Camera Raw in Photoshop CS3

The first thing users of Camera Raw in Photoshop CS3 will notice is the re-design of the user interface and the inclusion of some new functions in the Image Controls menu on the right side of the workspace. Some of these have come from Lightroom’s Develop module, which allows it to synchronise with Camera Raw. Photographers can now choose to open and edit Raw, TIFF and JPEG files in either Lightroom or Camera Raw without losing settings applied in either application. This also makes all the settings provided in Camera Raw available for JPEGs and TIFF files.

Other new controls have come through Adobe’s acquisition of Pixmantec’s Raw Shooter Essentials. In both cases they add new features that many photographers will appreciate, or provide greater levels of fine-tuning for existing functions.

While the histogram is essentially the same as in Photoshop CS2, the five image control tabs below it have been replaced by eight tabs, each identified by a letter and each opening a different graphic menu. The first tab, B, provides the Basic controls that include the same White Balance, Exposure, Brightness, Contrast and Saturation adjustments as CS2. However, the sliders are now in two separate sections, with the Saturation slider moved below a checkbox for Convert to Grayscale, itself a brand new function. Two new sliders have been added to the top group: Recovery, which enables detail to be extracted from highlights, and Fill Light for opening up the shadows. Below the Convert to Grayscale checkbox is a new Vibrance slider, which provides the saturation enhancements from Raw Shooter Essentials.

Above these sliders are two hyperlinks: Auto and Default. The former provides automatic adjustments similar to the Auto controls in Photoshop’s Adjustments menu. The latter restores all sliders to the default settings applied by the camera. Double-clicking on any slider also allows users to return that slider to its default position. This handy option applies to all sliders in Camera Raw and represents a handy alternative to re-setting all defaults.

The Convert to Grayscale checkbox allows you to create a greyscale version of an image based on the data contained in the red, green and blue colour channels. It provides a quick and easy, non-destructive way to see what an image looks like as a B&W picture, and represents a first step towards further greyscale adjustments in subsequent tabs. (A second Convert to Grayscale checkbox is provided in the H menu, which is discussed below.)

Clicking on the T tab opens the Tone Curve menu, which contains two editing options: Parametric and Point Curve. (Only one page was provided in CS2.) The Parametric page has sliders for adjusting Highlights, Lights, Darks and Shadows, while the Point page is the same as the Curve page in CS2 with a drop-down menu containing four pre-set Curves plus the ability to make custom adjustments at any point along the curve.

Note: Because both curves are applied cumulatively, you are advised to set the Point Curve to one of the pre-sets before adjusting the Parametric settings, or adjust the Parametric settings then fine-tune them on the Point Curve.

The H tab opens the HSL / Grayscale adjustment pages. Checking the Convert to Grayscale box on this page opens a menu with sliders that provide an eight-channel mixer for adjusting tones in the greyscale image. Auto and Default hyperlinks above the sliders enable photographers to experiment with different settings and compare them with the camera defaults.

Leaving the Convert to Grayscale box unchecked lets you access slider controls for the image’s Hue, Saturation and Luminance parameters. Once again, eight individual colour channels (Reds, Oranges, Yellows, Greens, Aquas, Blues, Purples and Magentas) are adjustable, with a default hyperlink for restoring camera settings.

The S tab opens an entirely new set of adjustments covering Split Toning. This is used only with B&W images and allows you to impart different hues to highlights and shadows and fine-tine the balance between them. Images adjusted with these controls MUST be printed with the colour setting of your printer’s driver using the application-managed colour setting. Do not try to print them through the printer’s B&W driver or the split toning will be lost.

The next two tabs, D and L, replicate the Detail and Lens Correction menus provided in Photoshop CS3. The Detail page provides sliders for adjusting Sharpening and Noise Reduction, with the latter containing two sliders: Luminance and Color. The Lens Correction page has two sets of sliders covering Chromatic Aberration and Lens Vignetting.

The Camera Calibration and Presets menus also provide the same settings as those provided under the Calibrate tab in Photoshop CS2. However, colours have been used on the sliders to make it easier to identify which of the primaries you wish to work with.Under the Camera Calibration tab, photographers can enter ICC profiles for their cameras or select the default ACR setting (which was 3.6 for the version of Camera Raw we were using when this feature was written). The default setting is updated each time you load a new version of Camera Raw.

Clicking on the arrow at the top right corner of the page takes you to the Presets page where pre-set preferences can be stored. As with Lightroom, presets are easily added, removed or replaced.

Finally, thanks to a closer integration between Camera Raw and Adobe Bridge, photographers can now automate batch processing functions for Raw files in a Photoshop/Camera Raw-based workflow. Along with its more streamlined user interface, this gives Bridge real value for photographers at all levels of expertise. Improvements to Bridge include:

• Faster overall performance.
• A new Loupe tool for quickly zooming in and out of any image area that requires close inspection.
• A new three-column layout and saved workspaces for greater flexibility and efficiency.
• A new Filters panel makes it quicker to find the images you need.
• Stacks, which compress a series of images to a single thumbnail with a single click, and then expand them again just as easily.
• An optional Flat view of all the images in a set of nested folders.
• Instant access to Adobe Acrobat.
• Facilities for online, real-time video and audio collaboration.

• Bridge Home, with up-to-date information about Creative Suite 3 software, as well as video tutorials, tips, and resources.

  How the Histogram Works
  A useful way to visualise the effect of the changes made by the sliders is to divide the histogram into five tonality ranges, with shadows (S) at the left end and highlights (H) at the right. The centre two-thirds of the histogram is occupied by the mid-tones. The shadows represent the darkest tonalities in the image and cover all the blacks and near-blacks in the image, while the three-quarter ( ¾) tones cover values that are dark but not as dark as the shadows. The midtones cover the longest individual section of the histogram, as you would expect, and cover all tones around the middle of the tonal range, regardless of their hue. The quarter tones (1/4) represent lighter colours and include pastels, pale buffs and light greys. The highlights represent all the brightest pixels in the image.

  The illustration below shows how the system works.

  

  Note: The illustrations for this feature were made with the beta versions of Photoshop CS3, which was the only version available at the time. We were assured by Adobe’s Australian staff that any variations between the beta and final versions would be relatively minor and the essential functionality of the software would be unchanged.