DRAW A LINE TO STRAIGHTEN THINGS UP
If your image contains vertical or horizontal lines, such as those in a building or the horizon, that you want to use as a guide for straightening, you can click the Straighten tool. Then simply click one edge of the straight line, drag across to the other end of your straight object, and let go (Figure 4.9). The image will automatically be straightened to the line you drew, as well as cropped to keep it squared up. Once you use it, you will instantly see what I am talking about.
FIGURE 4.9
If you have straight lines that are supposed to be 90 or 180 degrees, you can use the Straighten tool to correct the angle.
GET THE RED OUT
The Red Eye Removal tool is another easy fix for an annoying problem.
WHAT’S YOUR PREFERENCE?
There aren’t too many preferences that you need to worry about in Adobe Camera Raw, but one thing you might consider is the Default Image Settings section. It contains three check boxes that let you apply some defaults when images are opened in the program (Figure 4.10). The "Apply auto tone adjustments" check box will automatically apply tone adjustments to every image that is opened. The other two check boxes relate to the defaults that are set in the Defaults menu. You can assign default settings to a specific camera serial number so that every time a raw file is opened from a particular camera, a set of default adjustments is applied. You can also do this for a specific ISO setting. This would be handy for setting default noise reduction for any image that was captured with an ISO of 1600, for example.
FIGURE 4.10
The Camera Raw Preferences dialog.
Rotate (left and right)
Many of today’s cameras have the ability to auto-rotate an image file depending on the orientation of the camera at the time the photo was taken. This rotation data is embedded in the metadata and then read by the software so that the image can be rotated to its appropriate orientation during viewing and editing. If, however, this is not the case with your camera, and your vertical images are displaying in a landscape orientation, you can click one of the Rotate Image tools to rotate 90 degrees to the left or right. It’s not a necessity to do this, but I certainly find it easier to work on my images when they are facing the right way.
THE DEFAULTS MENU
In the Camera Raw interface, just to the right of the tabs title bar, is a small icon that lets you access the Defaults menu. When you click this icon, a pop-up menu appears with options that allow you to revert to the Camera Raw default settings, to the previous conversion settings, or even to custom settings. You can also create a new Camera Raw default for use with future images.
CREATING A CAMERA RAW DEFAULT
1. Open an image in Adobe Camera Raw.
2. Make all the adjustments that you want to apply as defaults to future images.
3. Click the Defaults menu icon, and select Save New Camera Raw Defaults from the pop-up menu (Figure 4.11).
The next time you open an image in ACR, your new defaults will be applied as a starting point for your processing.
FIGURE 4.11
You can set your current adjustments as new defaults in the Defaults menu.
Sometimes it’s nice to set a default that you want to use for a large batch of images but not necessarily for all images for the rest of time. In this instance, you can set a new default and then once you are done with it, go to the Defaults menu and click the Reset Camera Raw Defaults option. This will set everything back to the Adobe defaults.
NOTE
The new default setting is best used if you find that you are applying the same settings to all of your images. So why not start off with those settings? Remember that a default is just a jumping-off point for your edits, so you don’t want to change every adjustment setting, just those that would apply to all of your images, like Sharpening, Clarity, and maybe Camera Calibration.
WORKING WITH MULTIPLE IMAGES
Camera Raw is great for working with one image at a time, but you can also open a large group to speed up your workflow. This will allow you to apply adjustments to all of your images at once instead of opening each one individually. I use this feature all the time when I have taken the time to shoot a white balance card and want to apply the same white balance adjustment to all the photos from that shooting session.
Opening multiple images IN ACR
1. Go to the Organizer and find the files that you want to use.
2. Select the images by Control/Command-clicking them or by clicking the first image and then Shift-clicking the last image in the group (Figure 4.12).
FIGURE 4.12
To open a group of images in Camera Raw, select them in the Organizer and then click the Edit Photos option.
3. Go to the Fix tab and click Edit Photos to open the Editor and send the selected images to Camera Raw.
4. When ACR opens, the images will appear in a filmstrip along the left side of the program. Click one to work on just that image.
5. To apply the same adjustment to all of the images simultaneously, click one thumbnail to make it the focused image.
6. Click the Select All button at the top of the filmstrip to activate changes to all of the images in the strip (Figure 4.13).
FIGURE 4.13
To make synchronized changes to all your images, click the Select All button at the top of the thumbnail section.
7. Once you are finished making synchronized adjustments to all the images, click a different thumbnail or use the Control-D (Command-D) keyboard shortcut to deselect the group.
Once you are done with your edits, you have a couple of choices. You can click the Select All button and then click the Open Images button at the lower-right corner of the screen to move all of the images from ACR to the Project Bin in the Editor. If you only want to take some of the images into the Editor, Control/Command-click the thumbnails to select them and then click the Open Images button. If you have only one image selected in ACR, you will notice that the Open Images button reads Open Image (singular), and only the selected image will be opened in the Editor.
Of course, you may have only wanted to work on the images in ACR without actually going to the Editor. If that is the case, click the Done button (in the lower-right corner of the screen), and ACR will save your raw edits and take you back to the Organizer. Notice that the image thumbnails in the Organizer have been updated to reflect the adjustments that you made in ACR.
Opening jpegs in camera raw
You may find that after working with ACR you really enjoy the power and quickness of the edits and want to edit all of your images with it, including JPEGs. Well, you most certainly can do that, but you have to go about it a little differently than you would with raw files.
The default editor for raw images is ACR, so it opens by default when you go to the Editor. This isn’t the case for JPEGs, so you will need to open them differently.
OPENING A JPEG IN ACR
1. Open the Editor without opening an image.
2. Choose File > Open As (Figure 4.14).
3. Locate the folder that contains the image that you want to open, and then select the file.
4. Select Camera Raw from the Open As drop-down menu (Figure 4.15).
5. Click the Open button.
FIGURE 4.14
To open a JPEG in Camera Raw, go to the File menu in the Editor and select Open As.
FIGURE 4.15
Be sure to select Camera Raw from the Open As drop-down menu.
You will now have access to most of the features in ACR for editing your image. A few things will be different, because of the differences between JPEGs and raw image files.
First, there are no custom camera profiles. Instead, ACR will use the embedded profile in the file. You will also find that there is no longer a large group of white balance options to choose from. When you click the White Balance drop-down menu, you will only see As Shot, Auto, and Custom. You can, however, use the White Balance tool to click-balance your images using a neutral color in the photo, and you can make adjustments using the Temperature and Tint sliders.
Remember that even though you can open a JPEG in ACR, you will have limited results compared to a raw file. JPEGs have much less exposure information and dynamic range than raw files.
My camera raw workflow
It can be confusing trying to figure out what to do first to an image in Camera Raw. There isn’t really a proper order for the way things should be done, and over time you will develop your own workflow. Until then, here’s my ordered workflow for you to follow along with.
STEP BY STEP
1. Open the image in ACR, and go to the Camera Calibration tab.
2. Select the camera profile that is most fitting for your image.
3. Jump to the Basic tab and adjust the white balance if necessary.
4. Check the clipping warnings to see if there are any problems with the highlights. If so, adjust the Recovery slider.
5. If there are large areas of clipped shadows that are important to the image, use the Fill Light slider to brighten them.
6. Increase the Blacks setting a little to improve contrast and saturation.
7. Increase the Clarity setting (about 15 to 30 points) and the Vibrance setting.
8. Finally, go to the Details tab, zoom in to 100%, and adjust the Sharpening settings.
Of course, some of these adjustments have an effect other adjustments, so I often go back and tweak some of the previous steps. For instance, raising the Blacks slider can make the image dark, so I might use the Exposure or Brightness slider to lighten things up a little. Just remember that every image is a little different, so be flexible with your edits.
Assignments
The best thing to do with Adobe Camera Raw is just play with it and get to know what all the adjustments can do for your image. This might be a problem, though, if you have yet to shoot any raw images. You could use a JPEG, but you really should use raw files to get an idea of all the features. That’s why I am including a few of my raw files in the bonus materials for you to play with (see Introduction). Just download the files and import them into the Organizer to get started.
Get that JPEG Look in Your Raw Files
The camera profiles can have a huge impact on how your images look. Generally speaking, they can make them look just like they did on the camera LCD screen when you took them. Open your file in ACR, and then try some different camera profiles in the Camera Calibration tab.
Back to Basics
The majority of your processing work will be done in the Basic tab. Spend a little time getting to know the sliders and adjustments here. Try clicking the clipping warnings to see the overlays, and then use the Recovery and Fill Light sliders to make the overlays go away.
Sharpen Like a Pro
One of the coolest and most useful features of the Sharpening tools is the mask overlay. Masking the sharpening to only the edges, rather than sharpening everything, will give your images a much more polished look. Apply some sharpening to the image, and then hold the Alt (Option) key and move the Masking slider to apply sharpening just where you want it.
Crop and Straighten
Cropping and straightening work hand in hand. When you straighten an image, you also crop it, because the image is being slightly rotated. Use the Straighten tool to straighten out a line or horizon in an image, and then click the Crop tool to adjust the crop composition.
