RAW files are gaining interest among all photographers for good
reason. In part, they hold a mystique as the pros format, which
isnt completely true, as many pros also shoot JPEG. RAW files are
notable for their processing potential to help you get the most from
your shot.
RAW isnt for everyone or every sort of photography. In the past, I
often hesitated recommending the RAW format for general use because the
increased file size caused problems in storage, camera speed and
processing effectiveness. That cost wasnt necessarily worth it because
of the great results that are possible with JPEG.
RAW bestows you control over the image that isnt possible with JPEG,
however. Its a valuable format worth considering by any photographer.
Nowadays, cameras have become much faster, computers no longer choke on
big files, and you can purchase cards with enough memory to allow you
to shoot RAW+JPEG for a reasonable price. RAW+JPEG is a great solution,
as it lets you gain the most from both formats.
Raw Done Smart
When you begin working on a RAW file in a RAW converter, youre dealing
with the best data possible from your camera. For that reason, you
should make as many of the major adjustments (brightness, contrast and
color) to your image as possible in that converter.
To get the most from your file, you need to do those adjustments
smartly. Its important to remember what your photograph is about and
why you took it, as this will influence your choices. Arbitrarily
adjusting an image based on some sort of objective criteria will
sooner or later get the photographer into trouble with an image or, at
the very least, lead to less than pleasing results. You need to know
the purpose of the photograph and make adjustments that support its
cause.
Theres no need to overanalyze every photograph you take before opening
your image in the RAW converter, as that would be counterproductive.
You do need to respect your photograph, however. Using your computer
should be about getting the most from your image, not getting the most
from the software. The photograph and the photographer should come
first.
Auto Settings
When Camera Raw is first opened in Adobe Photoshop CS2, all of the auto
settings are turned on by default. The auto settings work, but with
varied amounts of success on different photos. You always can adjust
any individual auto setting to see if it helps (and sometimes it will).
It seems odd to me, though, to use auto settings for Camera Raw, since
this is the epitome of control. Auto settings relinquish your control
and allow mathematical formulas to decide what your photo should look
like. I highly recommend you unclick all of them, then choose Save New
Camera Raw Defaults in the drop-down menu at the right side of the
Settings box.
Workflow Options
Once the image is opened, I start at the bottom left of the Camera Raw
interface and begin my adjustments from there. Make sure Show Workflow
Options is checked.
1. Space. In the drop-down menu of color spaces, I recommend using
Adobe RGB (1998) or sRGB (youre always safe with Adobe RGB). Adobe RGB
gives the wider color gamut, which can be effective with many photos.
You can click back and forth between these two color spaces for
comparison.
2. Depth. You have a choice of 8 or 16 bits per channel. This output
choice wont affect what youre doing in Camera Raw as the processing
is done at the 16-bit level. For most images, outputting at 8-bit is
plenty (16-bit largely increases file size).
3. Size. Start with the native file size that your camera produces by
selecting the numbers without a plus or minus sign (plus means the file
will be increased; minus will decrease the original). If you know you
need a large file from your photo, this is a good place to upsize your
image.
4. Resolution. This has no effect on image quality, but is here purely
for workflow reasons. Output resolution only changes how close or far
apart the computer places pixels and doesnt affect their quality. This
can be changed later without any harm to the photo.
Tonal Adjustments
The brightness or darkness of a photo and its contrast have a great
impact on how its perceived by a viewer. Color obviously also has a
big effect, but I find it better to start with tonal adjustments unless
there are color problems. Heres how to work the tonalities in an image:
1. Highlights. Under the Adjust tab, hold down the Alt or Option key
and click on the slider for Exposure. As you move the slider, the
bright or colored areas represent highlights. The white is pure white
with no detail. Move the Exposure slider to the right to increase
bright areas, left to decrease. Click on and off or toggle the
Alt/Option key on and off to see how these areas relate to the whole
image. This is subjective, but generally you want at least part of your
subject bright in most photos.
2. Shadows. Hold down the Alt or Option key and click on the slider for
Shadows. Move the Shadows slider to the right to increase dark areas,
left to decrease. The black or colored areas represent shadowsthe
black is pure black with no detail. Again, try clicking on and off or
toggling the Alt/Option key on and off to see how these areas relate to
the whole image.
3. Midtones. Making the highlight and shadow adjustments usually will
make the image too bright or dark overall, even though the shadows and
highlights are right. To correct this, move the Brightness slider right
or left. This adjustment is even more subjective than the others and is
totally a matter of taste. Use a calibrated monitor for best results. A
brighter image will let you see more details, but it can lose some of
the drama of a darker photo. Dont hold down any keys for this
adjustment, however. It also can be useful to try the auto setting here.
4. Midtones 2. If you have Camera Raw from Photoshop CS2, youll notice
a new tab, Curve. This is an excellent tool to deal with midtones, with
much more control than Brightness. Under Curve, Tone Curve works the
same as Curves in Photoshop (tone curve is probably a better name for
the latter, but two names for the same thing is confusing), but it
comes with some premade adjustments (click on the drop-down menu). You
can use the premade adjustments, tweak them or do everything yourself
by clicking and dragging points on the curve.
5. Contrast. Back under the first tab of adjustments, youll see this
slider. It affects the overall contrast of the image, but is a bit too
heavy-handed for my taste. You gain better control of the contrast by
separately adjusting the highlights, shadows and midtones. Most of the
time, you can leave it at its default.
6. Compare. It helps to see how the image has changed from how it came
into the program. Go to Settings and click Camera Raw Defaults in the
drop-down menu to see how the image originally looked, then back to
Image Settings to see it now. If you find youve lost something in
comparing the two, readjust the image. You can reset the whole thing by
holding down the Alt/Option key and clicking on the button that now
says Reset at the lower right.
Keep in mind that small adjustments can make a big difference. I often
wish this interface had two sliders for each controlone that had the
overall adjustment and another for finer tuning. Since it doesnt,
realize that small changes can be sufficient. If you have trouble
making a small enough adjustment, you can type in new numbers in the
box above the adjustment.
Color Adjustments
The color of an image is a tricky thing. A sunset image has a natural
color cast, for example. On the other hand, some photos demand a
neutral tonality with no color cast at all. Camera Raw lets you do
both. You even can tweak whatever color you do have in five ways:
1. White Balance. The White Balance box acts a little like your
cameras white-balance settings. You can choose from a number of
white-balance presets to jump from one overall color to another.
2. White Balance Tool. This tool will change your cursor to an
adjustment tool. Click on something in the photo and it will make it
neutral gray. If you try this tool, you always can go back to your
earlier as shot colors by double-clicking on the tool in the toolbar
or using the As Shot choice in the White Balance box.
3. Temperature. The Temperature slider allows you to tweak the image by
adding warmth (moving the slider to the right) or adding coolness
(moving the slider to the left). For the technical-minded, what youre
doing is changing the color temperature setting relative to the
original color temperature of the scene as captured. The result is a
warming or cooling of the photo.
4. Tint. This is a magenta/green scale that adds green to the photo as
the slider is moved to the left and magenta as its moved to the right.
Unless youre after some special effects, its rare to use large
amounts for this adjustment.
5. Saturation. Skip down the interface to find Saturation at the
bottom. This is another highly subjective control, and you have to be
careful with it. A little addition of saturation (the intensity of a
color) goes a long way. A common mistake of many photographers is to
increase saturation too much so that the image either looks garish or
doesnt reproduce properly outside of Photoshop. That said, many
subjects, especially nature, sky, architecture and travel, look better
with a slight addition of saturation of 5 to 10 points. With people
pictures, its best to use caution, as the saturation control can make
skin tones look unnatural at best and blotchy at worst.
6. Recheck the file for possible readjustment. At this point, I usually
reevaluate the overall brightness of the image and either do further
tone curve adjustments or Brightness slider adjustments. Since nothing
actually has been changed at the images pixel level, you can adjust
and readjust the controls in Camera Raw to your hearts content without
hurting your image as it has yet to be converted.
Detail Adjustments
I always check noise issues in an image. In the Detail tab next to the
Adjust tab, youll see three adjustments (CS2 version): Sharpness,
Luminance Smoothing, and Color Noise Reduction.
1. Sharpness. Sharpness should be set to zero (its best not to sharpen the photo at this point in the process).
2. Luminance Smoothing. This affects the general noise that comes from a sensor and may be seen in skies and other smooth tones.
3. Color Noise Reduction. This affects color noise that often comes in
dark parts of an image, especially when that image is underexposed.
To use CS2s noise-reduction settings, greatly enlarge your image so
you can see any noise. These noise-reduction settings arent used to
get rid of problematic noise, but to reduce normal levels of noise so
that the image goes into Photoshop with the highest quality possible.
If you use higher settings, check your fine detail to make sure you
havent caused problems with them. With really high levels of noise,
youre better off using software programs specially designed to deal
with noise problems, such as Noise Ninja, Kodak Digital GEM or nik
Multimedia Dfine.
Save Your Work
The default for Photoshop CS2 is to automatically update your adjusted
RAW files thumbnail in Bridge, which is CS2s image browser. This
isnt a permanent changeactually, nothing at all is altered to the
image file itself, only the instructions about processing this file
have been changed so that it will reopen in Camera Raw with these
settings.
To keep this photo with its adjustments, you have several choices at
the bottom right of the Camera Raw interface: Save, Open, Cancel and
Done.
1. Save lets you save your adjusted image as one of four file types:
DNG, JPEG, TIFF and Photoshop (PSD). Plus, it gives you some choices as
to how to save these files, such as the location and a new name.
2. Open simply applies the settings on your photo as it converts it to
the Photoshop working space. This is the most common use of Camera Raw.
3. Cancel simply cancels everything and returns you to Photoshop.
4. Done merely updates the metadata of the file and returns you to Photoshop without actually opening or saving the image.
Finishing
Youll usually do your finishing work in Photoshop. Raw converters
dont let you work selectively on an image, so you must use Photoshop
for that. Youll do final tweaking of tones and color, and sharpen the
image.
Editor Rob Sheppards latest book is Adobe Camera Raw for Digital
Photographers Only. Youll find his new Website at
www.robsheppardphoto.com, which features photo tips and more.
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