The Camera Raw Dialog Box
Let's start with a brief overview of the layout of the Camera Raw dialog box (Figure 9.1), and then we'll dive deeper and look at each specific setting.
 | Photoshop's RAW format isn't the same as Camera Raw format. The names sound almost identical, but Camera Raw files can only originate from a digital camera, and Photoshop cannot change the file at all. Camera Raw files are locked because they are designed to contain only the information that came from your digital camera; therefore, they cannot be directly modified after the photo is taken. Think of it like the files on a CD. You can open them, but you can't save back to the CD because it's locked. That doesn't limit at all what you can do to the images; it just means that you have to save the changes under a different name. With Camera Raw files, it means that changes have to be saved in a different file format (like TIFF, Photoshop, or JPG). Photoshop's RAW file format, on the other hand, is mainly used to export images so they can be imported into unusual software that can't handle common file formats (it's something I doubt most of you will ever have to use). If your camera was released after Photoshop CS2 was available, you might have to download an update to the Camera Raw plug-in. You can find updates by visiting www.adobe.com, clicking on Support, then Downloads and then Photoshop. Once you've downloaded the update, double-click on it to decompress the file and place it in the following location on your hard drive: Mac: Library/Application Support/Adobe/Plug-ins/CS2/File Formats Windows: C:/Program Files/Adobe/Plug-ins/File Formats |
Across the top of the dialog box, you'll find six tools and two rotation icons. The Zoom and Hand tools allow you to navigate around your image (just like in Photoshop), but I find the following keyboard shortcuts to be a more efficient way to get around: Hold Command (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) and press the Plus or Minus keys to zoom in or out on the image and hold the Spacebar to temporarily make the Hand tool active. The current magnification will be indicated just below the image. Next to the navigation tools, you'll find two Eyedropper tools; the left one is known as the White Balance tool and works much like the middle eyedropper that is found in both the Levels and Curves dialog box, while the right one is known as the Color Sampler tool, which causes RGB readouts to appear above the image preview, much like what you'd get in the Info palette within Photoshop. (We talked about both the Info palette and the Eyedroppers back in Chapter 8, “Color Correction.”) I'll show you how to use the White Balance tool when we start talking about the features that appear on the right side of the Camera Raw dialog box.
Next to the Eyedropper tools, you'll find a Crop and Straighten tool. After choosing the Crop tool, you can click and drag across your image to determine how much of the image will appear when it's opened in Photoshop (Figure 9.2). Clicking and holding on the Crop tool will present you with a menu of preset width/height ratios and an option for a Custom size (Figure 9.3). Choosing Custom will allow you to enter a precise width and height (like 8 x 10 Inches) (Figure 9.4). I really wish Adobe had allowed us to save preset sizes in this menu (so we could store the paper sizes we print to most often), but we'll have to wait until CS3 for that. After choosing a preset or custom crop setting, the cropping rectangle will become constrained when dragging over the image.
Figure 9.2. The cropping rectangle indicates which areas of the image will appear when it is opened.
Figure 9.3. Click and hold on the Crop tool icon to access this menu.
Figure 9.4. Clicking on the Crop tool and choosing Custom will allow you to enter a precise size.
If you have a crooked image, click the Straighten tool and then click and drag across any straight line that should be horizontal or vertical in your image (such as the horizon line) (Figure 9.5). Once you release the mouse button, you'll be presented with a cropping rectangle that reflects how the image will be rotated when it's opened in Photoshop (Figure 9.6). Unfortunately, there is no Done button for Crop and Straighten tools, which means you'll only see the cropped and rotated version of the image after you open it within Photoshop (Figure 9.7).
Figure 9.5. A crooked image.
Figure 9.6. Straightened in Raw.
Figure 9.7. Result in Photoshop.
To the right of the Crop and Straight tools are two icons used for rotating the image 90° to the right or left. I find it to be much more efficient to type L or R. Now let's move to the bottom of the dialog box where you'll find the workflow settings (that is, if you have the Show Workflow Options checkbox turned on).
The workflow settings (Figure 9.8) determine how much information will be delivered to Photoshop when you open your image. The Space pop-up menu determines the range of colors your image is capable of using (also known as a color space). I recommend that you set it to the same RGB Working Space that you chose back in Chapter 7 “Color Management,” but if you haven't read that chapter, just leave it set to Adobe RGB.
 | Most RAW files contain 12-bits of information. Photoshop, on the other hand, can deal with 8 or 16-bit files. That's like owning 12 cars and having to choose between an 8 or 16 car garage. The 8 car garage would cost half as much (in Photoshop, that means half the file size), but you'd have to give something up to use it. A 16 car garage might be more than you need, but since 8 or 16 are your only choices, it's the only choice that doesn't make you compromise. The choice might sound like a no brainer until you consider that the average family in the U.S. contains only 3.14 people and would find 8 cars to be more than enough (see below). Computer monitors and desktop printers are not capable of reproducing more than 256 brightness levels (also known as 8 bits). So, are the 4096 brightness levels that come with a 12-bit image overkill or are they worth keeping? Well, what if you have a very dark image that only contains brightness levels from black to 90% gray and you end up adjusting the image in Photoshop to make the brightest area white while keeping the darkest area black. Since the original image contained only 10% of the shades available, an 8 bit version would contain a maximum of 26 brightness levels, while the 12-bit version would have 410! Wouldn't the 12-bit image produce a smoother result? It's only in extreme cases when the extra information is helpful, so I only use them when I plan to make an extreme adjusment in Photoshop (all adjustments in the Camera Raw dialog box are applied to the full 12 bits of information). |
The Depth pop-up menu determines how many shades Photoshop can use between black and white. Choosing 8 Bits/Channel delivers an image that contains a maximum of 256 brightness levels, which makes for 16.7 million colors. Choosing 16 Bits/Channel delivers an image that contains a maximum of 4096 brightness levels, which makes for about 68 billion colors! The problem is that 16-bit files take up twice as much space as 8-bit files on your hard drive, and both your computer screen and your printer aren't capable of reproducing more than 8-bits of information.
There's a lot of hype out there about the advantages of 16-bit files, but when it comes down to the end result, the difference between 8 and 16-bit is barely detectable (except in some circumstances which you can read about in the sidebar). There are folks out there who might try to shame you into using 16-bit mode by showing you a histogram (bar chart) that shows the difference between 8 and 16-bit results. If that ever happens to you, please ignore the bar chart and ask to see two prints side by side. If you actually see a noticeable difference between the prints, consider taking their advice and use 16-bit images. If on the other hand, having reasonable file sizes and a relatively fast computer are your priorities, then use 8-bit images like I do and know that your results will still look great. I suggest only using 16 Bits/Channel when you plan on making major adjustments within Photoshop or when you really don't care how large your files become or how slow your computer runs while you're working on an image.
The Size and Resolution settings determine the physical size of your image when it's opened in Photoshop. The Size setting that doesn't have a plus or minus symbol next to it reflects the amount of information your camera captured, while the setting with the symbols reflects choices that will cause Photoshop to scale your image up or down. This is also known as interpolation and is discussed in Chapter 4 “Resolution Solutions”.
In the upper right of the dialog box, you'll find a histogram that shows you how the sliders in the Camera Raw dialog box are affecting the overall tonality of the image. I'll cover the histogram and its uses when we get to the point where we're adjusting images.
Below the histogram, you'll find a dazzling array of sliders organized into tabs of different categories (Adjust, Detail, Lens, Curve, and Calibrate), each with its own set of controls. This is where you can radically change the appearance of your image and optimize it before you open it in Photoshop. Let's look at these settings one at a time. I'll describe them in the same order in which I usually adjust my own images.