Camera Raw Users Guide

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Camera Raw 6 Users Gude

Wrtten by Francesco Marzolwww.dgtalpostproducton. t

Edt ng: Matteo Dscard 1802

Englsh Translat on: Serena Colagrande
http://www.digitalpostproduction.it/http://www.digitalpostproduction.it/


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About the author

Born in 1985 (Pescara, Italy), rom an early age Francesco Marzoli grew his interest in arts and painting:passions that later on he turned into digital orm.

His rst contact with digital photo editing sotware was at the age o 14 when he rst bought a computer

and he asked to install on it a drawing sotware. Can you put a drawing sotware on my computer? heasked, and since that time on he started to passionate to digital imaging.

Author o the rst Camera Raw Users Manual, winner o the Adobe YouGC Contest, Francesco works asPhotoshop consultant and teacher in courses, workshops and seminars.

On his website www.digitalpostproduction.it, where he posts many articles and tutorials, Francesco writesabout post-production thoroughly; he is also a YouTube Partner: on his channel you can nd many video-tutorials on many topics.

Francesco Marzoli became an Adobe Certied Expert in Photoshop and Beta Tester or X-Rite products.

Since 2010 he is also a pro-supporter o TAU Visual National Association o Proessional Photographersand co-ounder o CCC-Color Correction Campus and together with his old classmates he ounded theWhite Rabbits.

A dynamic and honest person who oten reconsiders his opinions and improves himsel through daily chal-

lenges to enhance his creativity. As a technology enthusiast with an intimate knowledge o photo editingsotware, he ofers his services in the areas o his expertise.

Webste: http://www.dgtalpostproducton.t

Facebook: http://www.acebook.com/dgtalpostproductontutoralphotoshop

Lnkedn: http://t.lnkedn.com/n/dgtalpostproducton

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/marra851

Twtter: http://twtter.com/dgtalpostprod

Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your lie.

Conucus


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Table o contents

1 1 File Formats 1

RAW 1

JPEG 1

Mixed ormats 1

TIFF 1

PSD 2

DNG 2

2 Adobe Camera Raw 3

Screenshot 4

3 Importing Images 5

Importing photos into Bridge 6

Importing photos into Lightroom 6

4 Basic adjustments to optimize your image 7

Workow 7

Opening a single image 8

Opening multiple images 8

Opening a fle raw as a Photoshop Smart Object 9

Saving images rom Camera Raw 9

5 Histogram and digital exposure 10

6 Basic panel 12

7 Tone Curve panel 14

8 Details panel 16

9 HSL/Grayscale panel 19

10 Split toning panel 22

11 Lens correction panel 23

12 Efects Tab panel 25

13 Camera calibration panel 27

14 Local corrections 30

15 Camera Raw Toolbar 33

Spot Removal tool 33

Red-eye Removal tool 33

Crop 33

Straighten tool 34

Zoom and Hand tool 34

TAT Target Adjustament Tool 34

C ol or S am pl er t oo l 3 4

Rotate Image too 34

16 Deault Settings and Snapshots 35


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FormatsNowadays, most o the photos taken by dgtal cameras use the Raw and Jpeg ormats.

Lets see the most common ormats or mage storage, ther advantages and dsadvantages andwhen to use them.

JPEG

it s the most common ormat used or mages rom budget compact to the more expensve reexcameras.

Advantages

Wonderfullysmall!Inthisway,youcanstoremanyphotosonyourmemorycard.

Youcanloadandstoreimagesonyourcomputerinafasterway.

Dsadvantages

Lossofdetailsandqualityofyourimage.

Use

Personaluse(onholiday,withyourfriendsetc.):whenyoudonotneedhighqualitypictures;itisalso used by news photographers who usually urge to have pctures wthout any post-producton.

RAW

it s the ormat used n reex cameras.

Ths le ormat contans unprocessed, raw data rom the dgtal cameras mage sensor. it s dgtal

photographyequivalentofanegativeinlmphotography.

Advantages

Sinceitisanunprocessedformat,youcanadjustthevalueswithoutcompromisingquality:color space, contrast, whte balance etc.

Dsadvantages

Largelesize.

RawlestakelongerthanthesimilarJpeglestobeuploadedonyourcomputerandpreviewloadng o each le can be really slow.

Use

Youcanusethisformatifyouneedqualityimagesorforprintingandpost-producingimages.

Mxed ormatsMost o the reex cameras use a mxed ormat to store mages: RAW+JPEG. Ths wll allow you tosave the same photo usng two derent le extensons.

Advantages

QualityofRawlesandconvenienceofJpegles.

Dsadvantages

Memorycardgetsfullveryeasily.

Use

i you need to see your photos on a computer whch doesnt have a sotware that supports Raw les.

i you need to see the prevew o the photos n a aster way and then you need to open the Raw le

foradjustments.TiFF Format

Itisaformatthatpermitstosavetheimagewithoutcompromisingitsquality.Itisusuallyusedtoprintaphotoafterapplyingtheadjustments.

it s used by photo prntng laboratores and prntng centers because t s also one o the most po-pularformatusedforscanneracquisition.

PSD Format

ItisthePhotoshopsnativeformat.ItloadsinaquickerwaythanaTIFFle.

it preserves all layers, alpha channels, layouts and transparency o the mage. i t s used as a storagele to preserve the orgnal le and as a save le or urther edtng durng the post-producton.

DNG Format

it s a R aw le ormat whose speccatons are ree.

There s a real conct between dgtal cameras manuacturers ndeed: everybody has ts own spe-ccaton ormats (CR2 or Canon, NEF or Nkon and so on). For assurng that Camera Raw readsthe les, Raws propretares need the sotware provded wth the camera or Camera R aws updates,but not all the speccatons are avalable. Can you mage what would happen our sotware wontwork anymore on more advanced operatve systems?


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in 2004, Adobe created the DNG (dgtal negatve): an open ormat, whose speccatons are publ-cly avalable and that can be ntegrated n Raw mage processng and wrtng sotware.

in act, companes such as Apple or Mcrosot have already developed a sotware that supportsDNG les, others lke Hasselblad, Caso, Samsung and Rcho allow to wrte DNG ormat as natve or-mat to save the Raw le used by the camera (an exhaustve lst can be ound on: http://www.adobe.

com/products/photoshop/extend.dsplayTab2.html).Advantages

DNGoersmanybenets:useofmultiplecameramodelsandasingleleformat;removalofXMPcollateralles;adjustmentforfuturetechnologydevelopment;itcanalsocontaintheRawlewiththeproprietaryformat(e.g.DNGcancontaininsidetheCR2leattheexpensesoftheDNGsize).Ifyou do not have a camera that natvely shoots n DNG ormat, you can download the DNG Conver-ter rom the ollowng webste: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/extend.dsplayTab2.html. Ths ollows Camera Raws verson and supports the same camera models.


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Adobe Camera RawCamera Raw

Camera Raw s a plug-n orgnally released as a raw mage processorbut rom the verson 4.0 t s also possble to convert the sngle layerJPEG and TiFF les to RGB. A non-destructve way to work wth ma-ges: t enables to brng changes wthout overwrtng the orgnal le.AlltheoperationsandprocessesrealizedaresavedinaninstructionlewiththeextensionXMP.

CameraRawisthersttooltouseinordertooptimizetherawformatmages. Snce the verson n. 5 mplemented n CS4, there are verypowerfultools(e.g.localcontrols)thatallowsyoutooptimizeyour

mage beore openng t wth Photoshop. Detals on ths topc wll bedscussed aterwards.

Camera Raw does not support raw le o any dgtal cameras, ths sbecause every camera manuacturer has ts own propretary ormator wrtng a raw le.

Adobe provdes perodcally ree updates or t, the most recent rele-ase s the 6.1 and t s avalable on the ollowng webste: http://www.adobe.com/download

Snce the 6.0 verson, demosacng process has notably mproved, aswell as sharpness control and nose reducton. The latter enables toobtan sharper mages wth less nose.

in the 6.1 verson, the Lens correcton tool has been revsed to rapdly

and ecently x the lens dstorton as well as chromatc aberratonand vgnettng.


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image downloadAter shootng your photos, you need to download them on your computer.

Oten there s some conuson among users as to whch sotware s needed or downloadng photos:some o them use Brdge, others Lghtroom and many others download the les straght away romFnder or Explorer and then they open Photoshop. When should you use Brdge and when Lghtroom?And what s the derence between these two sotware?

Brdge s an advanced le browser and an mage processor. it enables you to browse olders, to selectand revew les, t also opens Camera Raw, downloads photos, apples metadata and t has many moreapplcatons. it s used by photographers, web desgners, llustrators, anmators, graphc desgners and

by anybody usng the Creatve Sute. As ts name mght suggest, Brdge enables a connecton and anadvanced management between the les and the Adobe Sotware.

Lightroomisintendedonlyforphotographers.Itpermitsphotographerstomanagelargequantitiesof

photosandithelpstosavethetimeforphotoprocessingandfororganizingyourphotos.Lightroomisbased on modules: Lbrary, Develop, Sldeshow, Prnt and Web. it s clear that the photographer needsjusttoopenLightroomandhalfofthejobisdone.

Thephotographerhasjustonesinglesoftwaretomanagemoreecientlyitsworkow.Lightroomoperates through ts catalogues whch permt to open les whle ofne (the les dont need to be onthe local dsk). Besdes ths, catalogues track modcatons, snapshots, sldeshows and many othernormaton.

Brdge, Lghtroom and Photoshop all use the same engne as Camera Raw. Thereore t doesnt matter

wth whch sotware the raw le wll be moded: the result wll always be the same.You can open a le and mody t wth Camera Raw, ater you can open t wth Lghtroom. it s clearthat t wll keep the same settngs. The Develop module n Lghtroom ncludes Camera Raws controls.

importng photos nto Brdge

in order to mport your photos va Brdge, you need to use the Photo Downloader utlty: look underthe Fle menu and choose Get Photos rom Camera.


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Furthermore, the import Photos uncton has a control whch avods that the same photos are mpor-ted twce.

Thumbnals o mported mages are rendered n the central area and when the mportng process n-shes, t s possble to remove the memory card and delete all les.

Durng the mportng process, also Lghtroom allows to set the converson o the propretary raw lesnto DNG les, but ths wll obvously slow down the whole process.

Once you nsert the memory card nto the card reader, you should open Brdge and launch the PhotoDownloader utlty. You wll need to nd the source locaton o the photos and then browse or a lo-caton that you would lke to mport the photos to. You can let Brdge rename all the les on ts ownby choosng ths opton rom the Rename Fle menu and you can also choose to delete them rom theorgnal card selectng the Delete Orgnal Fles opton.

Another mportant uncton s Save Copes To that allows you to create a backup o your photos.Below the Advanced dalog box, t s possble to prevew your photos and to see the buttons CheckAll and UnCheck All.

You can rename les usng one o the Deault Settngs that mght be ollowed by a personal comment.ItisalsopossibletoembedtheoriginalnamewithintheXMPleinordertosubsequentlyrecoverthem and add the authors name and copyrght normaton to metadata.

Once the download s completed to see on your screen the olders content, you should leave open theopton Open wth Brdge.

Convert to DNG allows you to convert all raw les nto DNG les whle mportng your photos. Thsopton s not used very oten because ths operaton can take several mnutes. Besdes the convertedle, a JPEG le prevew s created and wthn the Settngs panel, t s advsable to leave t set to MedumsizeandZipped.ItisrecommendedtoleavetheoptionsettoKeepRawImagebecauseitwillkeep

the raw orgnal data.Fnally, you can clck on the Get Photos button and wat or the photos to download.

Once the download has nshed, Brd ge opens. i you had prevously tcked the Delete Orgnal Flesopton, you wll be asked to conrm the permanent le removal. it s a good practce to ormat the me-mory card when shootng other photos to avod les corrupton. Anyways you are shootng severalphotos and you do not want to ormat your card, t s possble to select ths opton not to gve rse todoubts lke: Dd i d ownload the other photos? What was the last le i downloaded?.

Wthn the Brdge wndow, you can browse les usng the scroll arrows and by double-clckng onthem, they wll open then n Photoshop. You can also open Camera Raw n Brdge wthout runnngPhotoshop: you should select one or more les and press Cmd+R (Mac) or Ctrl+R (Wndows).

A sgncant advantage o launchng Camera Raw n Brdge s that t allows you to perorm operatonsn the background wthout compromsng Photoshops perormance.

importng photos nto Lghtroom

You can set up Lghtroom so that any tme you nsert your memory card the import Photos panel wllopen. Ths program s very smlar to the Brdges Photo Downloader utlty.

Likethepreviousprogram,itallowstobackupyourlesandaddmetadata;furthermore,itpermitsyoutoaddkeywordsforaquicksearchofthephotos.Whenwritingthekeywordinthequicksearchbox,words that were typed prevously appear n the box to prevent any typng errors.


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BasicimageadjustmentsDecideamethodtomodifyanimageithelpssavingtimeandoptimizingtheimageinamorepreciseway. An advsable workow conssts o the ollowng actons:

1. Correct lens distortion and aberration;

2. Set the white balance;

3. Adjust camera calibration;

4. Set clipping points or highlights and shadows;

5. Compensation o missing highlight details with Recovery;

6. Compensation o missing shadow details with Fill Light;

7. Basic adjustments or Brightness and Contrast;

8. Adjustment o midtones contrast through Clarity;

9. Precise Contrast adjustment in the tone curve;

10. Precise adjustment o Color Saturation and Brightness;

11. Adjustment o Chromatic aberrations and vignetting;

12. Retouch with the Adjustment Brush tool;

13. Make localized adjustmen t with Graduated Filter;

14. Sharpen the image and apply Noise Reduction;

15. Apply a Crop to the image;

16. Open image in Photoshop.


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Openng a sngle mage

As soon as you open a sngle le wth Camera Raw, the name o the camera and ts brand are shownon the status bar. i you look below, on the let sde o the bar, you can nd Camera Raws tools, thePrevew Control tool (P) and the Full Screen Mode (F).

On the rght, t s shown the hstogram calculated on the color space set n the workow, n other words

the RGB.

The two trangles n the upper edges o the hstogram represent any hghlght clppng and shadowmade by the Exposure and Blacks commands. These commands change color accordng to the chan-nels that have been cropped. i they are whte, there s a clppng on all the three channels. When youclck on them you can see the area o the mage on whch the clppng s made. The red color representsthe lghts, whle the blue s or the shadows.

Below the hstogram, normaton on the shootng d ata are dsplayed: aperture, shutter speed, iSO andthe lens used wth ts ocal pont.

Atthebottomthefollowingsaredisplayed:zoomlevelsandthebuttonsSaveAs,OpenImage,Saveand Close.

At the centre, we nd some blue wrtngs: clckng on them, the workow optons wll open.

Space corresponds to the nal color space. We recommend leavng the depth to 16 bt the reasonwll be explaned later- to keep the same depth even when the le s opened wth Photoshop.

Sizesettingsallowyoutoopenand/orsavetheleinmultipleformats,thesameappliestothereso-luton.

Thereisalsothefollowingoption:Incontrastto:none,screen,glossypaperormattepaper;thisop-tionisusefuljustifyouwanttoopenthephotoswithPhotoshopandsavethemdirectlyfromCameraRaw.

Finally,thereis:OpenimagesinPhotoshopasSmartObjects,optiondescribedlateron.

Openng multple mages

When selectng multple photos n Brdge and usng the commands Cmd+O (Max) or Ctrl+O ( Wndows)to open Camera Raw rom Photoshop or Cmd+R (Mac) or Ctrl+R (Wndows) to open Camera Raw romBrdge, the multple mages Camera Raw mode s dsplayed.

You wll notce that all the selected thumbnals are placed on the let o the wndow. it s possble tomake a new selecton wthn the mages holdng the Sht or Cmd buttons (Mac) or Ctrl ( Wndows)or holdng the button over the thumbnals Select All.

The selected mages wll have a thn blue edge, whle the mage on whch you are workng and that salso shown on the man wndow wll have a thcker blue edge.

TheSynchronizekeyallowsyoutosynchronizeallthesettingsandchangesmadeonalltheselected


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i you clck the Save image button, the savng optons wll open. They allow you to select the savedestnaton, the le name and ts ormat. in the secton named Rename Fle, t s possble to renameautomatcally all mages opened n Camera Raw choosng among the ollowng optons: Seral Num-ber, Seral Letter and Date. When you clck on Save, these settngs wll be appled n addton to thoseoptons set n the workow. As sad beore, the process wll be managed on the background allowngyou to contnue to work.

On the bottom let, there s a counter that shows how many photos reman to be saved.

i you use Camera Raw to open a JPEG le savng t as DNG, you have to know that DNG wll never havethesamequalityasarawle.Infact,aJPEGlecantbeconvertedagaintorawbecauseithasbeencompressed and processed.

i you are workng on the same set and the save optons seem to you convenent or most o the photos,you can hold down the Alt button whle clckng on Save: t wont open a dalog box.

imagesinasolestroke.TheSynchronizedialogboxallowsyoutochoosewhichoptionstoapplytoallmages.

ItispossibletoapplythesynchronizationmorequicklyandconvenientlyalsofromBridge.Afteredi-tng a sngle photo n Camera Raw and pressng the Close button, t wll be shown n the Brdgeswndow wth the Camera Raw symbol n the upper rght.

Ths means that the mage has been opened and edted n Camera Raw.

Ater selectng the thumbnal and rght-clckng on t, select Develop Settngs Copy SettngsCmd+Alt+C (Mac) Ctrl+Alt+C (Wndows). Aterwards, select all the photos where you want to apply thesame settngs and choose Develop Settngs Paste Settngs Cmd+Alt+V (Mac) Ctrl+Alt+V ( Wndows),inthiswaythesamedialogboxSynchronizepresentinCameraRawwillopen.

UsingthecommandSynchronizeandafterthezoomtoolitispossibletosetupazoomlevelforthemages n order to have a more detaled control n the prevew wndow. Moreover, usng the BackspaceorCanccommand,itispossibletomarkwitharedXtheimagestoleaveout.

Openng a le raw as a Photoshop Smart Object

Intheworkowoptions,thereisoneoptioncalledOpenasSmartObject;ifyouselectit,whenPho-toshopopens,therstlevelwillnotbethebackgroundbutthesmartobjectwhichcontainstherawo the mage.

Ifyoudouble-clickonthethumbnailofthelevel,CameraRawanditslewillopenagain.Payattention!it s not the orgnal le but a copy o t saved n the temporary les.

Just when you save the mage n the PSD ormat the raw le wll be ncluded n t.

AnothermethodtoopenasmartobjectinPhotoshopistoholddowntheShiftkeywhileclickingtheOpen image button.

Savng mages rom Camera Raw


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Hstogramand dgtal exposureCamera Raw hstogram shows a shape prevew o the nal hstogram n ts output phase. As theadjustmentschange,thehistogramwillchangeaccordingtothecolorspacesetintheworkowop-tons. For nstance, you are usng a sRGB color space t s lkely that there are cut-outs on the hsto-gram, so t s a good dea to work n ProPhoto RGB.

What s the meanng o the graph smlar to a mountan whch moves somethng changes? Lets seet n detals.

Nowadaysitispossibletodownloadrawlesfromacamerawithabitdepthof12,equivalentto4096

levelsperadjustablechannelandinsomecasesto14bit.

Color depth represents the maxmum number o reproducble colors.

Every color s created mxng the three channels: Red, Green and Blue.


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i you shoot an underexposed photo, you wll notce that the hstogram leans to the let, n act all thetonal normaton and thereore the levels too are concentrated on the shadow sde leavng the rghtzonewithlittleinformationaboutthehighlightlevels.

Human eye nterprets lght n a non-lnear way, whereas dgtal sensors do t n a lnear way. There aretwo possbltes to avod such a problem: you should overexpose your photo whle shootng t or, usngCamera Raw, you should move the exposton cursor to the rght n order to lghten the mage.

it s possble to recover many hghlght detals respect to dark detals because less normaton levelsareneededforthehighlights.Infact,whenlighteninganimagethereismoreposterizationandnoisen the dark detals than n the hghlghts.

it s really mportant to determne the correct exposure, because camera sensors o 12 bt can regsteruntilamaximumof4096levelsandthemostpartarememorizedinthelightestscale.

Every -number halves the 4096 levels, moves the hstogram to the let and t causes a loss o norma-ton.

The best possble exposure s the lghtest one but you should pay attenton that clppngs on hghlghtsare not appled.

i you set the depth on 16 bt per channel, you wll obtan: 16bt x 3 channels = 48 bt.

in computng, a bt denotes the numercal dgts 0 and 1 and thereore t has two values.

Calculate248=281474,9billionoftones!Ifyourepeatthesamecalculationforimagesof8bit,youwillnoticethattheresultisjust16,8billionsoftonesagainst281474,9billionsoftones.Thereforeworkingwth mages o 16bt wll allow you to have more colorul mages and wth more color gradatons.

As or the hstogram, on the let sde there are the levels related to the shadows whle on the rght,there are the levels related to the hghlghts.

2048102451225612864


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Basc panelWhte Balance

The secton devoted to the whte balance ndcates the temperature o the lght present when shoo-ting.SinceCameraRawallowsyoutomakeadjustmentsbetween2000Kand50,000K,ifyouareshoo-tng usng the raw ormat, t s not necessary to set the whte beore.

When openng a le, the deault settng s As shot but you can mody values choosng other optonsrom the drop-down lst and movng the Temperature control.

Tintsliderbalancesthelighttowardsgreenandmagenta.Anotherquickerandsimplerwaytosetthewhitebalanceistousethewhitebalancetoolandclickonalightgreyarea.Payattention!Neverselecta whte area because there can be channel clppngs, ths can cause undesred results.

A proessonal way to balance the whte s to use the ColorChecker Whte Balance panel whle shootngwhch allows to mantan a proessonal level under all lghtng condton. Panels are avalable on theollowng webste: www.xrtephoto.com.

Exposure

Ths slder allows to regulate the lumnosty o the photo: shtng the slder to the rght you wll lghtenthe mage, you sht t to let you wll darken t. i you hold down Alt whle draggng the slder, you wllactvate the Threshold mode that shows you potental hghlght clppngs. As ponted out beore, ano-ther method to see the hghlght clppngs s to check the trangle n the upper rght o the hstogram.

Recovery

The recovery slder allows to recover clppng on hghlghts. it assesses the channels and t takes nor-maton about the hghlght rom the best channel compensatng the weaker one. Thanks to ths tool ts sometmes possble to recover tll one stop or more o overexposure. Even n ths case, holdng down

the Alt key, the Threshold mode enables to better calbrate the eect.Insomecasesitisverydiculttomakegoodadjustmentsofhighlights,especiallywhentherearemanywhitedetailstokeep(forexample,inabridedress).Anotherusefultechniquecanbethefol -lowng: use a dropper tool and control that the RGB values are around 230. in case o mages that haveshny metal suraces wth hghlght reectons, you can saely aord to clp these hghlghts becausethey dont have many lumnous detals.


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adjustmentbrushtool.

Vbrance and Saturaton

Saturationallowstosaturateallimagecolorsequally,whiletheVibrationslidermanagesnon-linearsaturationandaectsjustthelower-saturatedcolorswithoutaectingtheothers.

You can say that Vbrance works smartly because besdes saturatng weaker colors, t ncludes a controlwhch relatvely aects skn tones.

Blacks

Usually t s also used n the Threshold mode by holdng down the key to help determne the pontwhere the shadows start to clp. For example t can be useul to ncrease ths value n the studo photoswth black backgrounds so that everythng results unorm and also to reduce the background noses.it s possble to use the dropper tool here too and check the black set the RGB value to 0,0,0. in thsway, you can be sure that blacks wll be ull once you prnt the photo.

Fll lght

ThisslideraddshighlightsinthedarkerzonesanditworksinasimilarwayastheShadows/Highlightsn Photoshop. You should use t careully to avod the solarsaton o some areas.

To sum up, you should:

- Set the Exposure payng attenton on hghlghts

- Restore any possble clpped hghlghts

- Set up a pont or shadows wth the Black slder

- Use the Fll Lght to ne-tune the mage.

Brghtness and dference rom Exposure

Begnners usually conuse brghtness wth exposure and, at rst sght, t seems that the two slders havethe same unctons. The slder Exposure s used to set up the whte pont, n act t maps all the othertones such as mdtones and shadows dependng on the hghlghts clppng, extendng the hstogramequallyonalloverthepoints.Brightnesscompressesanextremityofthetonalscaleandextendstheother,forthisreasonyoudbetteradjusttheexposurefortheoverallbrightness,thenthehighlights

andshadowsrecovery;attheend,setBrightness.

Contrast

The Contrast slder apples a non-lnear correcton to the tone curve. it s a sae tool because t cropshghlghts and shadows levels at the extremtes unlke the Brghtness/Contrast tool n Photoshop. inPhotoshop CS4, the Brghtness/Contrast control has been substtuted by one smlar to the CameraRaws tool, but you clck on Prevous Verson you can go back to the old one.

Other methods to apply contrast are: usng the Tonng panel whose propretes wll be dscussed a-terwards, or the Contrast slder combned to the latter.

Clarty

Clarityaddslocalizedcontrastjustonthemidtones.Itisaveryusefultoolbecauseitdoesntaect

thehighlightsandshadows,butincreasescontrastjustontheadjacentareas.Asyoushifttheslidertoward the plus, the contrast extends ncreasngly. Postve Clarty can be used to create portrats wthdragan eect. There are two values: one postve, one negatve. When a negatve Clarty s appled,mdtones are soten: ths value s used or retouchng skn n portrats and beauty shots, along wth the


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Tone Curve panelTheToneCurvepanelpermitstoincreasecontrastinthephotomorepreciselyafteradjustingcontrastn the Basc Tab.

Contrast wll change accordng to the curve shape.

The most common shape s the classc S curve.

A steeper S-shape type curve ndcates a postve contrast: shadows wll be more closed and hghlghtswll look stronger n the mage.

On the contrary, an nverse S-shaped curve ndcates negatve contrast: shadows are more open andhghlghts weaker.

There are two modes to mody the curve shape:

- Parametrc Curve edtor mode, where you nd the Hghlghts, Shadows, Lght Colors andDark Colors slders. Moreover, below the hstogram there are three slders whch are the nterval pontsbetween the tones: when one o those changes, the shape o the cur ve wll change accordngly, there-foreduringtheadjustmentitisimportanttosetthesliderprecisely.AnothermethodforchangingthevaluesintheParametricEditorModeistousetheTargetAdjustmentTool:youshouldsetthevalueonParametrc Curve by clckng and draggng your mouse on the pont you wsh to mody.

- Pont Curvemode.ItisverysimilartotheCurveAdjustmenttoolinPhotoshop.Infact,itispossble to add ponts clckng on a pont o the lne and drag them to obtan the desred result. Themore you drag up the pont the more that tonal area o the mage wll be brght. On the contrary, themore you drag down the pont the more t wll get dark.

Another method to add a pont n the Pont mode s to hold down the Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Wndows) keyand pass on the mage. You wll notce that on the cur ve lne a small pont wll appear: ths shows you

n whch tonal area you are and now you should clck on the mage so that the small pont becomes aull pont. To remove them, you should clck on one o the pont and hold down the Canc or Backspacekey. it s also possble to apply d eault settngs such as Lnear, Medum Contrast and Strong Contrast.


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8

Detal panelSnce now on, the word Contrast should not be conused wth the tonal contrast, on whch we dscus-sed beore, but t wll ndcate the sharpness o an mage.

Whenyoushotaphoto,itlosessharpness.Oneofthereasonscanbealowopticalqualityortheuseo ant-alasng lter ncluded n the sensor. The phase that were consderng s called pre-sharpenand t permts to restore sharpness n a photo. The contrast actor to be appled s not the same or allmages, because t should be appled accordng to the type o photo. For nstance, photos shot n JPEGusually dont need pre-sharpenng because the sotware o the camera sets automatcally a contraston the mage. in act, you open a JPEF le n Camera Raw, you wll notce n the Sharpness panel thatthe slders are set to 0.

When you open the Detals panel, you wll nd the secton Sharpenng and Nose Reducton. Beore

anyoperation,CameraRawremindsyouwithawarningmessagetozoomthepreviewsizeto100%mage vew otherwse you wont be able to see the appled eects.

Sharpness

The Amount slder ndcates the amount o sharpness to be appled n the photo. For Raw les, t s setby deault to 25. As you ncrease the Amount, the overall sharpenng s ncreased. The Radus slderdetermnes how much sharpenng gets dstrbuted: t determnes the wdth o the halos generatedaround the edges o the photo.

Theloweritisset,themoreitemphasizessmallerdetails;thehigheritisset,themoreitemphasizessot edges.

By deault t s set to 1,0 and usually or most o the mages, you should stck close to ths value.

The Detal slder allows you to apply ne detals wthout generatng nose. i you hold down the Alt keywhle draggng the Detal or Radus slder, you wll see a prevew o the contrast on a solated level wth

a gray background. it can be compared to the eect obtaned n Photoshop when usng a derentlevelforcontrastwithgraybackgroundsetto50%andfusionmethodsetonOverlay(theclassiclterHgh Pass).

The Maskng lter apples sharpness smartly, so that t contrasts the areas wth edges and protects theat ones.

i you hold down the Alt key as you drag the Maskng slder, you can see a prevew o the mask: whte


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Nose Reducton

The Nose Reducton slder allows you to decrease the nose produced n your camera. The more iSOncreases, the more the nose ncreases too. Lumnance nose appears lke a monochromatc granyvarable whle chromnance ncludes many small colored ponts, and t s more evdent n the mono-chromatc and at areas.

in Camera Raw 6, nose reducton s ar more better than n the prevous versons, thanks to an mpro-vement on the demosacng process to the sharpness control and nose control. i n act, there are newslders to manage nose reducton.

The Lumnance slder allows us to remove the monochromatc granness o nose. i you overdo wth t,detals on the mage wll be soten.

The new slder Lumnance Detal acts lke the Threshold slder n Photoshop. in other words, t allowsyou to recover lost detals usng the prevous Lumnance slder. By deault, t s set to 50, but you over-do, t mght gve undesred and unnatural eects.

i the mage s lookng plastc and dull, you can use a new slder: Lumnance Contrast. Ths slder helpsto slghtly contrast the Lumnance channel and t helps the mage texture to become more vsble.Good results can be obtaned when the Lumnance Detal slder s set to a low value.

The Color Nose reducton slders allow to remove completely and ecently chromnance color. They

work ndependently rom lumnance values and mostly you can set the Color slder to the maxmumvalue.

i you notce a desaturaton n the mage, you mght use the Color Detal slder to recover the color. Lkethe prevous Lumnance Detal slder, t s set by deault to 50.

areas ndcate the spaces on whch sharpness has been appled, whle the black areas shows the oneswhere sharpness has not been appled.

Ths uncton s the counterpart o a Layer Mask n Photoshop.

Below you wll nd the suggested deaults or derent type o photos:

For portraits: Amount: 40 Radius: 1,2 Details: 25 Masking: 60 (In this way, areas such as eyes and lips resultmore sharpened, while it protects skin to be too sharp).

Landscape image: Amount: 40 Radius: 0,8 Details: 50 Masking: 0

Fine-detailed image (or ex. a orest): Amount: 45 Radius: 0,5 Details: 80 Masking: 0

All the settngs set n the Sharpness secton are appled on the Lumnance channel so that t wontproduce color noses.


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HSL/Grayscale panelin ths panel, there are three sectons: Hue, Saturaton and Lumnance. The acronym HSL stands orHue,SaturationandLightness.Ineachsection,thereareeightcolorsliderstocontroltheadjustment

ofeverysinglecolor:Reds,Oranges,Yellows,Greens,Aquas,Blues,Purples,Magentas.

Hue

Wthn the Hue secton, you can apply color tonng on the tnts as you wsh. For example, t s possbleto make a sunset more orange than red draggng the R eds slder to let and the Yellows slder to rght.Another example t can be the sea water: you can make t bluer and less greensh.

TheAquassliderincludesatonecontrolthattargetsthewatercolors:draggingtheslidertotheleft,you wll have a bluer water.

SaturatonSaturationindicatesthequantityoftintthatneedtobeappliedtoacolor.Usingthistool,youwontmody color but, lke n the Hue panel, you wll ndcate what s the correct value to consder ull or


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saturated the color.

in other words, reconsderng the sunset example, you wll ndcate how much Orange needs the sky. Todo t, you should select the Oranges slder wthn the Saturaton secton and drag t to rght.

On the contrary, you would lke to decrease the color saturaton, that s decreasng the tnt o thatpartcular color, you should drag the slder to the let.

Usingthistechnique,youcanobtainverycreativeeects,forexampleyoucanleavecoloredjustaparto the mage.

Lumnance

Lumnance determnes how you perceve a color: lght or dark. Lke beore, modyng slders settngsyou can ntervene on every sngle color. Lets take or example once agan the sunset: you can set a


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darker orange or the sky movng the Oranges slder to the let.

Convert to Grayscale

The Convert To Grayscale opton s strctly connected to the sectons Lumnance and Saturaton: tpermts to convert to a black and whte (or to grayscale ) an mage.

Choosng ths opton, a panel that has the same slders as the Lumnance secton opens. Convert To

Grayscalesetscolorsaturationtozeroanditallowsyoutointerveneontheluminanceofeverysinglecolor. Dong so, you wll mody the Grays values o the latter makng them clearer or darker.

YoucantrysettingmanuallyeverysliderintheSaturationpaneltoazerovalueandyoucanlatermo-dy color slders n the Lumnance panel. You wll obtan the same result as you had used the Convertto Grayscale opton.

i the Camera Raw Preerences are set to Apply Auto Grayscale Mx When Convertng To Grayscalewhen settng the opton Convert To Grayscale, Camera R aw wll automatcally set deault values to thecolor slders to obtan a more balanced whte/black eect. i ths opton s dsabled or you clck onDeault, all the slders o Convert To Grayscale wll automatcally be set to 0.


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Splt tonng panelThe Splt Tonng panel s very easy and ntutve to use. i t allows you to assgn a domnant or H-ghlghts and Shadows. You can choose the Hue and Saturaton you wsh to apply.

The balance let you to set the splt pont between the hghlght domnant and the shadow domnant.Thereore t permts you to decde whch o the two color has to preval on the other.

A very creatve eect can be obtaned actvatng the Convert to Grayscale opton wthn the HSL/GrayscalepanelandthenapplyingdominantsintheSplitToningpanel.Thephotowillhavejustthecolors set by you n ths panel.


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Lens correcton panelAter the release o Camera Raw 6.1, the panel Lens Correcton has been completely revsed.

in the Lens Prole panel, brands on the market such as Apple (iphone), Canon, Nkon, Sgma, SonyandTamronhavebeeninsertedsothataquickandautomaticlenscorrectioncanbeprovided.Thispanel also ncludes a control secton where you can set manually lens dstorton, chromatc aberra-ton and lens vgnettng.

Prole

The Prole panel ncludes automatc slders and sem-automatc lens correcton. Applyng EnableLens Prole Correcton, the Prole secton wll be enabled. You can choose three ways or correcton:Auto, Deault and Custom.

i you select Auto, Camera Raw wll automatcally look or a prole whch matches lens n use and twll set the correcton slders to 100. i the prole s not ound, a warnng message says that t s notpossble to nd automatcally a sutable prole.

i you select Deault, Camera Raw wll take the same steps as n the Automatc settngs but t wllallow you to mody the correcton slders. As beore, the prole s not ound a warnng messagewll tell you that a correspondent prole cannot be ound.

i you select Custom, the sectons Lens Prole and Correcton Factor wll be enabled so that youcan select manually the used lens prole and that you can mody ts actors.

For example, you shot a photo wth a telephoto lens o 70-200mm /2.8, n the secton Lens Pro-le you should choose Brand: Canon, Model: Canon EF 70-200mm /2.8 L iS USM and Prole: Adobe(Canon EF 70-200mm /2.8 L iS USM).

The Proles provded by Adobe are one or each lens. it s possble to manually create a prole oryour lens wth the ree sotware Adobe Lens Creator downloadable at Adobe Labs: http://labs.ado-be.com/technologes/lensprole_creator/

The Correcton Factor secton allows you to mody the values o the selected prole n the sectonProles. in t you nd three slders: Dstorton, Chromatc Aberraton and Vgnettng.

As one slder changes, one or more slders wll change the prole values and thereore a derenteect wll be appled to the mage.


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it s possble to save these values as deaults clck ng on Settngs: Custom and selectng the Save NewLens Prole Deaults opton. in ths way, when you wll open a new photo shot wth the same knd olens and ater selectng the opton Enable Lens Prole Correctons, Camera Raw wll automatcallyrecognizethelensandchoosethissetting:Settings:Customwhichcontainsallthecorrectionvaluesprevously saved. i you want to return t to the orgnal prole values, you should clck on Settngs:Deault and choose the Reset Lens Prole Deaults command.

Manual controls

Transorm

TheTransformsectionisveryintuitive.Itallowsyoutomanuallyadjustanykindoflensdistortionsuchas the pncushon eect usng the Dstorton slder or to correct perspectve problems that are verycommoninarchitecture,usingtheVerticalandHorizontalsliders.Itisalsopossibletoapplysmallrota-tons wth the Rotaton slder and enlargements or reductons usng the Scale slder.

Chromatic Aberration

Settingthezoomto100%,youwillnoticesomechromaticaberrationsintheedgesofareaswithmorecontrast. Chromatc aberratons are colored halos caused by a derent value o lght reracton. it candepend on many actors such as poor optcal condtons. To avod ths problem, you can use the Chro-matc Aberraton tool where you can choose the ollowng optons: Fx Red/Cyan Frnge and Fx Blue/Yellow Frnge. When draggng the correspondent slder and payng attenton, you can avod the aber-

raton problem. Moreover you can choose the Remove Frnge and set t on All Frnges to correct anyother halos let.

Lens vgnettng

Vgnettng s the reducton n brghtness at the edges o an mage. it s caused by poor optcs or ultrawde-angle lens. Concretely t can be dened as lght that cannot reach n depth the sensor. it cannotalwaysbeconsideredafault,butsometimesitisalsousedastechniquetoapplycreativeeectsandocus the attenton on a specc pont. in the Lens Vgnettng panel, there s the Amount slder thatdragspositivelyornegativelythevalueofvignetting.Ifyouwanttoreadjustandthereforelightentheedges n the mage, you should drag the slder to the rght, on the contrary, you want to enhance thevgnettng, you should drag the slder to the let. The Mdpont slder sets the wdth o the area wherevgnettng wll be appled.

Snce the CS5 verson, Post Crop Vgnettng eect has been moved to the Eect panel.

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The Eects panelGran

Some people hate t, some love t. Snce the Camera R aw 6.0 release on, there s a new tool cal-led Gran. it permts you to add nose n mages.

Threeslidersaredevotedtomanagement.Therst-Quality-permitstoadjustthequantityofgrainthatyouwanttoadd.Thesecondone,Sizeallowstoincreaseordecreasethesizeofthegran pont and the thrd, Nose allows to create areas wth lghter or darker gran to obtan acasual and realstc eect.

Toadjustgrain,youdbetterworkzoomingintheimageto50%on.

Post Crop Vgnettng

The Lens Vgnettng slder s lmted to the whole mage, whle, as sad beore, vgnettng s usedmostly to obtan creatve eects, or ths reason n Camera Raw 6.0 Post Crop Vgnettng hasbeenmovedtotheEectspanel.ItallowstoapplyvignettingadjustmentsevenafterusingtheCrop tool (ater croppng the photo).

Thetoolsarethesameasthelensvignetting;inaddition,therearethreeothertools:Roundness,whichallowsyoutoadjusttheovalshape;Feather,whichallowstocreateclearerorsoftervignetting;Highlights,anewtoolintroducedwiththe6.0version,thatpermitstorecoveranycropped hghlghts ater a negatve vgnettng.

Besdes the Hghlghts slder, there s also the Vgnettng Style: when set to Hghlghts prorty, trecovers the hghlghts areas n the vgnettng, obtanng more evdent and contrasted results.Color prorty aects mage brghtness leavng, where possble, unaected colors and produ-cinglighterresults;PaintOverlayisusedtocolorthecornersofthephotowithcolorsrangingfromblacktowhite,accordingtothepositionoftheQuantityslider

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Camera Calbraton panelWthn Camera Raw, you can nd bult-n camera proles created n an unbalanced, solar and ar tcallghtng condtons. it s not enough: a color prole works only on the same lghtng condtons andt would be necessary to restore your prole to change t. in ths case, the Camera Calbraton Panelappearsveryuseful:itpermitstoadjustmorepreciselycolors.

When there s a new release, t s advsable to update Camera Raw. Ths acton permts to update thelst o compatble cameras and any possble new prole. You wll notce that Camera Raw stores thechronology o proles, or example ACR 3.4 and ACR 4.4 (ACR stands or Adobe Camera Raw) so that you open an old shot taken wth a derent prole, the colors n t wont be moded.

Snce the 6.0 release a new menu has been ncluded: Elaboraton. Ths allows you to choose wth

whch verson o Camera Raws processor you want to use to handle les. As i ponted out beore ntheNoiseReductionchapter,demosaicizingprocesses,sharpnesscontrolsandnoisereductionnota-bly mproved n the new release, thereore t s advsed to set the opton on Elaboraton: 2010. i weopen a raw le processed wth the old verson at a lower rght, you wll notce the warnng symbolwth an exclamaton mark n blue: t means that the raw s processed wth a prevous processor. i youclck on ths symbol, elaboraton wll be automatcally updated to 2010 verson.

it s possble to calbrate your camera manually, draggng the slders n camera Calbraton. For a pro-fessionalcalibrationyoushoulduseX-RiteColorCheckerPassportcombinedwithAdobeDNGProleEdtor or wth the sotware provded wth the panel.

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Shootng the ColorChecker Passoport

AfterplacingColorCheckerPassportnearthesubjectandtakingintoaccountthepointsforacorrectuse, you can shoot your target. Snce the sotware or the prole creaton o the camera ColorCheckerPassport ncluded- needs a DNG le extenson, you have to download the pcture shot to the target,open t n Camera Raw and save t wth the D NG extenson. Otherwse you can convert t to DNG durngthe download wth the Brdges Photo Download Program enablng the opton Convert to DNG (seechapter3ImportingImagesandchapter4Basicadjustmentstooptimizeyourimage).

ColorChecker panel s a mosac composed o 24 colored plugs, where you nd skn tones (1), naturalcolors and chromatcs (2,3), RGB scale, CMY and nally grayscale tones rom whte to black (5). You cannd t at the ollowng webste: http://www.xrtephoto.com under Products - ColorChecker Products.

Correct use

Beore shootng a photo to the ColorChecker Passport, t s mportant to keep n mnd the ollowngtps:

Size:ColorCheckerPassportsizecantbelessthan10%ofthewholeareaoftheimage,otherwisetherecan be too less normaton about the prole creaton.

RotationandDistortions:youcanapplythembutmoderately;forexample,ifyouusesheyeoptics,make sure that ColorChecker Passport s placed at the centre where there s less dstorton.

Focalization:ifthereisabadfocalization,itispossiblethatColorCheckerPassportssoftwaredoesntcorrect automatcally the angles o the target.

Exposton: exposton needs to be corrected and there must not be clppngs to the shadows or h-ghlght channels otherwse ColorChecker Passports sotware wll not allow you to create the prole.

Illumination:ColorCheckerPassportilluminationhastobethesameofthesubject.Youshouldpayattenton not to have hghlghts or shadows on the target.

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Creaton o prole wth sngle llumnatng

install the ColorChecker Passport program that you nd n the package and start t. i t has a very ntut-ve nterace and gves the possblty to drag a DNG mage nto the workng area.

Select on your computer the DNG photo contanng ColorChecker Passport and drag t nto the wor-kng area, otherwse you can press the Cmd+O (Mac) or C trl+O (Wndows) commands to add an magewthout draggng t. Once the d ownload has nshed, close and restart Photoshop and Camera R aw.

Steppng back to the Photo Calbraton tab. o Camera Raw dalog box, you can nd the prole youhavejustcreatedwithinthemenuNameinthelastposition.

To enable t clck on t and you wll notce the color derence between the Adobe standard pro-le and the one created by you on ColorChecker Passport. it s possble to apply automatcally theproletoalltheshotphotossynchronizingthesolesettingCameraCalibration(seechapter4Basic

adjustmentstooptimizeyourimage).

ByregisteringColorCheckerPassportonX-Ritewebsite,itispossibletodownloadforfreetheDNGsof -twareProleManagerthatallowsyoutomanageinasimpleandorganizedwayallourprolescreatedwth the ColorChecker passport accordng to the llumnant type, brand and camera model.

For urther normaton on camera calbraton wth ColorChecker Passport, you can nd a vdeo-tutoralinItalianatthefollowingwebsite:http://www.digitalpostproduction.it/2010/08/calibrazione-fotoca-mera-color-checker-passport/

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LocalizedCorrectionsLocalizedcorrectionsallowtocarryonnondestructiveeditinginspecicareasoftheimage.UnlikeothersoftwarelikeAperture,CameraRawappliesadjustmentsdirectlyontheRawinsteadofproducingimagesinpixels,thereforeitispossibletomodifyphotoswithoutcompromisingtheirquality.Therearesevenadjustmentseectplacedontherightoftheimage.

Adjustment Brush

YoucanusetheAdjustmentBrushtool(K)forapplyinglocalizedadjustmentsinthelateralpanel.Formo-difyingtheadjustmentvaluesyoushoulddragthesliderstotherightandtotheleft.

When you select the brush tool, Camera Raw automatcally sets the opton to New. Let-clckng andholdingthebuttondownonanypointontheimage,youcanapplytheadjustment.

YoucanmodifythebrushsizeusingtheSizeslider.

The Hue slder sets the hardness o the brush: the more the brush s soter, the more the two crcumeren-ces wll be ar rom each other.

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Wth the Flow tool, t s possble to smulate a pressure control smlar to that o a graphc tablet that tsused to create overlappng brush strokes, n act you have a tablet wth the pressure control, the Flowslder wll ollow the tablet pressure.

The Densty slder determnes the opacty o the level. it seems to be smlar to the Flow, but thnk tosetopacityto20%andowto50%:youcanapplyaseriesofbrushstrokes,butthisoverlappingcanbe

appliedforamaximumof20%.IfyousettheDensityto0%,thebrushactsasaneraserorifyouholddowntheAltbutton,theErasemodewillenablewhileDensityisreducedtozero.

IftheAddmodeisset,everybrushstrokewillbeappliedtothatbrushwhichhasthoseadjustments,

whileifyouwanttoapplyanotheradjustmentyoushouldclickontheNewbutton.

Toremoveanadjustment,youshouldclickonthemarkandholddowntheCancorBackspacekey.

As you hold the mouse on the marker, the correspondent area where the brush has been appled wllbe shown. i you want to hde the pn markers, hold down the (H) key shortcut and to dsable the pre-vew, you should press the (P) key shor tcut.

it s possble to mody the brush settngs clckng on the exstng marker, a black dot wll appear n tscentre whch shows that t has been selected. Snce now on, Camera Raw sets the brusher to the Addmodeandeditingandanyotherbrushstrokewillbeappliedjusttothatmarker.

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Besdes the standard slders, there are also Sharpness and Colors. The rst determnes any othersharpness applcaton to some areas, that means to ncrease the actor cursor n the Detals panel.

For example t s possble to use t to ncrease contrast n the eyes or to apply t wth the Negatve Cla-rty or retouchng skn. The Color command s used to color mage areas and t s usually used to colorblack and whte mages and used to obtan creatve eects. Clckng on t, the Color Selector dalog boxopens:hereitispossibletochoosethecoloranditssaturation.Ifsaturationissettozero,Coloreect

wont be appled.

in the panel vew, there are two optons: Auto Mask and Show Mask. i you select the Show Mask op-

tion,alltheareawherethebrushhasbeenappliedwillbecoloredwiththecolorshowedasied;whiletheAutoMaskmodeisasmartcontrolthatrecognizeareaswiththesametoneandcoloranditapplies

brushstrokesjustonthoseareas(thinkaboutabrushwithamagicwand).

i you overdo t or you use t or bg areas, t can slow down Camera Raw and to grany eects.

Graduated Flter

TheGraduatedFilter(G)allowstoapplylinearadjustmentshues.Anycontrolontheadjustmentpanelt s also avalable n the Graduated Flter, masks excluded.

To apply hues, you should let-clck and hold down the mouse button where the hue has ts startngpoint,drawalinewhichdeterminesthesizeandangleofthehueandreleaseit.Youcandrawobliquehues and 45 angles by holdng down the Sht key.

The green dashed lne determnes the maxmum eect strength, whle the dashed red lne correspon-dstoitsminimumeect.Byclickingononeofthepinmarkeritispossibletomodifysizeandrotation,andbyclickingontheblackdashedcentrallineyoucandragthehuepreservingitssize.

Foramorepracticaluse,youcanusetheGraduatedFilterwiththeColorsslidertoadjusttheskiesinanmage. Clckng on the marker and holdng down the Canc or B ackspace key, you can erase the lter or you clck on New you can add another one.

Forexample,youcanuseoneofthemforoptimizingskycolorsandtheotherforseacolors.

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Red Eye Removal tool

Frst o all select the Red Eye Removal tool. Then, you should drag a rectangle around the eye: CameraRawwillautomaticallyrecognizetheareathatneedscorrection.ItisalsopossibletomodifythePupilslidertoadjustthepropersizeandtheDarkenslidertone-tunequantity.

Crop tool

Atrstsight,theCroptoollookslikeabanalfunction,butithidesmanysecrets!Tousethistool,youshould select t and rght-clck to dene the crop area. i youre not satsed wth t, you can mody theedgesbyclickingontheangles;holdingdowntheCancorBackspacekey,youwillcancelthecrop.

Holdng down the Crop con, you can choose between many optons: 1:1 s or mantanng the cropareasquare-shaped(inaratioof1to1);2:3isformaintainingthefactorto2/3andsoon.

TheCustomoptionallowstosetthenaloutputsizesandinfact,ifyoucheckintheworkowoptions,youwillnoticethatthecropSizehasthevaluethatyouhadpreviouslyset.

For example, you need to create mages or an onlne gallery o 600x400 pxels, n the Custom boxyou should choose the 600x400 opton and the mage wll be saved accordng to t. i you want to cropit,itwontbesavedsmallerbuttheareasinexcesswillbecutwhilethesetsizewillremainthesame.

i you save n .psd drectly rom Camera Raw, you wll be asked you want to preserve the croppedpixels.IfthePreserveCroppedPixelsoptionisenabled,inPhotoshopyouhavejusttochoosefromthe

15

Camera Raw ToolbarSpot Removal tool

The Spot Removal tool (B) allows you to remove blemsh n a photo. it has two mod es: Heal and Clone.Heal s smlar to a healng brush and samples ts data mergng them wth those already sampled. Cloneworks lke a clone stamp merged wth a healng brush.

i you want to mody the mage, t s necessary to clck on the spot, hold down the rght button o yourmouse,andadjustthehealingradiussize.Tocanceltheoperation,youshouldclickagainonthecircleand hold down the Canc or Backspace key. Holdng down the (H) button or dsablng the Show Over-lap opton t s possble to hde all the crcles generated by the brush, and holdng down (P), you canalso dsable or re-enable t to see how the mage looked beore and ater ts correctons.

TheSpotRemovaltoolisveryusefulifusedinsynchronizedmodetoremovethedustonthesensororonthelensinaphoto.OpenmanyimagesinCameraRawandpressSelectAll;modifytherstimageo the lst: the brush wll automatcally be appled to all the other photos.

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image menu Show All button to see the whole mage.

Straghten Photo

The Straghten Photo tool (A) s very handy. You need to draw a straght lne on the lne that needs to

be straghten and Camera Raw wll calculate automatcally the angle o the mage rotaton. i wthnthe Crop tool a custom dmensons opton s enabled, even ater usng the Straghten tool, t wll bepreserved.

Snce the CS5 release, ths tool has been mplemented also n Photoshop.

Zoom and Hand tool

WiththeZoomtoolyoucanzoomonaphotoandwiththeHandtoolitispossibletomovewithin

thezoomedwindow.Thesetoolsarenotusedveryfrequently,becauseZoomIncanbedoneholdingdowntheCmd++(Mac)orCtrl++(Windows)whileZoomOutcanbedoneusingtheCmd+-(Mac)or Ctrl+- (Wndows) commands. The Hand tool command can be substtute by holdng down theBackspace key.

TAT Target Adjustment Tool

ThankstotheTAT-TargetAdjustmentTool(T)-moreintuitiveadjustmentscanbeapplied,infactmany

users thnk that ths tool s easer to use.

Itisnecessarytoselectwhichvalueyouwanttomodify:ParametricCurve,Hue,Saturation,Luminance;then, clck on any area and drag to the rght or to the let to mody ts values.

For example you can lghten hghlghts selectng Parametrc Curve, ater clck on a lght pont and dragthe slder to the rght. i t s possble to see the results appled n the Tone Curve panel.

Color Sampler tool

Wth the Color Sampler tool (S) t s possble to sample untl 9 color combnatons o the mage. They arereported on the top o the prevew and you can delete all o them selectng the Clear Samplers optonor holdng down the Alt key and clckng on them one by one.

Rotate image tool

it s possble to rotate the mage o 90 usng the correspondng keys or holdng down the (L) key orLet and (R) or Rght. it s also possble to rotate the mage rom Brdge holdng down the Cmd+U (Mac)or Ctrl+U (Wndows) commands.

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Deault Settngsand SnapshotsAt the bottom rght sde o any panel, you can nd the Camera Raw Settngs Menu con.

Wthn ths panel, there are the ollowng commands:

- ImageSettings,thatindicatesthecurrentsettings;

- CameraRawDefaultSettings,thatrestoreseverythinglikeitwasattheshotmoment;

- Prevous Converson that apples the last settngs o the savng moment.

i the custom settngs are enabled, you wll nd them under the Custom Settngs headng.

Ater modyng an mage, t s possble to create a custom settng choosng rom the drop-down lstthe Save Settngs opton. A dalog box wll open where t wll be possble to select the settngs tosave.

Deaults

The saved settngs are shown wthn the Deaults panel and n the Camera Raw drop-down lst asApply deault opton. i you are workng on a same set, you can decde to set as deault the currentsettngs. To do so, select Save New Camera R aw Deault Settngs. To restore the basc settngs, clck onRestore Camera Raw Deault Settngs.

Snapshot

i you are stll not sure about the settngs or you want to make other proos, you can create snapshotsrom the Snapshot prevew and clck on the sheet at the bottom rght.

A snapshot can be dened as a photo o the current settngs used at that very nstant. it s the sametool that you nd n the Hstory Photoshop panel.

Asexplainedpreviously,itispossibletochooseifsavingXMPinformationonCameraRawDatabaseoroncollateralles.IftheCameraRawDatabaseisset,itisalwayspossibletosaveonletheXMPsettingsbychoosingtheExportXMPSettingsoption.

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Update DNG Prevew allows us to update the JPEG prevew wthn the DNG le headng only n Ca-mera Raw Preerences the Update i ncorporated Prevew opton s enabled.

Camera Raw Preerences

Clckng on the Camera Raw Preerences button, the Preerences dalog box opens: now t s possbleto set Camera Raw optons.

IntheGeneralSettings,youwillndSaveimagesettingsin:XMPCollateralles.AllthemetadataandthesettingsappliedinCameraRawaresavedinXMPles.

InlessuchasJEPG,DNGandTIFF,XMPmetadatacanbeevenwritteninsidetheleinthepropersectiondevotedtotheXMP,whileasfortheproprietaryrawles,itisadvisabletosaveXMPmetadatainexternallescalledXMPCollateralFiles.

To move raw les to another older, t s better to use Brdge because when selectng the raw le, Brd geautomaticallyselectstheXMPletoo.Infact,thisactionwouldntpossiblewithExplorerorFinder.

Ifweareworkingonthesamelebutondierentpositions,itispossibletosubstitutejusttheXMPleto update the settngs.

Ater, you wll nd Apply Contrast to: All images or Prevew. The latter allows the contrast operatonalsowithothersoftware.InthelastCameraRawreleases,contrastslidersnotablyimproved;itisadvi-sable to leave the opton selected on All images.

Inthedefaultsettingsoption,youcanndtheApplyTonesAutomaticAdjustments;thisoptionisequivalenttoclickingontheAutobuttonintheBasicsliderspanel.Thedierenceisthatwhenope-nng a new mage, Camera Raw does ths operaton automatcally leavng unchanged the prevouslyopened ones. Even the algorthm mproved, t s advsable to dsable ths opton.

The second opton s the ollowng: Apply Auto Grayscale Mx When Convertng To Grayscale. Whenselectng ths opton when convertng the black and whte photo rom the HSL panel, Camera Raw wllsizeeverysinglecolortoobtainthemaximumresult.Itisadvisabletoleavethisoptionenabled.

The last two optons are: Specc Deault Settngs or the seral number o the camera and SpeccDefaultSettingsforISOvaluesofthecamera;theyallowCameraRawtoapplyautomaticallysettingsaccordng the camera type and/or the iSO type used. it s very useul n case you need to save deaultsettngs or nose reducton wth derent iSO values, so that they wll be appled automatcally anytme an mage wth a derent iSO opens.

IntheCasheCameraRawpanel,setthemaximumsizethatCameraRawandBridgecanusetosavemage prevews. You can even choose a derent poston (an external hardware or example) not tooccupy space on the nternal hardware o your computer.

IntheDNGFileProcessingpanel,itispossibletoaskCameraRawtoignoreXMPcollaterallesfortheDNGs.Assaidbefore,itispossibletowriteXMPmetadatawithintheleheadingbutsomesoftwarecreateXMPcollaterallesevenforDNGs.Itisalsopossibletosetthepreviewdimensionstoincludeinthe le.

in the JPEG and TiFF Processng panel, t s possble to ask Camera Raw to open all JEPG and TiFF lessupportedorjustthosewithsettingsthatmeanslesalreadyopenwiththeforcedopeningthrou-gh the Brdge command. i the optons are dsabled, les wll be open n Photoshop.


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Documents

Camera Raw Users Guide