6

Processing with Photoshop Elements

After downloading raw files, or importing raw files into a designated folder, the next step if you are using a ‘Convert and then Edit’ workflow is to process the files using a raw converter. In this phase of the workflow you examine each raw image in turn, or a group of similarly executed files, making note of any problems with shadows, highlights, exposure, white balance and more. This is the time to make lobal adjustments (adjustments to the whole of the image) to bring your images within their acceptable dynamic range and to fine-tune them to your personal taste. It is also the time to save files to DNG format and archive them in a safe storage location.

In this section I will walk you through the process of conversion with what is arguably the most widely used raw software in the world – Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). Coming in two slightly different flavors, one shipped with Photoshop Elements and the other with Photoshop and Bridge, ACR provides a logical approach to enhancing your raw files during the conversion process. This chapter concentrates on the steps involved for Photoshop Elements users, with Chapter 7 delving into the intricacies of the utility when used with Photoshop and Bridge.

The Photoshop Elements Organizer, seen here in the PhotoBrowser mode, is an excellent file browser and manager and is generally the pivot point of these image activities for Elements users.

The Organizer workspace (PhotoBrowser) – the starting point

The Photoshop Elements Organizer workspace or PhotoBrowser, as it is sometimes known, is a great file browser and picture manager. Once files are imported into the browser the feature will become a pivot point for all your photo management activities. The PhotoBrowser is an excellent starting point as it provides functions to open, import, tag, search for, catalog and retrieve raw files from a long list of supported cameras. Even though it is possible to open raw files directly into the Editor workspace of Photoshop Elements, to use the program to its fullest you should always import your photos into the Organizer (PhotoBrowser) workspace first. If you are using the Adobe Photo Downloader for transferring files from your card, or camera, then the utility automatically displays the imported photos in the Organizer space immediately after downloading.

Features of the Elements 6.0 version of the Adobe Camera Raw dialog box.

Anatomy of the Camera Raw dialog

Before commencing to process our first raw file, let’s take a close look at the Adobe Camera Raw feature as it appears in Photoshop Elements 6.0. The ACR dialog, the user interface between you and what goes on inside the Camera Raw plug-in, provides tools to adjust, process, convert and save raw files. After opening a raw photo from inside either the Organizer or Editor workspaces, this dialog will be displayed.

The ACR dialog can be broken into four separate areas:

The feature’s window is broken into four distinct areas:

The Help and Save buttons are located at the bottom left of the window. In the center is the bit depth menu and on the right, are the Done, Cancel and Open Images buttons.

The precise grouping of tools and adjustment controls varies between Photoshop and Photoshop Elements versions of ACR and between different releases of the utility. To ensure that you have the best selection of tools to use on your raw files, make sure that your ACR plug-in is always up to date.

By way of introduction let’s look at each of these areas in turn.

The preview image in ACR’s dialog is capable of being magnified to a range of levels. The current magnification value is shown in the bottom left corner of the window.

The preview space

The preview displays the changes you make to your image via the develop settings. Any adjustment of controls are reflected immediately in the preview image, providing a visual reference to the effect of the alterations. The preview can be enlarged or reduced in size to suit the screen area available. When making some changes, such as Sharpening or Noise Reduction, the preview should be magnified to at least 100%. At this zoom setting, you will be able to preview the results of the adjustments of these controls.

There are three ways for you to change the magnification level of the preview to 100%:

The zoom menu at the bottom left of the dialog provides a variety of zoom levels for quick access.

Image adjustment controls

The right-hand side of the ACR dialog is reserved for the core adjustment features.

Histogram

A full color histogram is located under the RGB values. The feature graphs the distribution of the pixels within your photo. The graph updates after changes are made to the color, contrast and brightness of the picture. By paying close attention to the shape of the graph you can pre-empt many image problems. The aim with most enhancement activities is to obtain a good spread of pixels from shadow through midtones to highlights without clipping (converting delicate details to pure black or white) either end of the tonal range.

The histogram in ACR shows the distribution of pixels across the image. Areas with the most pixels are the tallest areas of the graph. The shape of the histogram indicates the look of the picture.

This is not the case for all photos though. Take, for instance, the case of a black cat in a darkened room, the correct histogram for this photo will show a bunching of the pixels towards the left side of central, where as a shot of the sky slopes, also correctly exposed, will display most pixels to the right of the histogram graph.

The Basic tab

Below the histogram is a tab area containing two options – Basic and Detail. The Basic tab contains all the tone and color controls. On the other hand, the Sharpening and Noise Reduction features are grouped under the Detail tab. Here we will concentrate on the controls under the Basic tab.

Image Settings menu

The Settings drop-down menu is displayed by clicking the Settings button on the right side of the Tabs. The menu contains the Image Settings, Camera Raw Defaults, Previous Conversion, Custom, Clear Imported Settings, Save New Camera Raw Defaults, and Reset Camera Raw Defaults entries. Here are some more details on each entry:

The Settings menu contains options for saving or recalling image settings associated with specific cameras.

Image Settings: The Image Settings option restores the original settings of the current photo. Use this selection when you want to reverse changes that you have made and wish to restore the photo to its virgin state.

Camera Raw Defaults: This option applies a group of slider settings that are default values associated with a specific camera and photograph. When a photo is opened for the first time, the settings and white balance will be altered to Camera Raw Defaults (based on the camera model) and As Shot (based on the camera settings used for the photograph), respectively.

Previous Conversion: Another option in the Settings drop-down menu is Previous Conversion. This setting stores the ‘last used’ values for all controls and is an efficient way to apply the enhancements used with the previous image to one currently open in the dialog. Using this option will help speed up the conversions of a series of photos taken at the same time under the same lighting conditions. Simply make the adjustments for the first image and then use the Previous Conversion option to apply the same settings to each of the successive photos from the series in turn.

Custom: Moving any of the slider controls such as Temperature or Tint sliders under the White Balance menu automatically changes the settings entry to Custom. Once the settings have been customized for a particular photograph the values can be saved as a new Camera Raw Default entry using the save option in the pop-up menu accessed via the sideways arrow next to the Settings menu.

White balance correction

White balance is used to correctly balance the color of the scene to the lighting conditions at the time the shot was taken. Leaving white balance set at As Shot means you elect to keep the white balance values that were used when taking the picture.

As you know, one of the advantages shooting raw is that this setting is not a fixed part of the picture file. Altering the specific white balance setting at the time of raw conversion is a ‘lossless’ action. This is not the case if you have used an incorrect setting and have shot in JPEG or TIFF. Use either of these two formats and the white balance setting will be fixed in the file and can only be changed with destructive adjustments using features like Color Variations or Remove Color Cast. In this regard raw shooters have much more flexibility.

Drop-down menu: For instance, if you selected a Daylight setting in-camera and think that Shade or another white balance preset may be closer to the actual lighting conditions you may select one of the options from the list of presets under the White Balance drop-down menu. Moving either the Temperature or Tint sliders switches the setting to Custom. These controls are used for matching the image color temperature with that of the scene.

When an original file is opened for the first time in the dialog, the settings and white balance values will be set to Camera Raw Defaults (based on camera model and make) and As Shot (determined by the camera settings at the time of capture), respectively.

Temperature: The Temperature slider is a fine-tuning device that allows you to select a precise color temperature in units of degrees kelvin. When an image is too yellow, meaning it has a lower color temperature than you prefer, move the Temperature slider to the left to make the colors bluer and compensate for the lower color temperature. When an image is too blue, or higher in temperature than you prefer, move the slider to the right to make the image warmer, adding more yellow compensation. So, left is to make image colors cooler and right is to make image colors warmer.

Tint: The Tint slider fine-tunes the white balance to compensate for a green or magenta tint. Moving the Tint slider to the left adds green and to the right adds magenta. This control is often used to neutralize a color cast caused by lighting from fluorescent tube or strip sources.

White Balance tool: The quickest and perhaps easiest way to adjust white balance is to select the White Balance tool and then click in an area that should be neutral gray or even amounts of red, green and blue. For best results, use a dark to midtone as the reference and be careful not to click on an area with pure white or specular highlights. These will produce unreliable results so keep away from the bright highlight areas of highly reflective or chrome surfaces. One suggestion for working with neutral gray is to:

White balance options.

Presets:

Temperature settings:

Tint settings:

Adobe has positioned the slider controls that adjust the tones within the image in the order (top to bottom) that they should be applied within the ACR dialog. The Exposure and Blacks sliders should be used first to set the white and black points in the photo. Use the Alt/Option keys in conjunction with these sliders to preview the pixels being clipped and to accurately peg the white/black points. Or alternatively switch on the Shadows/Highlights Clipping Warnings which perform the same function whilst leaving the full color preview visible.

Next lighten or darken the photo using the Brightness slider. Unlike the Exposure control this slider doesn’t affect the white and black points of the image but rather adjusts the appearance of the photo by compressing or extending the altered tones. Recovery and Fill Light sliders are new for this release of Elements’ ACR. Use the Recovery control to rebuild highlight areas where one channel has been clipped. The Fill Light slider brightens mid to dark shadow areas.

Making tonal adjustments

Exposure, Recovery, Fill Light, Blacks, Brightness, Contrast, Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation sliders are available for making adjustments to raw files. Adobe has positioned these controls in the dialog so that when working from top to bottom you follow a specific enhancement workflow. For this reason you should follow these steps in order:

Exposure

The Exposure slider adjusts the brightness or darkness of an image using value increments equivalent to f-stops or EV (exposure values) on a camera. An image is underexposed when it is not light enough or too dark and it is overexposed when it is too light. Simply move the slider to the left to darken the image and to the right to lighten (brighten) the image.

What do the f-stop or EV equivalents indicate? An adjustment of -1.50 is just like narrowing the aperture by 1.5 (one and a half) f-stops. Moving the slider 1.33 places to the left will dramatically darken an image and to the right the same amount will result in a bright image. If you have to move more than two full stops in either direction this probably indicates your settings at capture were inaccurate. Making adjustments beyond two stops starts to deteriorate image quality as invariably shadow or highlight detail is lost (clipped) in the process.

For those of you who are interested, the Exposure slider sets the white clipping points in the image. Clipping shows as values creeping up the left (shadow) and right (highlight) walls of your histogram (and red and blue areas in the image if shadow and highlight previews are turned on), and occurs when the pixel values shift to the highest highlight value or the lowest shadow value. Clipped areas are completely black or white and contain no detail. As you want to maintain as much detail in the shadows and highlights as possible your aim should always be to spread the picture tones but not to clip delicate highlight or shadow areas.

To ensure that you don’t accidently convert shadow or highlight detail to pure black or white pixels ACR contains two different types of ‘Clipping’ warnings.

Blacks (Shadows)

Moving the Blacks or Shadows slider adjusts the position of the black point within the image. Just as was the case with the Exposure slider you should only make shadows adjustments when the clipping warning is active. This will ensure that you don’t unintentionally convert shadow detail to black pixels. Remember movements of the slider to the left decrease shadow clipping. Moving it to the right increases or produces clipping.

Brightness and Contrast

The Brightness slider is different to the Exposure slider although both affect the brightness of an image. Brightness compresses the highlights and expands the shadows when you move the slider to the right. When adjusting your photos your aim is to set the black and white points first and then adjust the brightness of the midtones to suit your image.

Contrast adjusts the spread of the midtones in the image. A move of the Contrast slider to the right spreads the pixels across the histogram, actually increasing the midtone contrast. Conversely movements to the left bunch the pixels in the middle of the graph. It is important to adjust the contrast of midtones after working on exposure, shadows and brightness.

The Recovery slider is used for correcting clipped highlights. With the clipping warning activated it is easy to see problem highlights (1). When moving the slider to the right, ACR will attempt to reconstruct clipped details from the information stored in the non-clipped channels (2).

Recovery

When a photograph is overexposed one of the consequences can be that the lighter tones in the image lose detail and are converted to pure white. This process is called clipping. Digital images are created with details from three color channels (red, green, blue). In situations of slight overexposure, when only one channel is clipped, it is possible to recreate the lost detail with the highlight information from the other two (non-clipped) channels. The Recovery slider attempts to recreate lost highlight details in such cases. Moving the slider to the right progressively increases the degree of highlight recovery.

The Fill Light slider manipulates the mid to dark tones in the photo. Moving the slider to the right pushes these tones towards the highlight end of the histogram, lightening them.

Fill Light

The Fill Light slider is used to lighten the darker tones in a picture without affecting the middle to highlight values. Use this control to brighten backlit subjects or boost shadow details. The beauty of this control is that the changes it makes do not generally impact on mid to highlight values.

The Clarity slider gradually increases the contrast of details in the photo.

Clarity

Located along with Vibrance and Saturation controls at the bottom of the Basic panel, this new slider produces localized contrast changes to otherwise flat images.

Rather than adding contrast to the whole image by streteching the tones between black and white points, Clarity works on changing contrast on the detail in your photos. There are many sophisticated, multi-step, sharpening techniques that produce similar effects but thankfully Adobe has managed to squeeze much of their contrast-increasing abilities into a single control. Moving the slider to the right increases the effect.

Vibrance

The Vibrance slider is a new addition to the Basic panel of Adobe Camera Raw. Like the Saturation control, Vibrance controls the strength of the color in the photo. Movements to the right boost the color and movements to the left make the vividness of the hue more subtle. But unlike the Saturation slider, Vibrance manages these changes selectively, targeting the least saturated colors and protecting (to some extent) skin tones.

This makes the new control the first tool to reach for when you want to boost the color in your photos. The results are easier to control and less likely to display posterization or color clipping from over-application than the traditional Saturation control.

The Saturation slider controls the strength or vibrancy of the color within your raw photos.

Saturation

If desired, the Saturation slider may be used to adjust the strength of the color within the photo. A setting of -100 is a completely desaturated monochrome image and a value of +100 doubles the saturation. Watch changes in the histogram when you move the Saturation slider in either direction.

Auto tonal control

When first opening a picture ACR will adjust the tonal controls to an average setting for the picture type and camera make/model. When the Auto setting is selected, ACR examines the picture and adjusts the controls according to the images’ content. When these settings are in place, moving the associated slider will remove the selection but these values can be reinstated by selecting the checkbox again.

Sharpening, Luminance Smoothing and Color Noise Reduction

Sharpening (Amount, Radius, Detail, Masking), Luminance Smoothing and Color Noise Reduction are all controls that can be accessed under the Detail tab.

Sharpening

Sharpening is an enhancement technique that is easily overdone and this is true even when applying the changes at the time of raw conversion. The best approach is to remember that sharpening should be applied to photos as the very last step in the editing/enhancement process and that the settings used need to match the type of output the photo is destined for. In practice this means images that are not going to be edited after raw conversion should be sharpened within ACR, but those pictures that are going to be enhanced further should be sharpened later using the specialist filters in Photoshop Elements.

When a picture is first opened into the ACR the program sets the sharpening and noise values based on the camera type and model used to capture the image. For many photographers making further adjustments here is an exception rather than a rule as they prefer to address sharpening in the Editor after cropping, straightening, enhancing, resizing and going to print.

The Detail tab contains both Sharpening and Noise Reduction options.

The inclusion of two new controls in the Detail section of the Camera Raw dialog contributes substantially to the user’s ability to fine-tune the sharpening in their images. Added to the existing Amount (strength of the effect) and Radius (number of pixels from an edge that will be changed in the sharpening process) sliders is the Detail and Masking controls. Both sliders are designed to control which parts of the image the sharpening effect is applied to. As with all sharpening techniques ensure that the preview is set to 100% before playing with the new controls. In fact, this magnification level is essential if you are to see the masking previews mentioned below.

Moving the Detail slider to the right increases the local contrast surrounding edge areas and therefore enhances the appearance of details. Moving the slider to the left decreases the effect and also reduces the appearance of halos.

The Masking control interactively applies an edge locating mask to the sharpening process. Sharpening through an edge mask is nothing new but encapsulating the process in a single slider control is. A setting of 0 applies no mask and therefore all detail in the photo is sharpened. Moving the slider to the right gradually isolates the edges within the photo until, at a setting of 100, sharpening is only being applied to the most contrasty or dominant edges in the picture. Holding down the Alt/Option key (at 100% magnification) as you move the slider previews the masked areas, allowing you to fine-tune exactly where the sharpening is being applied. Remember no sharpening is occurring in the black parts of the mask, in the areas masked by gray tones only partial sharpening is being applied and in white mask sections the full effect is revealed.

After magnifying the preview to 100% there are four different preview options available when holding down the Alt/Opt keys and sliding one of the Sharpening sliders.

As well as including a mask display option, in the latest version of ACR you can also preview the settings for the other sharpening sliders.

Holding down the Alt/Option keys while moving the Amount slider displays a ’luminosity only’ version of the image so that you can gauge the sharpening effect without the distraction of color. This preview also reminds us that in the latest version of ACR sharpening is applied to detail only and not the color information in the photo. When the Alt/Opt keys are used with the Radius slider the preview highlights the ‘edges’ in the image that will be sharpened and the width of the sharpening effect.

Along with the masking options for Sharpening, the ACR design team also took the opportunity to tweak the noise reduction algorithms in the latest release of the product. Though the effects are not as dramatic as those possible via other methods (see Noise Reduction in Chapter 12), the changes are definitely an improvement.

Noise Reduction

ACR contains two different noise reduction controls. The Luminance Smoothing slider and the Color Noise Reduction control. The Luminance Smoothing slider is designed to reduce the appearance of grayscale noise in a photo. This is particularly useful for improving the look of images that appear grainy. The second type of noise is the random colored pixels that typically appear in photos taken with a high ISO setting or a long shutter speed. This is generally referred to as chroma noise and is reduced using the Color Noise Reduction slider in ACR. The noise reduction effect of both features is increased as the sliders are moved to the right.

ACR contains two noise reduction controls – Luminance Smoothing for grayscale noise and Color Noise Reduction for minimizing errant color pixels. Like most noise reduction controls effective use is a balance between removing digital grain and creating flat featureless areas of color. This example demonstrates how the different settings alter the look of noisy photographs.

When selecting multiple raw files to open in Photoshop Elements the pictures are listed on the left side of the Adobe Camera Raw dialog.

Raw file queue

The third section of the Photoshop Elements version of the ACR dialog only appears when you select multiple raw files inside the Organizer workspace and then choose the Full Edit option from the right-click menu. The selected files are opened into the ACR dialog and listed on the left-hand side of the main workspace. This function, though available in the Photoshop version of ACR, is new for the edition that ships with Photoshop Elements 6.0.

In general, only one image can be selected from the grouping, and displayed in the preview area, at a time. All changes made to the image settings are applied to the selected photo only. Users can move from image to image making the necessary enhancements before clicking the Done key to apply the changes without transferring the files, or Open to display the converted pictures in the Full Edit workspace. But this is not the only way to work with the files.

The Select All button at the top of the queue area allows the user to apply settings used for a single image across a range of photos grouped here.

Synchronizing enhancements across multiple files

The Select All button at the top of the queued files can be employed for a more efficient workflow. With this feature enhancement changes made to a single photo can be applied across the whole range of images queued in the dialog.

Photoshop Elements users have access to a range of tools via the toolbar at the top of the ACR dialog.

Toolbar

Like the image adjustment tabs on the right of the ACR dialog, the contents of the program’s toolbar are different depending on if you are working on files inside Photoshop Elements or Photoshop/Bridge. Elements users have the following tools at their disposal (left to right):

Zoom tool (Z) – The Zoom tool is useful for looking closely at the image for problems with focus and execution – slow shutter speed, lack of stabilization, incorrect aperture setting. At 25% an image may appear to be quite impressive, yet when examining it at 100% often a bit of movement and/or lack of focus appear.

Hand tool (H) – When the preview image is enlarged you can use the Hand tool to easily move around the screen.

White Balance tool (I) – The White Balance tool is very powerful. Clicking this tool on a picture portion that is meant to be neutral (even amounts of red, green and blue) removes any color casts and adjusts the hue of the entire image in one fell swoop.

Crop tool (C) – Use the Crop tool to remove unwanted areas around your photo or to reshape the format of the image to fit a specific paper type. The tool can be click-dragged around the area to keep or a specific cropping format can be selected from the drop-down menu accessed via the small downward-facing arrow in the bottom right of the tool button.

Straighten tool (A) – The Straighten tool can automatically rotate a picture taken with the horizon slightly crooked. Simply drag the tool along the line in the image that is meant to be level and ACR will automatically rotate and crop the photo to realign the horizon.

Red Eye Removal (E) – Use the Red Eye Removal tool to recolor the pupil area of photos taken with flash. Either click onto the red pupil or click-drag a marquee around the problem area. The Pupil Size and Darken sliders can be used to adjust the quality of the results.

Open Preference dialog (Ctrl + K) – Displays the Camera Raw Preferences dialog.

Rotate image 90° counter-clockwise (L) – Rotates the selected photo to the left.

Rotate image 90° clockwise (R) – Rotates the selected photo to the right.

Toggle Mark for Delete – Use this tool carefully to delete files that you don’t want to keep in the catalog.

Preview (P) – Switches the preview of current image adjustments settings on and off.

Toggle Full Screen (F) – Switches the display mode of the dialog from a floating window to full screen.

Output options

Now to the business end of the conversion task – outputting the file. At this stage in the process ACR provides several options that will govern how the file is handled from this point onwards. In previous versions of the dialog the lower right-hand corner houses all the output options, now they are spread along the bottom of the window. The options include Save Image, Cancel, Open Image, Done and Help, and a further three, Save Image (without the options dialog), Reset and Open Copy, when the Alt/Option button is pushed.

Help: Opens the Photoshop Elements help system with raw processing topics already displayed.

Once all controls for the raw conversion have been set ACR provides a range of options for the next step in the process. Save, Help, Cancel, Done and Open are available by default (1). Holding down the Alt/Option key switches the button set to Save (without a dialog), Help, Reset, Open Copy and Done (2).

The Save Options dialog is displayed when the Save Image … button is pressed. To skip this dialog and still save the processed file in DNG format hold down the Alt/Option key whilst clicking the Save Image button.

Cancel: This option closes the ACR dialog not saving any of the settings to the file that was open.

Save Image: The normal Save Image button, which includes several dots (…) after the label, displays the Save Options dialog. Here you can save the raw file, with your settings applied, in Adobe’s own DNG format. The dialog includes options for inputting the location where the file will be saved, the ability to add in a new name as well as DNG file-specific settings such as compression, conversion to linear image and/or embed the original raw file in the new DNG document. It is a good idea to Select Save in Different Location in the Destination drop-down at the top to separate processed files from archive originals. Clearly the benefits of a compressed DNG file are going to help out in the storage issue arena and compression is a big advantage with DNG. Embedding the original raw file in the saved DNG file begs the questions of how much room you have in the designated storage device and whether you really want to have the original raw file here.

Save Image (without save options): Holding down the Alt/Option key when clicking the Save button skips the Save Options dialog and saves the file in DNG format using the default save settings.

Open Image: If you click on the Open button Elements applies the conversion options that you set in ACR and opens the file inside the Editor workspace. At this point, the file is no longer in a raw format so when it comes to saving the photo from the Editor workspace Elements automatically selects the Photoshop PSD format for saving.

Open Copy: The Open Copy option differs from Open Image in that it applies the development settings to a duplicate of the file which is then opened into the Elements Editor workspace.

Reset: The Reset option resets the ACR dialog’s settings back to their defaults. This feature is useful if you want to ensure that all settings and enhancement changes made in the current session have been removed. To access the Reset button click the Cancel button whilst holding down the Alt/Option key.

Done or Update: The Done button applies the current settings to the photo and the dialog is then closed. The thumbnail preview in the PhotoBrowser workspace will also be updated to reflect the changes. In previous versions of the dialog clicking the Open button in conjunction with the Alt/Option key (the Update button) will update the raw conversion settings for the open image in the same way.

Pro’s tip: If the thumbnail doesn’t update automatically, select the picture and then choose Edit > Update Thumbnail in the PhotoBrowser workspace.

Skip: In previous versions of Adobe Camera Raw holding down the Shift key whilst clicking the Open button will not apply the currently selected changes and just close the dialog. In this way it is similar to the Cancel button.