Raw Shooting - Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 for Photographers - page 137

Modifying your capture workflow for Raw

Switching capture formats to Raw impacts directly on the role that controls such as satura-
tion, sharpness, white balance and contrast play in your digital capture. These factors are
not fixed in Raw files and are only applied at the time of conversion or after the image exits
the Adobe Camera Raw utility and is opened in the Editor workspace. So rather than these
factors being applied in-camera, as is the case with JPEG and TIFF capture, they are applied
via the ACR utility. In fact, any of the adjustments you make to these settings on the camera
can be reversed or tweaked in ACR.

So if these factors are controllable at conversion then should the Raw shooting photogra-
pher bother with them at time of capture? This is a good question to which you will receive
many answers. Unfortunately many shooters believe that capturing in Raw is a 'fix all' for
poor camera technique. Haven't selected the right white balance? No problem, fix it in Raw.
Haven't judged the light quite right? Again, not a big deal just fix it in Raw. Nor adjusted
your lighting for good contrast? Again, not an issue, there is contrast control in Raw. But
to my mind, although many factors can be altered in Raw, this approach has four main
drawbacks:

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1. Correctly captured pictures need less correction when
converting, saving valuable time.
2. The white balance settings determined at time of capture
provide a good starting point for further fine-tuning during
the conversion process.

3. If a Raw + JPEG capture mode is being used then the color in
the accompanying JPEG photo will better match the
processed Raw file as it was more accurate at the time of
capture.
4. Correct exposure provides better quality edited images as
ideally no shadow or highlight details are clipped when the
picture is taken.

Raw capture implications on workflow
So what changes to standard capture workflow should the Raw shooter make?
Let's examine the impact of Raw capture on some of the standard camera controls.

Resolution - The largest photo possible
(one sensor site to one pixel) is generally
recorded in the Raw file.
Color Depth - Raw photographers
automatically get access to the full bit
depth the sensor is capable of. At time of
conversion in ACR you can select the bit
depth of the converted file.
Saturation - As the vibrance or
saturation of the converted image can be
controlled on a picture-by-picture basis in
ACR it is a good idea to leave this camera
setting on the default or normal value.
White Balance - Despite the fact that
white balance can be losslessly adjusted
in ACR, it is good practice to match white
balance settings with the dominant light
source in your scene. This helps to
maintain the photographer's own
capture skill as well as ensuring speedier
color cast removal in ACR, as the camera
settings are loaded as default.

Contrast - Raw shooters have the luxury
of being able to make contrast
adjustments much more accurately and
on an image-by-image basis back at the
desktop.
Sharpening - Professionals now employ
a workflow that applies sharpening at
three different times during the
enhancement process - at time of
capture, during enhancement and then
when preparing for output. For Raw
shooters adopting this approach means
adding a little global sharpening in-
camera or at the time of conversion.
Noise Reduction - Reducing noise on
the desktop, either during Raw
conversion or afterwards inside
Photoshop Elements, provides better
control over the process and therefore
better results than the auto approach
adopted by in-camera systems.

ISO - Shooting in Raw doesn't directly
affect the selection of ISO setting used
for capture. These settings will be based
on the available light in the scene or the
shutter speed required to freeze or blur
motion.
Camera Exposure - Shooting in Raw
doesn't change the fact that exposure is
key to the creation of high quality
images. It is true that the slider controls in
ACR provide a great deal of flexibility
when it comes to processing the tones in
a photo and that this means that slight
problems with exposure (under- or
overexposure) can be corrected more
easily than with other capture formats.
What is important to remember,
however, is that this doesn't provide
photographers with a license for poor
exposure control. The best conversions
are made with images that are well
exposed.