- Why use Camera Raw?
- Opening photos into Camera Raw
- The Camera Raw tools A
- Cropping and straightening photos
- Choosing default workflow settings
- Using the Camera Raw tabs
- Using the Basic tab
- Using the Tone Curve tab
- Using the Detail tab
- Using the HSL/Grayscale tab
- Using the Adjustment Brush tool
- Using the Split Toning tab
- Using the Lens Corrections tab
- Using the Effects tab
- Using the Graduated Filter tool
- Using the Radial Filter tool
- Using the Spot Removal tool
- Saving and applying Camera Raw settings
- Synchronizing Camera Raw settings
- Converting, opening, and saving Camera Raw files
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Using the Camera Raw tabs
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The Camera Raw tabs
To access a panel of related settings in Camera Raw, click one of the tab icons (shown above). We perform most of our work in the first four tabs, and recommend that you do the same. Use the other tabs for specialty corrections or enhancements, as needed.
Basic: Adjust the white balance and exposure (see pages 63–67).
Tone Curve: Fine-tune a specific tonal range, such as the upper or lower midtones (see pages 68–69).
Detail: Apply capture sharpening and reduce unwanted noise (see pages 70–71).
HSL/Grayscale: Adjust the hue, saturation, and luminance of individual colors (see pages 72–73).
Split Toning: Apply one color tint to the highlight areas of a photo and a second tint to the shadow areas (see page 77).
Lens Corrections: Correct a photo for the effects of lens distortion, such as geometric distortion (e.g., a building that is tilted backward or isn’t level), under-or overexposure at the edges (an unwanted vignette), chromatic aberration, and color fringes.
Effects: As a special effect, apply a grain texture or a light or dark vignette (see pages 84–85).
Camera Calibration: The Process menu in this tab lets you update a file to the latest Camera Raw processing (see the sidebar on the next page). If the profile that Camera Raw provides for your camera model doesn’t produce satisfactory color results, use the sliders in this tab to tweak the settings manually.
Presets: Create a custom preset of the current Camera Raw settings for future application to any other photos (see page 93).
Snapshots: For flexibility in editing, save interim versions of a photo as you make corrections. When necessary, you can restore the photo to any snapshot version (see the sidebar on page 91).
If you find a need to undo or reset your slider settings as you work in Camera Raw, you can use any of the methods below. (To learn about related options on the Camera Raw Settings menu, see the next page.)
To restore default settings to sliders in the Camera Raw tabs:
Do any of the following:
Double-click a slider to reset it to its default value (usually 0).
Shift-double-click a slider in the Basic tab to reset it to the Auto value.
Click Default in the Basic or HSL/Grayscale tab to reset all the sliders in just that tab to 0.
Hold down Alt/Option and click Reset at the bottom of the dialog (Cancel becomes Reset) to restore the settings, in all tabs, that were in effect when you opened the dialog.
Using the Scrubbies
To change a value quickly in a Camera Raw tab, instead of dragging a slider, drag to the left or right across the slider name (this is called a scrubby-slider).
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Toggling the Preview
Check Preview at the top of the Camera Raw dialog (or press P) to preview changes made in all the tabs, or uncheck Preview to view the result of changes made in all the tabs except the current one, so you can compare the photo with and without the latest changes.
When you open a photo into Camera Raw, by default, it’s adjusted according to the built-in profile for your camera model, and all the sliders in the Basic tab are set to 0. At any time, you can assign a different collection of settings to your file, or restore the original settings.
To restore settings via the Camera Raw Settings menu:
From the Camera Raw Settings menu, 
choose one of these options: A
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A Use options on the Camera Raw Settings menu to restore default settings to your photo or to reapply the prior settings.
Image Settings to restore the settings that were attached to the file during the initial photo shoot or, if the photo was previously edited in Camera Raw, from the last Camera Raw session. When a photo is opened for the first time into Camera Raw, these settings will match the Camera Raw Defaults settings.
Camera Raw Defaults to remove all custom settings and reapply the default settings for your camera model, your specific camera, or the ISO setting that was used to take the photo.
Previous Conversion to apply the settings from the prior image that was adjusted in Camera Raw.
Custom Settings to reapply all the custom settings that you have chosen since opening Camera Raw.
If a user-saved preset is applied to the current photo, that preset will also be listed as an option on this menu (see page 93).
Updating Legacy Photos and the Camera Raw Sliders
When you bring an unprocessed photo into Camera Raw 8.x, the dialog uses its most up-to-date profiles for noise reduction, de-mosaicing, sharpening, color calibration, and other processing. If you want to update a raw photo that was already processed in Camera Raw 6 or earlier using the new profiles, and also update the sliders in the Basic and other tabs to the newest versions (as described in this chapter), before applying any custom adjustments, click the Update to Current Process (2012) 
icon at the bottom right of the preview window. The Process menu in the Camera Calibration tab 
changes to the setting of 2012 (Current). Note: If you want to preserve access to the older rendering of the photo, take a snapshot of it before you update it (see the sidebar on page 91).
Setting the White Balance
The color temperature of the lighting in which a photo is shot, whether natural or artificial, influences the relative amounts of red, green, and blue that are recorded by the camera. A digital camera attempts to balance the three colors to produce an accurate white, which in turn makes other colors in the photo more accurate; this is called the “white balance.”
To fine-tune the white balance of a photo In Camera Raw, we recommend using the Temperature and Tint sliders in the Basic tab (see the next page). Another method — clicking with the White Balance tool 
on an area of the photo that you want to become a neutral gray — should be used with care because finding exactly the right area to click is harder than it sounds.