Monday, June 6, 2011

Notes: "Introducing Camera Raw" by Chris Orwig

Photoshop CS4 for PhotographersI'm referencing Chris Orwig's 15-hour tutorial called "Photoshop CS4 Tutorials for Photographers" on lynda.com (I only have Adobe Photoshop CS 4 ).

Instead of doing a review, I'll be posting notes I took while watching "Chapter 11: Introducing Camera Raw" (1 hour 15 min). Each italicized bullet represents a section within the chapter.
  • What is Camera Raw?: shoot in raw because it's nondestructive, saves file size, and gives more control.
  • Understanding the Camera Raw preferences: don't change anything.
  • Opening files in Camera Raw: open ACR in PS to increase workflow by continuing to work in PS when you process multiple files.
  • The Camera Raw interface and essential controls: discussed the following: 
    • full screen view mode; tool box - zoom (100% view), hand tool (fit in view), rotation, preferences, etc.; preview (for before and after comparisons).
    • basic adjustments: temperature (cool --> warm), tint exposure (more for portraits), 
    • exposure (darker, lighter), recovery (highlighted area only affected), fill light (3/4 tones), blacks (darken shadows) [if u increase fill light, should increase blacks], brightness (1/4 tones, highlights, midtones). contrast (increase whites & blacks & vice versa). 
  • White Balance, Straighten, and Tone
    • white balance: to sample, hover over something white or black. 
    • recovery: detail in blown out part. 
    • fill light: brighten up parts in shadows. 
  • Crop, Rotate, and Vignette
    • Lens Corrections/Vignetting adds density to image, so must increase exposure and fill light.
    • Post crop vignetting
      • amount: black/white.
      • midpoint: how far it reaches inward. 
      • roundness: oval/round, how round. 
      • feather: gradual change/hard edge.
  • Improving color and tone
    • clarity: adds more midtone contrast/depth or lose definition. 
    • vibrance: add more color variety [then decrease saturation].
  • Saturation vs. Vibrance
    • vibrance: nonlinear color adjustments, helps muted colors/protects saturated colors, good for skin.
    • saturation: makes linear adjustments (increase/decrease everything), increase bad for skin.
  • Converting an image to black and white: HSL/Grayscale 
    • hue: shift colors. 
    • luminance: brightness or darkness of tones. 
    • convert to grayscale: becomes black & white.
  • Split-toning an image: can do black & white and color images.
  • Working with tone subjectively: practice.
  • Adjustment Brush essentials: flow = how quickly the adjustment is built up. density: intensity
  • Using the Adjustment Brush: practice.
  • Working with the Graduated filter: practice. can click and drag beyond the picture for subtle adjustments.
  • Sharpening and noise reduction
    • color (noise reduction): gets rid of color artifacts.
    • luminance (noise reduction): for trapped shadows. 
    • radius sharpening: deepens reach of sharpening. 
    • detail: mainly for landscapes, little for portraits. 
    • masking: just sharpens edges
  • Working with multiple images: 3 ways to speed up workflow: 
    • use synchronize(...).
    • select all, modify.
    • copy and paste camera raw adj. in bridge.
Overall, this was an excellent introduction to how to use Adobe Camera Raw (better than any other introduction I've ever had). I highly recommend this as the primary method of learning ACR. Although the actual tutorial is less than an hour and a half, you'll probably be rewinding it to catch a few things because of how fast it is. But, it will be time well spent.

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