
4. Grab the large horizontal line running through the center of the widget—this controls the angle of the effect. Click and drag one end, rotating it 180° until you see the darkening effect appear at the bottom.
5. Adjust the effect’s height by clicking and dragging one of the short horizontal arms.
6. Position the widget by clicking and dragging the circular point in the center to move it to the desired location.
7. Fine-tune the rotation angle, effect width, and position as needed.
8. Set the final effect strength to your preference—and you’re done!

If everything goes well, the next article will be about the Zhiyun Weebill S gimbal in combination with the Olympus E-M10 Mark III and Kamlan 15mm. What started as a simple review turned into quite an adventure, with unexpected challenges along the way. However, in the end, everything more or less worked out!

The article will include links to the OSP photo gallery, where you can find more photos and details, as well as a trip video. Plus, there’s a sneak peek at an upcoming review of a new tiny camera. Plenty to look forward to – So Stay Tuned!