Adobe Camera Raw
Camera Raw places many of the features of Photoshop most often used by photographers in one place.
In CS4, Adobe Camera Raw can open and edit JPG and TIFF format images as well as Raw format images.
By setting your camera to take photos in Raw you will be able to edit your images without noticeable loss of quality.
• Open Bridge and navigate to your folder of images
• Click the image you want to open in the Bridge 'Contents' window
• Choose File > Open in Camera RAW...
• Your image should open in Adobe Camera RAW as below
Note that this image above looks very blue, having been photographed with incorrect white balance settings.
Having been photographed at a high ISO setting in low light conditions it is quite 'noisy' (ie having the appearance of digital grain when we look at it closely.)
The menu bar at the top indicates the version of Camera Raw being used (in this case v5.4)
It is a good idea to keep this up to date as new features may be added and older versions of the software may not be compatible with newer cameras.
Alongside this it says the kind of camera used to take the picture.
In this case a Canon 300D.
On the right hand side beneath the graph you should see the settings used when taking the photograph.
• f/5 refers to the aperture size the camera was set to when the photograph was taken
(f5 allows a reasonable amount of light to enter the camera but is not a very large aperture under low light conditions by any means)
• 1/4000 s refers to the exposure time
(1/4000 is a very short exposure time, allowing only a limited amount of light into the camera)
• ISO 1600 refers to the camera sensor's sensitivity to light
(ISO 1600 is a quite a high setting for this camera. In low light conditions, we would expect a certain amount of 'digital noise' to be visible within the resulting image when we look at it closely. A lower, less sensitive setting would produce a less 'noisy' image but this could then have been too dark.)
• 18-55@24 mm refers to the camera's lens and the setting at which the photograph was taken
(18-55 means that the camera had a zoom lens, capable of zooming from 18mm at its widest setting all the way up to 55mm at its maximum zoom. In this case, the lens was zoomed in to 24mm.)
Toolbar at upper left
• Crop tool
Allows you to crop your image, potentially removing unnecessary elements from your photograph.
Cropping is one way of ensuring that the message your image conveys is direct and to the point.
If you hold your mouse down on the crop tool, you should see a drop down menu allowing you to select from different width to height ratios. Custom lets you set your own ratio and Normal allows you to drag your preferred size.
• Straighten tool
Allows you to straighten the image - particularly useful for landscape shots involving a horizon.
Also useful within architectural photography where vertical / horizontal lines may be important.
Click and drag across the image at an angle to create an angled crop box.
Drag and rotate from corners of the crop box and position it as required.
The menus and sliders on the right panel are where the main functions of Adobe Camera Raw are found.
Basic
Allows you to make adjustments to settings relating to white balance, tone, contrast and colour intensity.
Watch out for -
• Colour casts across across the image
(The example has a distinctly blue colour cast - white balance would help)
• Shadow detail which is too dark
(ie so that in some areas the image is entirely black with no visual information left)
• Highlight detail which is too light
(ie so that it goes entirely white with no visual information left. When this happens it is sometimes referred to as 'blown out highlight detail' or 'clipped highlight detail')
Clicking the 'Auto' button will make Camera Raw analyse your image and apply automatic adjustments.
The results are not always ideal but may be useful as a starting point for manually adjustments.
The main areas to adjust first are (in this order) -
• White Balance
White balance can be used to bring colour casts under control.
You can use the settings from the drop down menu or make adjustments manually with the temperature and tint sliders.
You should also be aware of the White Balance tool in the tool bar at the upper left hand side.
Select this tool and click on an area of gray or white (an 'ordinary' area - not a very bright highlight) and white balance should be set appropriately. You may find that setting this as required can take a little experimentation.
A general guideline is to try to retain as much shadow detail and highlight detail as possible.
• Clicking the triangle on the left shows areas of lost shadow detail within your image.
• Clicking the triangle on the right shows areas of lost highlight detail within your image.
• Exposure
Creates the appearance of more light within the image. In theory it is as if the exposure time when the photograph was originally taken has been made longer. (This tool can make quite 'aggressive' alterations and can sometimes result in clipped shadow / highlight detail.)
• Fill light
Brightens shadow areas to prevent shadow information becoming lost within darker parts of the picture.
Emulates 'Fill Flash' used when taking a photograph in order to brighten the subject, particularly in situations where the background is brighter than the subject.
• Blacks
Strengthens or weakens areas of shadow / black within the image - returns 'punch' to the image.
This can be useful if adjusting exposure has left an image looking washed out.
• Brightness
Adjusts brightness and darkness of the image (less aggressive changes than Exposure adjustments)
• Contrast
Mainly affects midtones within the image.
• Clarity
Sharpens the image - best to zoom in to 100% in order to do this.
• Vibrance
Increasing this slider saturates and enriches duller colours within an image.
Leaves highly saturated colours more or less unaffected.
Useful for working with skin tone as it can prevent over saturation.
• Saturation
Decreasing to 0 results in a grayscale image
Increasing to 100 results in a very very saturated image
Tone curve
Allows you to fine tune tonal detail.
The four sliders above allow you to control highlights / lights / darks / shadows within your image.
Changes made here apply only to the four areas described by the sliders.
The 'Curve' drop down menu allows you to set different levels of contrast.
You can also adjust contrast by clicking and dragging points on the line.
Dragging a point up brightens the image while dragging a point down will darken it.
HSL / Grayscale
A very useful set of colour controls that allow you to adjust the appearance of one colour within an image without affecting others.
H = Hue
The basic nature of a colour within a limited range.
eg A blue could not become a red but could be changed to cyan or purple or other closely related colour.
S = Saturation
Adjusts the strength and intensity of a colour.
L = Luminance
Adjust the brightness of a colour.
If you click the 'Convert to Grayscale' checkbox this creates a grayscale image.
However the appearance of the grayscale image can still be adjusted using the colour sliders.
Split Toning
Allows you to apply colours to shadow and highlight areas within your image.
Can be used to apply colour to a grayscale image or adjust colours of a colour image.
• Use the Hue sliders to select the colour to be applied
• Use the Saturation sliders to set the colour intensity
• Dragging the balance slider to left will increase the effect on highlights
• Dragging the balance slider to left will increase the effect on shadows
Lens Corrections
Lens Correction tools help correct typical problems that can sometimes occur when a photograph is taken.
Chromatic Aberration
Sometimes areas near the corners of an image may have a coloured edge.
Very often this is a red/cyan colour or a blue/yellow colour - use the relevant sliders to make adjustments.
(Experimentation may be necessary to find the right settings from sliders and drop down menus.)
Lens Vignetting
Some lenses (particularly wide angle lenses) can cause the edges and corners of a photograph to appear dark.
• Dragging the Amount slider to the right lightens the corners, dragging to the left darkens the corners.
• Dragging the Midpoint slider makes the vignette effect larger or smaller
• Roundness controls the shape created by the shadow
• Feather controls how hard or soft the edges of the shadow appear
Shadows at edges / corners are not necessarily a bad thing - this effect can be used to make an image more atmospheric.
Detail - Sharpening and Noise Reduction
Before using these tools you should zoom your image in to 100% magnification.
This allows the computer to display the subtle changes being made to the image as clearly as possible.
Sometimes a photograph can require a degree of sharpening - especially when preparing it for printing from an inkjet printer.
• Amount slider
Adjusts edge definition between areas of contrasting colour.
The higher the setting, the greater the chance of seeing 'halos' around objects.
• Radius
Correct radius settings are determined by the appearance of the image itself.
An image with lots of fine detail will generally require a lower radius setting while one made up of larger, less detailed elements may need a higher setting.
• Detail
Reduces the presence of halos created by the Amount slide while retaining the sharpness of edges where one colour meets another. The lower the setting, the less visible the halos will be.
• Masking
Protects areas that do not need to be sharpened.
When masking is set at 0, an equal amount of sharpening is applied across the whole image.
When set at 100, clearly defined edges where colours meet receive the most sharpening.
When a photograph is taken at a high ISO setting, or under reduced lighting conditions, we may see some 'digital noise' within the resulting photograph. (A speckling of red, green and blue pixels within the image.) Generally this is not an attractive outcome and we try to remove as much noise as possible. To see the image clearly in order to make these adjustments, we need to use a magnification setting of 100%.
• Luminance
Dragging to the right will reduce grayscale noise.
• Colour
Dragging to the right will reduce colour noise
(The ideal situation is to take a photograph that does not contain any digital noise by using lower ISO settings / longer exposure time / tripod etc. This generally provides a better end result than any digital intervention. However where this is not possible then a higher ISO setting can be used so that the photo can be taken hand held instead of using a tripod. Higher end dIgital SLR cameras with larger image sensors (eg Canon 5D Mark 2 / Nikon D700) can take photographs at ISO 6400 and still create usable images - this means that it is possible to photograph in lower light conditions without a tripod and not encounter digital noise within the end photograph.)
Other tools within the toolbar at top left
• Spot Removal
(The main area within Photoshop offers more precise control over cloning and healing tools. However for basic image adjustments where removal of small blemishes within an image, Camera Raw does very well.)
• Choose the Spot Removal tool on the toolbar
• Drag within your image to indicate the area you want to adjust. A red circle will appear.
• You can resize this as necessary by moving the mouse to the edge of the red circle and clicking and dragging.
• A second or so later a green circle will appear.
• The contents of the green circle replace the contents of the red circle
• The green circle and be repositioned by clicking and dragging
In the menu on the right, you can choose from Healing / Cloning from the dropdown menu
• Cloning = an exact copy from green circle into red circle
• Healing = a copy from green circle into red circle, but making adjustments based on existing lighting and colour within the red circle with the intention of making the result fit within its background slightly more smoothly.
• Opacity controls how much of the image that had previously been visible within the red circle is allowed to show through underneath the new image that has been copied there
• Red Eye Removal
• Choose the Red Eye Removal tool on the toolbar
• Drag a rectangle that is slightly larger than the iris of the eye with redeye
• When the mouse button is released, the selection will get slightly smaller as Photoshop tries to select the appropriate area within your image
• Make adjustments using the 'Pupil Size' and 'Darken' sliders as appropriate
• Adjustment Brush
The Adjustment Brush allows you to make localised adjustments within Adobe Camera Raw so that colours can be adjusted in one area of an image without affecting the rest of it.
• Select the Adjustment Brush in the tool bar
• A circle representing a brush will appear instead of the mouse arrow
• You can use this to adjust areas within your image by clicking and dragging
• You should also see the sliders in the image above on the right hand side
• Exposure = how much light / brightness will be added to the brush area
• Brightness = adjusts brightness but with greater emphasis on midtones within your image
• Contrast = adjusts contrast but with greater emphasis on midtones within your image
• Saturation = adjusts colour intensity
• Clarity = gives the impression of sharpness and greater depth through adjustments to contrast
• Sharpness = adjusts edge definition where one colour meets another and general detail
• Colour = allows you to add a colour tint to a specific area. (Set Saturation so that no colour is applied to the image)
• Size = diameter of the brush
• Feather = softness or hardness of brush stroke
• Flow = controls transparency of the stroke
• Auto Mask = limits brish stroke to an area of similar colour / tone
A pin where an adjustment brush alteration has been applied.
You can choose to Add to this, Erase it, or create a new alteration using the radial buttons at the top of the menu.
• Graduated Filter
This tool also affects selected areas within an image but does so based on starting and finishing points within your image. This tool is often used to adjust the blue of a sky so that it - for example - goes from a darker blue to a lighter blue.
• Select the Graduated Filter tool in the Toolbar
• Drag across the image approximately where you would like the graduation effect to occur
• Sliders are similar in effect to those within the Adjustment Brush tool
The blue text at the bottom of the window provides information about the image -
If you double click this text, you will see the Work Flow Options window
• Colour space
Should be set to Adobe RGB (1998) as it offers a broad range of RGB colours
• Depth
8 Bit is sufficient for this project
(16 bit is useful if printing very subtle colour gradation and can prevent banding. However 16bit colour depth will slow down the computer when editing in the main area of Photoshop and some options may not be available.)
• Crop size
Any resolution above 6 Megapixels should be adequate to produce an A3 inkjet print
• Resolution
Should be between 240 and 360dpi for inkjet printing
• Sharpen for
Allows you to apply default sharpening settings for print / settings etc
• Open in Photoshop as Smart Objects check box
Selecting this check box will open your image as a Smart Object in Photoshop
This means it can be scaled down and then back up again with no loss of resolution.
• Camera Calibration - Allows you to create colour settings that compensate for the colour nuances of your camera
• Presets - Allows you to save and resuse custom settings
Saving and further editing your work
• Click 'Save Image' to save your image changes as a.dng file (Digital Negative)
• This format can be reopened in Camera Raw and edited
• Click 'Open Image' to open your work in Photoshop
• From here you could save in Photoshop format (ie uncompressed so no loss of quality and you can also make use layers etc)