Review Digital Camera World 04-30-2013

Digital Camera World

Conquer Underexposure: how to rescue shadow detail and how to deal with noise Apr 29th 2013, 23:01 In our latest Raw Tuesday series post we show you how to beat underexposure. Our in-depth Photoshop tutorial shows you how to rescue shadow detail missing from the darker areas of your picture and how to deal with ensuing noise. Have you ever wondered what the point of shooting in raw actually is? If so, this is the tutorial for you. A raw file is a complete record of all the data your camera has captured. While JPEGs take up far less room and offer greater flexibility in the digital world, raw format files are the only choice for anyone who wants the best possible quality. Sometimes the level of detail you can squeeze out of a seemingly dud exposure is quite astonishing. Take our scene here. Captured at the end of the day with the light fading and the foreground in shadow, there wasn't a hope of recording a balanced exposure. Our before image Of course, in situations like this you could use a graduated filter to balance things out – restricting the light from the sky – but if you don't have one to hand then it's near impossible to get a pleasing exposure in a single frame. Another option is to shoot two exposures – one for the sky, the other for the land – and then combine them later. But this isn't always possible, especially if, for example, the bridge you've set up your tripod on is about to be overrun by ramblers! But there's no need to admit defeat. It's surprising how much detail you can recover in Adobe Camera Raw. Here, we'll show you how to tease out this detail using Camera Raw's powerful tonal sliders. Inevitably, this leads to an increase in noise. We'll combat this with the plug-in's excellent noise reduction commands. How to beat underexposure and rescue shadow detail – steps 1-3 01 Open the image in Camera Raw Open Adobe Bridge, then go to your start image. Right-click the thumbnail and go to Open in Camera Raw. You don't have to have Photoshop open, as Bridge is capable of hosting Adobe Camera Raw too (which means you're not locked out of Photoshop when using Adobe Camera Raw).   02 Lighten the shadows Go to the Shadows slider in the Basics panel and drag it to +67 to reveal detail in the land. Drag highlights to -57 to bring back detail in the sky. In older versions of Adobe Camera Raw, you can get similar results with the Fill Light and Recovery sliders. Set Temperature to 7600.   03 Check for clipped pixels Hold down the Alt key while dragging the Blacks and White sliders. Drag Blacks to +23, then set Whites to -38 to add a little more definition to the clouds. Next, set Contrast to -36 and Vibrance to +32. Boost midtone contrast by setting Clarity to +28. PAGE 1: How to beat underexposure and rescue shadow detail – steps 1-3 PAGE 2: How to beat underexposure and rescue shadow detail – steps 4-6 PAGE 3: How to beat underexposure and rescue shadow detail – steps 7-9 PAGE 4: How to beat underexposure and rescue shadow detail – steps 10-12 PAGE 5: How to beat underexposure and rescue shadow detail – steps 13-15 PAGE 6: How to beat underexposure and rescue shadow detail – steps 16-18 READ MORE How to process raw images the right way 34 Photoshop effects every photographer must try once Crop photos the right way: classic mistakes and how to avoid them Adobe Lightroom: what every photographer needs to know about the ‘alternative Photoshop’ How to correct white balance problems in JPEG files Apr 29th 2013, 10:00 One of the holy gospels of digital photography is to shoot in raw format. But let’s face it: there are still times when you’ll want to shoot JPEGs instead of raw files. And when you do, getting the correct white balance is of vital importance because it’s much more difficult to correct white balance in JPEGs on the computer than it is when editing raw files. That said, there are ways to correct white balance in the JPEG images you have taken. In this quick tutorial we’ll show you how to fix your colour errors and rescue those JPEGs. Technically, yes, you need to shoot in raw quality mode if you want to alter the white balance of images at the editing stage. Auto white balance isn't foolproof. Indeed, the auto setting can give you different results in consecutive shots taken under identical conditions. While correcting white balance in raw files is easy, all is not lost if you've taken pictures in JPEG quality mode. Most major image editing programs have tools for correcting unwanted colour casts, and often give the choice of colour variations to create the look you want. When adjusting JPEGs, it's always a good idea to keep a backup copy of the original file, and subsequently copied from your memory card. This is because, unlike editing raw files, any changes you make can't be undone after saving and closing a JPEG file. How to correct white balance errors in JPEG images 01 Remove colour cast From the Enhance pull-down menu, select the Adjust Colour, Remove Colour Cast option. This will give access to corrections, complete with a live preview of effects before you apply them.   02 Eye dropper Ensure the Preview checkbox is ticked to enable a live update, then use the eyedropper and click on any point in the image that should be black, white or neutral grey.   03 Colour variations From the Enhance, Adjust Colour menu, this time select Colour Variations. Here you can fine tune colour rendition as well as brightness in mid-tones, shadows and highlights independently. READ MORE 15 common photography questions from beginners (and how to solve them) 10 common exposure problems every photographer faces (and how to solve them) 10 things photographers can do to stop wasting pictures Best photo editing software: 6 top Photoshop alternatives tested and rated

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions