working in raw

[Trina]

Ok here is the next newbie question, when you go into your raw editor and have your file sitting before you, what are the first adjustments you make? What do you feel are absolute must do adjustments?

Here are is a picture I took last night: it was a stunning sunset on the hill behind me, the first picture I am posting is the raw turned Jpeg to post nothing done, the second is the one I tweaked.. I am pretty pleased with it.. as it pretty much looks like the hill looked. Any comments or constructive critisism is appreciated..

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5139/5499685386_78fdaf5672.jpghttp://farm6.static.flickr.com/5135/5499685394_34d3dd6148.jpg

[Traci]

Trina...first of all...gorgeous image! Camera RAW is a subject that fills volumes of books...but I'll try to give a short answer here as I do it. Please keep in mind that others may do it differently....

The first adjustment I make is to the Camera Calibration. That is found on the Camera Calibration tab. Make sure your camera is listed and chosen there. That will save you a bunch of steps by "pre-adjusting" the image to what the camera saw when you captured your image.

Next, return to the Basic tab...and you can pretty much go in the order in which the settings appear. There are a few that I typically adjust as a routine and some that I don't adjust at all in RAW. Going down the line:

White balance is first. I am very bad about setting this one in camera. I usually leave it on "auto", which means I almost always have to set it in RAW.

Exposure, Recovery, Fill Light, and Blacks are my first adjustments. I generally bump the exposure a bit, and then adjust the following three as needed. Sometimes, they don't need any adjustment at all.

Brightness and Contrast I usually leave alone in RAW. If these need to be set, I leave these to be done in PS or PSE.

Clarity and Vibrance are my hands-down favorite adjustments in RAW. Try experimenting with these in your images....both to the positive and negative sides. They make some very subtle adjustments in both color and sharpness. Saturation is another one that I leave to PS or PSE.

When you have your image or images adjusted to your liking, you can do one of several things:

Alt+click (opt on a Mac) key will allow you to open a copy of the image with the adjustments made but without saving changes to the metadata of the image. Shift+click will allow you to open the image as a Smart Object. Just clicking on the Open tab will open the image as a normal image. There are some excellent tutorials online concerning Camera RAW...and don't overlook the Adobe site itself. In fact, start there....they have some great videos on the subject.

[pssequimages]

I use Camera Raw even on jpg images. (File OPEN AS>then choose Camera Raw)
FIRST thing to be sure you do is to download the LATEST ACR updates. (Help>update) and then--as Traci reminded --go to your CAMERA's on profiles and see what it does for your photo when you hit that embedded information.
Traci and I have almost the same workflow in Camera Raw. Here's generally mine (but it truly differs by which camera I am using and the image itself
1) Crop your photo in ACR, then the settings affect only the cropped area
2) Adjust Temperature if necessary
3) Bump exposure. This MAY be necessary to drop it one stop or so BUT be careful---if your screen isn't calibrated perfectly you may make an unnecessary adjustment.
(My next step is always adjusting blacks---and if I do--then using the recovery slider to correct and carefully level the histograms that you get when you level those areas....watch carefully the clipping triangles on the right and left of your dialog box.
4) I always go next to curves (or some other tonal adjustment option in ACR) and when I do I use point and often "medium contrast" options.
(and in here if I must, I'll use one of the specialty tools to enhance the luminescence and the saturation of the sky......extra steps that I always do in ACR)
5) I hit the "details" button and take a look at sharpening. I LOVE to sharpen in ACR, but sometimes, (if you have other things you want to do in Photoshop) this is best reserved for your last step
6) I almost always go lastly to post crop vignetting
I RARELY do any spot removal with the magnificent tools in ACR, but they are there and with practice work very nicely.
This is an absolutely wonderful feature to work with, and short-cuts your post-processing SO MUCH. Just a couple of clicks and you're done.
I always return my ACR images back into Photoshop as smart objects so that the settings I thought were perfect -can be immediately popped back into ACR if they are not. (Click on the blue hyperlink at the very bottom of the ACR dialog box, and toggle the open as smart object option) --IF you change your mind and just want an image, not a problem. Click the ALT key as you open and you have an image, prepared in Camera Raw, in your workspace. It's powerful, it's wonderful--have fun
AND----we are working on a mini-course in Adobe Camera Raw for the late spring! Hope you will want to join us for that.

[Trina]

Thank you both so much for answering my questions..I really appreciate it...I have CS4 so I dont have the camera calibration part. I have used camera raw for Jpegs, but with the new camera now I can shoot in raw too:>

[Catherine]

Watch this tutorial Trina, I think you will find it interesting. :)

http://www.alittlephotoshop.com/photoshop/seeing-the-potential-in-an-image-with-adobe-camera-raw/

[Catherine]

PS - Good work with your images above!

[coppercurls]

thanks for the reminder about the camera profiles. I forget to do that!

[pssequimages]

Trina I believe you DO have the camera calibration feature in CS4---Camera RAW stands alone and is the same for all versions. When you get the dialog box for camera raw it's the seventh button from the left in the ACR dialog box. If your camera isn't supported, then go straight to Adobe.com and update the Camera Raw to the latest versions which today is 6.3.x (6.3.5 I think!) (March 8th)--put Camera Raw in the search field, and that will take you directly to the latest download. (Be sure your own CS4 version has all the latest updates too)

Catherine---GREAT link to this Photoshoppers RAW workflow. I think he's delightful, and his steps are really tack-right-on! His actions are phenomenal....and everyeveryeveryday useful! Makes short-shrift of some of my editing steps.

[Trina]

Catherine, Thank you for the tutorial, I really enjoyed it.. and I think I will be exploring that site a bit further... looked like some good stuff in there.

Priss, I have downloaded all the new stuff as off a day or so ago... when I went into adobe under the list of camera's supported it said it was not supported by CS4, but I will check it out again and make sure I didnt make a mistake on that..Thank you:>

[Trina]

ok just looked and I have 5.7 thought it said I had 6.3 will go download that now, and should be able to mess with it tonight after work:> lol


UPDATE: Camera Raw 6.3 is not supported by any CS versions under 5, But I can download it for my PSE9 which I may have already done which is why I Think I have seen that number before. lol

[Trina]

Finally getting working on raw files figured out.. I am having more sucess then failures now... Now I just need to get the pictures so I dont have to do so much to them lol...


http://www.digitaldesignden.com/photopost/data/500/rawandprocessedsucculent.jpgI think I am finally getting the hang of this

· Next image (http://www.digitaldesignden.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=4732&title=feb-13-19&cat=500) »

[Catherine]

Now you're talking!! I think you've cracked it Trina, well done! :)

[Karen]

Oh Trina what a difference you have made, the processed imaged looks great.

Karen

[Traci]

Excellent work, Trina! Well done!