Practical_Photoshop__Issue_77__August_2017

CAMERA RAW EXPLAINED
Get to grips with Photoshop’s powerful plug-in and learn how
to make quick adjustments that can help your images jump
off the page or screen
1
BASICS PANEL
The Basics panel is usually the first stop for enhancing tones.
Start at the top by setting White Balance, then work your way
down through the sliders. Highlights and Shadows are useful
for teasing out details, while Clarity can add extra crispness
to the midtones. Vibrance enables you to boost the weaker
colors without affecting the dominant ones.
2
PANELS
The panels to the right let you access different options. The
most useful include the Detail panel for sharpening or noise
reduction; the Lens Correction panel (pictured), which lets you
correct chromatic aberration, barrel distortion and converging
verticals; and the HSL/Grayscale panel, which gives you
control over eight separate color ranges in the image.
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3
SPOT REMOVAL
This tidies up marks or blemishes, so
it’s useful for retouching portraits or
removing sensor spots. Use ] and [ to
resize the brush tip, then paint over
the offending area. You can sync spot
removal over a batch of frames if you’re
plagued by a recurring mark.
4
CROPPING
Cropping is often one of the first edits
you’ll want to make. The benefit of doing
it in a raw processing program is that the
cropped areas are never lost, so you can
always go back to the tool if you want
to experiment with a different crop
or a new aspect ratio.
5
WORKFLOW OPTIONS
The workflow options are accessed by
clicking the blue link below the image
window. Here you can set a bit depth
or color space that will be applied once
you open the image into Photoshop.
Similar settings are available in the Save
options if you save in Camera Raw.