Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [67]
The new Camera Raw workflow
When Camera Raw first came out it was regarded as a convenient tool for processing raw format images, without having to leave Photoshop. The early versions of Camera Raw had controls for applying basic tone and color adjustments, but Camera Raw could never on its own match the sophistication of Photoshop. Because of this, photographers would typically follow the Camera Raw workflow steps described below in Figure 3.1 . They would use Camera Raw to do all the ‘heavy lifting’ work such as adjusting the white point, exposure and contrast and from there output the picture to Photoshop, which is where they would to carry out the remaining image editing.
Figure 3.1 Camera Raw 1.0 offered a limited but useful range of image adjustments, and this remained unchanged through to version 3.0 of Camera Raw.
Camera Raw 6 in Photoshop CS5 offers much more extensive image editing capabilities and it is now possible to replicate in Camera Raw some of the things that would normally have been done only in Photoshop. The net result of all this is that you can (and should) use Camera Raw as your first port of call when preparing any photographic image for editing in Photoshop. Let's be clear, Camera Raw does not replace Photoshop. It simply enhances the workflow and offers a better set of tools to work with in the early stages of an image editing workflow. Add to this what I mentioned earlier about being able to work with JPEG and TIFF images, and you can see that Camera Raw is a logical place for any image to begin its journey through Photoshop.
If you look at the suggested workflow listed in Figure 3.2 , you will see that Camera Raw 6 now has all the tools you need to optimize and enhance a photograph. It can also be argued that if you use Camera Raw to edit your photographs, this replaces the need for Photoshop adjustments such as Levels, Curves and Hue/ Saturation. To some extent this is true, but as you will read later in Chapter 5 , these Photoshop adjustment tools are still relevant for fine-tuning images that have been output from Camera Raw, especially when you want to edit your photos directly or apply certain kinds of image effects that require the use of adjustment layers or additional image layers.
Figure 3.2 Camera Raw 6 has now extended the list of things that can be done to an image at the Camera Raw editing stage.
Does the order matter?
When you edit an image in Camera Raw it does not matter which order you apply the adjustments in. The lists shown in Figures 3.1 and 3.2 are presented as just one possible Camera Raw workflow. So for example, you could refer to the list of steps in Figure 3.2 and start by applying the crop and work your way through the remainder of the list backwards. However, you are normally advised to start with the major adjustments, such as setting the White point and Exposure in the Basic panel first before going on to fine-tune the image using the other controls.
Camera Raw support
Camera Raw has kept pace with nearly all the latest raw camera formats in the compact range and digital SLR market, but only supports a few of the higher-end cameras such as the Leaf systems and latest Hasselblad H2 and H3 cameras (which also support the DNG format). Camera Raw performance on the Macintosh platform has also been enhanced.
Raw capture
If you are shooting with a professional digital