Copyright Castleford Camera Club 22/02/2014

CASTLEFORD CAMERA CLUB

Using Camera RAW

Camera RAW FilesWhat are they and Should I use them

A digital RAW file is a true record of the of the raw data recorded by the camera sensor such

as the Camera RAW plug-in in Photoshop. Each RAW file has metadata attached to it

which contains information about the way in which the image was captured, including the

ISO setting, shutter speed and aperture value, white balance, colour space and so on.

The Workaround

• The format of raw files varies between camera makes and between models in the range and consequently the Camera RAW plug-in is constantly updated by Adobe.

• There is a workaround to this dilemma and that is the use of Adobe DNG, a free download from Adobe, which converts RAW files to the Digital Negative Format which can be opened in any version of Photoshop capable of dealing with RAW files

Camera RAW Files

Camera RAW Files

Opening RAW Files in Bridge

Adobe Bridge CS6.lnk

When a RAW file (or .dng file) is opened it is shown with the default settings.

When using the for the first time

• Set The Preferences for Sharpening to ‘Preview images only’

• (Click on the icon at the top of the Camera Raw window)

• and alter to Apply sharpening in Photoshop rather than in Camera Raw.

At Last the Adjustments

• Adjust tab (default) from top to bottom• White Balance – the default is ‘As Shot’,

but other options are available. Changing the White Balance will also change

• Colour Temperature which may be adjusted independently.

• Tint – alters the colour bias of the image.• Exposure – this slider adjusts the

original exposure by up to +/- 4 stops.

More Adjustments

• Recovery – moving slider right attempts to recover details from over exposed highlights.

• Fill Light – moving slider right attempts to recover details from the shadows without brightening the blacks.

• Blacks – specifies which input levels are mapped to black in the final image

Notes• When adjusting either the Exposure,

Recovery or Blacks slider holding down the Alt key shows a Clipping Display which allows you to see which pixels are being clipped or lost, i.e. which areas are losing detail as the sliders are moved

• When adjusting Exposure you should aim for the point at which the image just becomes completely black and when adjusting Shadows for the point where the image just becomes completely white.

Yet More Adjustments

• Brightness and Contrast are self explanatory, but note that holding down the Alt key while making adjustments does not show a Clipping Display

• Clarity – Adjusts local contrast on an automatic basis

• Vibrance – Adjusts the saturation so that clipping is minimised as colours approach full saturation.

• Saturation – Adjusts the saturation of all image colours equally from -100 (monochrome) to +100 ( double the saturation).

Last Ones• The Lens tab allows for the correction of chromatic

aberrations arising from the use of non-APO lenses and a very useful Vignetting control to compensate for dark/light corners in the image arising from lens defects.

•  The Camera Calibration tab enables corrections to be made to the camera profile as your camera may differ very slightly from the example used by Adobe in setting up the basic profile – it is unlikely that you will need to make any adjustments here.

•  The Presets tab lists any settings which have been saved as a Preset.

& More

•  The Tone Curve tab provides for tonal adjustment of the image using the conventional tone curve or by the use of sliders

•  The Detail tab allows for control of the degree of sharpening applied to the image or image preview and there are sliders to adjust the Luminance and Colour Noise if required.

•  The HSL/Greyscale tab provides for the adjustment of Hue, Saturation and Luminance of individual colours and there is a checkbox to convert the image to Grayscale.

Finally•  When you are satisfied with the results in

Raw transfer image into Photoshop; hold down the Alt key – the Open Button changes to Open Copy and click on this button, a copy of the adjusted file is opened in Photoshop. This ensures that the original raw file is not altered in any way when viewed in Bridge. If you click on Open the adjustments made in Camera Raw will be shown in the thumbnail/preview in Bridge  - they can be removed by right clicking on the thumbnail and selecting Develop Settings > Clear Settings.

Finally•  When you are satisfied with the results in

Raw transfer image into Photoshop; hold down the Alt key – the Open Button changes to Open Copy and click on this button, a copy of the adjusted file is opened in Photoshop. This ensures that the original raw file is not altered in any way when viewed in Bridge. If you click on Open the adjustments made in Camera Raw will be shown in the thumbnail/preview in Bridge  - they can be removed by right clicking on the thumbnail and selecting Develop Settings > Clear Settings.