108 c h a p t e r 3: ADOBE CAMERA RAW ■ Note: If you overexposed or underexposed the image to the point that you didn’t capture some of the highlight or shadow data, the Recovery and Fill Light sliders will not be able to recover it. It can’t create infor- mation that you didn’t capture. But if you were able to capture it on the sensor, then the Recovery slider will reveal it. Remember that the sensor contains more information than can be displayed initially—usually up to about ½ stop more information in the highlights and up to 1½ stops more information in the shadows. Set the Fill Light slider as necessary to recover detail in the darkest shadow areas. You may need to modify the Blacks slider setting as well. The trick is that you still want some true blacks in your image, but you want to see detail in the not-quite- black shadow areas. Using the Brightness and Contrast Sliders The Brightness slider shifts the majority of the pixels lighter or darker to make the overall image appear lighter or darker. Watch how the bulk of the histogram shifts as you move this slider each way. It’s similar to moving the center slider within Levels in Photoshop. The more extreme the adjustments you make with the Exposure slider, the more likely it is you’ll need to make adjustments using the Brightness slider. Don’t forget to keep an eye out for any clipping you may introduce by increasing or decreasing the brightness. The Contrast slider is similar to applying an S curve within Curves in Photo- shop to increase or decrease the contrast within the bulk of the pixel values. If you watch the histogram as you adjust this slider, you’ll see the bulk of the pixels being shifted away from the middle toward the extremes. Contrast is primarily modified in those pixels in the middle tonalities, with the lightest and darkest tonalities being less affected. Increasing the amount to greater than the default of +25 lightens values above the midtones and darkens values below the mid- tones. Similarly, reducing the value darkens values above the midtones and lightens values below the midtones to reduce the overall contrast. If you decide to adjust the contrast in ACR, be sure to check that you have not introduced any clipping to your highlights or shadows. You may have to readjust the other sliders. Note: Given the ability to make some fairly dramatic changes in exposure, it may seem as if you don’t have to worry about capturing the correct exposure in-camera. In fact, as discussed in Chapter 1, “Thinking Digitally,” the better your initial exposure, the better the final product will be. If the image is initially underexposed, you’ll find that although you can correct the exposure, there is likely to be a lot of distracting noise in the final image. If you “expose to the right” (again, see Chapter 1), you will have the least amount of noise within your image, although you may have to adjust the Blacks slider, and possibly the Brightness slider as well. Exposing to the right with raw captures ultimately gives you the best possible result as long as you make certain you don’t clip the highlights. Modifying Clarity, Vibrance, and Saturation The Clarity slider is sometimes called the “make-it-better” slider, and we use it on most of our images. When the slider is adjusted to the right, it increases midtone contrast 607343c03.indd 108 4/12/10 11:48:29 PM 109 ■ SETTING THE OTHER TABS as well as adding a small amount of sharpening that slightly increases the amount of detail apparent in the image. This can make an image seem to “pop.” When the slider is moved to the left, the details in the image become progressively more blurred and in some cases, the image may appear to glow. That can be helpful for more artistic, cre- ative interpretations of certain images. Some photographers we know routinely advise pulling the Clarity slider all the way to the right. We suggest caution because applying too strong a Clarity adjustment can create artifacts. We advise zooming in to a 100% magnification to check for artifacts after initially setting the slider. Both the Saturation and Vibrance sliders affect the saturation or purity of col- ors in an image. Saturation increases the purity of all colors equally whereas Vibrance is a “smart” saturation tool. It affects colors differentially as it increases (or decreases) the saturation to reduce the chances of introducing clipping in any color. Instead of applying increased saturation uniformly to all colors, Vibrance applies it heaviest to the less saturated colors and less to the more saturated colors. It also tends to saturate yellows and oranges less in order to try to preserve skin tones. Although nature pho- tographers are not often concerned with skin tones, we may want to saturate some colors more than others. In fact, we find that the Vibrance slider often creates a more pleasing result. We find that we can use higher settings with the Vibrance slider and create images that pop but still look natural. At times you may want to use the Saturation slider in addition to or instead of the Vibrance slider. Be sure to check for unexpected clipping within the different color channels. The Saturation and Vibrance sliders affect all the colors in your image. If you want to adjust specific color ranges, use the HSL/Grayscale tab, which we’ll cover shortly. Note: Some images may benefit from reduced saturation or vibrance. Be sure to watch the histo- gram as you make any changes. Setting the Other Tabs ACR includes a total of 10 tabs, as shown in Figure 3.13, that have features to help you optimize your image. Many photographers are more than happy with the results they get simply by adjusting the sliders on the Basic tab. However, if you want to have even more control, you should venture into these other tabs after you’ve made your initial correc- tions on the Basic tab. We’ll describe how to use the other tabs in the order they appear. Figure 3.13 Click each of the tabs to reveal additional tools to ne-tune and adjust your image. Setting the Tone Curves: The Tone Curve Tab The next tab is the Tone Curve tab . By default this tab opens to the Parametric Curve. Ellen calls Parametric Curves “Easy Curves” because they’re much easier and more intui- tive for novices to use. But in addition to being easy, they’re quite powerful and useful. 607343c03.indd 109 4/12/10 11:48:30 PM 110 c h a p t e r 3: ADOBE CAMERA RAW ■ We routinely start with the Parametric Curves in ACR. As shown in Figure 3.14, there are four sliders beneath the Parametric Curves graph, and the histogram is superimposed within it. Adjusting the Highlights slider primarily adjusts the brightest quarter of the tonalities. Adjusting the Lights slider primarily affects the midtones to light tones but may affect the lightest tonalities or the darks as well. The effect is most pronounced within the midtones to light tones. The Darks slider primarily affects the middle to darkest quarter of tonality, while the Shadows slider affects the darkest quarter of tonal values. As you adjust any of these sliders, the more dramatic the adjustment you make, the wider the range of tonal values that will be affected. To change the tonal range controlled by each slider, click on the triangles at the bottom of the graph and move them left or right. Figure 3.14 Creating customized curves to adjust midtone contrast is easy using the Parametric Curve slider controls. We suggest you spend a little time experimenting with these sliders and getting comfortable with them. They can be quite useful. Note: Parametric Curves are also available in Lightroom and Elements 8.0, but not in the Ele- ments version of ACR, and not within Photoshop itself. The Tone Curve tab offers another tab to access the Point Curve. This is the type of curve that is found in Photoshop. When you click the Point tab (illustrated in Figure 3.15), you’ll see a drop-down menu for the Tone Curve, which by default is set to Medium Contrast. You’ll also see a graph showing the actual tone curve superimposed over a graph showing the distribu- tion of pixels. By clicking within the drop-down menu, you can choose the Linear Curve option, which causes no additional contrast to be added to your image, or the Strong Contrast option, which uses a preset tone curve that adds more contrast to your image. However, the really useful part of the Point tab is that you can begin with any of the Tone Curve presets and modify the curve, using the preset points as well as any points you want to add, to create a custom curve for each image. The advantage of doing this in ACR rather than later in Photoshop is that the curve is still operating on the linear data. As long as you have the clipping preview boxes checked in the histogram 607343c03.indd 110 4/12/10 11:48:30 PM 111 ■ SETTING THE OTHER TABS in ACR, you can see whether the changes you make are causing any clipping. If you’re comfortable using curves, you may want to experiment with the Point Tone Curves within ACR. If curves are new to you, you may want to stick with Parametric Curves until you are more familiar with using them. Figure 3.15 By using the Point tab, you can access various preset tone curves or make a custom curve to further rene your image. Note: By holding the Ctrl/F key and hovering the cursor over a pixel in the image preview, a circle will appear on the tone curve indicating where that point falls. To create a point on the curve at that location, click while holding the Ctrl/F key. Sharpening and Reducing Noise: The Detail Tab The Detail tab contains sliders to adjust the sharpening in ACR as well as noise reduction. It’s important to remember that the sharpening you’re applying in ACR is a first pass only. The final sharpening should be based on the output size of the image. Therefore, your setting should be conservative. We often use the default settings. However, you may want to adjust them. T• he Amount slider controls the amount of sharpening or contrast to add to the edges. T• he Radius slider determines how far out the effect extends. If the image has very fine details, it may need a lower setting, and if it has larger details, it may benefit from a larger radius. However, large radius settings can cause unnatural results, so be careful. T• he Detail slider controls the extent to which the sharpening process creates halos to emphasize the edges. Lower settings remove blurring from edges, whereas higher settings make textures more pronounced. T• he Mask slider controls where the sharpening is applied. At 0 everything in the image receives the same amount of sharpening, while at 100 sharpening is restricted to areas near the strongest edges. 607343c03.indd 111 4/12/10 11:48:30 PM 112 c h a p t e r 3: ADOBE CAMERA RAW ■ Zoom in to 100% magnification and experiment with the sliders. Err on the side of caution and avoid oversharpening, which can cause obvious halos and/or a crunchy appearance. Noise reduction has been significantly improved in CS5. There are now several sliders to help control luminance noise, in addition to sliders to mini- mize color noise. These algorithms are so powerful that you may find you rely far less on third-party noise-reduction software than in the past. Noise is a by-product of digital captures, and is more problematic when using higher ISOs, making extremely long exposures, and/or correcting underexposed images. It’s a bigger problem with some cameras than with others. Noise may be seen primar- ily in areas of darker tonalities, although it can extend into the midtones as well (see Figure 3.16). Noise appears as variations in tones and colors in areas that should be smooth, such as skies or skin. Luminance noise refers to grayscale noise, the unexpected and unwanted varia- tions in tonal values that appear. This type of noise is similar in appearance in many ways to film grain. By reducing these tonal variations, this type of smoothing may reduce the overall sharpness of your image, so keep these corrections to a minimum. It’s a good idea to zoom in on various critical areas of your image to 100% or even 200% to see how they’re being affected as you make adjustments. CS5 has improved the luminance noise reduction that’s available in ACR. Rather than just the single slider it had in the past, there are now three sliders to adjust (see Figure 3.16), which enable you to have more control and to apply noise reduction more specifically. T• he Luminance slider controls the amount of luminance noise reduction to apply. When the slider is set to 0, no luminance noise reduction is applied. T• he Luminance Detail slider determines the threshold for what is considered noise. Moving the slider to the right preserves more detail but also may cause more luminance noise to remain. Conversely, adjusting the slider to the left can decrease the amount of luminance noise in the image but may inadvertently also cause some details to be removed. Note: If you opt to have ACR use Process 2003, the Luminance Detail slider is disabled. T• he Luminance Contrast slider helps preserve image contrast and texture. While setting it to the right may preserve more texture in the image, it may also cause more noise to remain. Moving it to the left helps create smoother, fine- grained results, but may inadvertently cause some image texture and detail to be smoothed. Since luminance smoothing can reduce overall sharpness and blur fine detail, we still often prefer to do most luminance noise reduction in Photoshop rather than in ACR. That way, we can use a mask to apply it only to problematic areas and retain full detail in our subject matter. However, the new algorithms in CS5’s ACR are effec- tive enough to have us trying them. 607343c03.indd 112 4/12/10 11:48:30 PM 113 ■ SETTING THE OTHER TABS Luminosity and Color noise reduction No noise reduction Default noise reduction Figure 3.16 Noise appears as random variations in tones and colors in areas that should be smooth. Using the noise-reduction sliders is an easy way to eliminate it. Ph ot o by EllE n An on 607343c03.indd 113 4/12/10 11:48:32 PM 114 c h a p t e r 3: ADOBE CAMERA RAW ■ The Color Noise Reduction sliders reduce color noise, the unexpected color vari- ations that often appear. Although this noise is most common in the darker tonalities, it can also sometimes be seen as green and magenta blobs in areas that should be neu- tral gray and as rainbow artifacts in the highlights. Again, zoom to a 100% or 200% view of the areas demonstrating problems with noise, and move the sliders to reduce the color variations. Make the minimum adjustment necessary to decrease the noise. T• he Color slider determines the amount of color noise reduction to apply. T• he Color Detail slider enables you to refine the color noise reduction that is applied to thin, detailed, color edges. Higher settings will retain more color detail in the edges but may cause more color noise to remain. At lower set- tings, more color noise suppression is applied, but this may result in thin edges becoming desaturated or in color bleeding. We tend to use the Color Noise Reduction sliders in ACR to remove as much color noise as possible when noise is an issue. Correcting Color: The HSL/Grayscale Tab The HSL/Grayscale tab (HSL is short for hue, saturation, and luminance) is a very visual tool offering the ability to fine-tune each color range on a variety of parameters. For example, you can modify the yellows so that they are closer to orange or closer to green. You can also adjust the saturation of the yellows and then the luminance—or lightness/darkness—of them. This means you can make subtle—or not-so-subtle— adjustments to individual color ranges in your image without affecting other colors. When you click the Hue, Saturation, or Luminance subtabs, the eight color range sliders change to gradients, as shown in Figure 3.17, indicating how moving the slider will change the appearance of the colors. You set each color individually. Figure 3.17 By using the HSL controls, Ellen ne-tuned the colors in this sunower image. Ph ot o by EllE n An on 607343c03.indd 114 4/12/10 11:48:33 PM . Ele- ments version of ACR, and not within Photoshop itself. The Tone Curve tab offers another tab to access the Point Curve. This is the type of curve that is found in Photoshop. When you click the Point. reduction in Photoshop rather than in ACR. That way, we can use a mask to apply it only to problematic areas and retain full detail in our subject matter. However, the new algorithms in CS5 s ACR. over a graph showing the distribu- tion of pixels. By clicking within the drop-down menu, you can choose the Linear Curve option, which causes no additional contrast to be added to your image,