6 Global Adjustments

The big picture: does the image need a crop? Is it too blue overall? Or is it too flat? In this chapter, I’ll focus on making the biggest difference to your images quickly so you can judge what else, if anything, needs to be done.

For each major task, I’ll start with defining the problem. I’ll go over the things you should look for and consider correcting. Then I’ll get into the details of fixing them.

Fortunately, many of these adjustments can be made in any of your applications: Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom let you deal beautifully with the freshly captured image, and Photoshop has much to contribute at any point in the workflow.

I have organized this chapter primarily by the problems to be solved, in the order in which we often approach them. Find the issue, then engage your application of choice. I suggest that you read the solutions for all the applications so that you can decide for yourself which is best for you.