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space you convert to should match the gamma of your RGB workspace (see page 660). In the Photoshop Print dialog you will want to select ‘Photoshop Manages Colors’ and select an appropriate printer profile and rendering intent (see pages 690–692). When you click ‘Print’, this will take you to the Epson print dialog, where in the Print Settings section you will need to select an appropriate media type, such as Photo Paper > Premium Glossy Photo Paper (to match the profile selected in the Photoshop Print dialog). Note also that not all paper media settings support Advanced B&W. Then select the ‘Advanced B&W Photo’ from the Color menu (page 694–695). Having done that, click on the ‘Advanced Color Settings’, to access the Print dialog options shown in Figure 6.7, where the key thing is to leave most of these sliders as they are, apart from choosing a color toning method. You can choose a preset color from this menu, click on the color wheel below, or adjust the Horizontal and Vertical values. The Tone setting says ‘Darker’. This is actually the default setting, but you can modify this if you wish.

Chapter 7. Extending the Dynamic Range

For many years now, everyone has become preoccupied with counting the numbers of pixels in a digital capture as if this were the one benchmark of image quality that mattered above all else. Yet size isn't everything and it is really the quality of the pixel capture we should be concerned with most. Digital SLR cameras tend to have better quality sensors than compact digital cameras and the large high-end camera backs have features such as built-in cooling mechanisms that help them produce the very best in image capture quality. The one thing people haven't focused on so much is the dynamic range of a camera sensor. Dynamic range refers to the ability of a sensor to capture the greatest range of tones from the minimum recordable shadow point to the brightest highlights and this is what we are going to focus on in this chapter.

Multiple raw conversions

Most of the time it will suffice for you to use the localized correction tools in Camera Raw to dodge or burn a raw photo and bring out more tonal detail where it is needed. However, if you want to extend the dynamic range of an image capture with greater precision than this you can make two or more conversions using Camera Raw, combine them together as layers in a single document and blend them to produce a composite image. In the technique I describe here, I have shown how you can open a Camera Raw image as a Smart Object, process it in two different ways and blend the two versions together using a pixel image layer mask.

Camera Raw Smart Objects

A Smart Object stores the raw pixel data within a saved PSD or TIFF image (you'll learn more about Smart Objects in Chapter 9). This means you have the freedom to re-edit the raw data at any time. Although it is possible to apply the technique shown here to JPEG images, this won't bring you any real benefit compared to processing a raw image original. The important thing to stress here is that this technique really applies to editing raw files only.

Alternatively, if you are able to shoot with the camera on a tripod, another option would be to combine two separate exposures. This would allow you to extend the dynamic range of your camera and blend the results using the manual method described here. This approach also brings you the benefit of being able to edit the individual Camera Raw Smart Object layers.

1.

To begin with I went to Bridge and selected a raw image that I wanted to edit and opened this photo via Camera Raw, using File Open in Camera Raw… ( ).

2.

In the Camera Raw dialog I adjusted the Camera Raw settings to achieve the best White Balance, Exposure and Recovery adjustments to reveal the detail outside the windows. Once I was happy with these settings, I held down the key and clicked the Open Image button (circled) to open this as a Smart Object in Photoshop.

3.

Here is the processed image, placed as a Smart Object layer in a new Photoshop document. Next,