Chapter 8: Processing Photos in the Camera Raw Workspace 249 FIGURE 8.34 Color and depth are added to the sky by using the Graduated Filter. Creating Artistic Effects You can’t create many artistic effects in Camera Raw just yet, but you can add grain or a vignette to your image using the Effects panel. Both can add depth and interest to a photo, and as always in Camera Raw, these edits are completely reversible. Open the Effects panel by clicking the Effects tab in the Adjustment tabs, as shown in Figure 8.35. This panel provides sliders to add and customize grain or a vignette to your image. Adding grain When you add grain to your image in Camera Raw, it is added to areas that are out of focus more heavily than it is added to the focused areas. This adds depth and interest to the softness created by a short focal length. Use the following sliders to add and fine-tune grain in your image: l Amount: Until you adjust the amount of grain above 0, no grain is added to your photo. This is a rare setting in Camera Raw, because it is always set to 0 when an image is opened. Many of the other settings remain right where you left them. Adjust the Amount slider up to add a little or a lot of grain to your image. l Size: This determines the size of the grain added to your image. l Roughness: This adds contrast between the grains to enhance the roughness of the texture. You can see the effect of adding grain to an image in Figure 8.36. 13_584743-ch08.indd 24913_584743-ch08.indd 249 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Part II: Working with Camera Raw Images 250 FIGURE 8.35 The Effect panel FIGURE 8.36 Adding grain to this photo turned the soft background into grittier, more interesting texture. 13_584743-ch08.indd 25013_584743-ch08.indd 250 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Chapter 8: Processing Photos in the Camera Raw Workspace 251 Adding a vignette A vignette is a soft, circular border around an image that highlights an area of the image. In Camera Raw, a vignette is created uniformly around the edges of your image, targeting the center by default, so you probably want to crop these images so the focal point of your photo is close to the center. Change these options to create a vignette, as shown in Figure 8.37: l Style: From the Style drop-down menu, you can choose Highlight or Color priority. The Highlight priority adds black or white pixels to create the vignette. The Color priority either lightens or darkens the existing colors in the image to create the vignette. l Amount: Adjusting this slider above 0 creates a lighter vignette; the higher the value, the more opaque the vignette is. Going lower creates a darker vignette. l Midpoint: This adjusts the size of the vignette. l Roundness: Moving the roundness slider up creates a rounder vignette, while moving it down causes it to conform to the shape of the image. l Feather: This sets the softness of the vignette edges. l Highlights: This slider is available only if you have created a dark vignette. It pulls high- lights out of the image in the darker areas to create depth. FIGURE 8.37 Adding a vignette highlights the focal point of an image. 13_584743-ch08.indd 25113_584743-ch08.indd 251 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Part II: Working with Camera Raw Images 252 Correcting Camera Quirks The Lens Correction and Camera Calibration tabs give you options to correct aberrations that occur with lenses and cameras that distort the color and tonal value of your image. Lens corrections If you zoom in to an image until you can distinguish the pixels, you’ll probably notice a color fringe around some of them, especially highlights. This is called chromatic aberration, and it’s caused either by the inability of the camera lens to focus all the colors onto the sensor at once or by those colors being focused but slightly different sizes, producing color fringes. Camera Raw can correct the second type of chromatic aberration using the sliders in the Lens Corrections tab, as shown in Figure 8.38. Zoom in tight to your image, and adjust the sliders until the color fringes are less visible. When you have set the sliders, select Defringe and use the drop- down menu to choose Highlight Edges or All Edges. You can preview both settings and use the one that works best. FIGURE 8.38 The Lens Corrections tab The other Lens adjustment on the Lens Corrections tab is Lens Vignetting. I just showed you how to create a vignette as an artistic effect, but what if your lens has created the vignette and you don’t want it? You can remove it by using the Lens Vignetting sliders to adjust for it, almost the exact opposite of creating one in the Effects tab. Camera calibration Cameras all come with their own way of defining and interpreting color, and these color profiles are part of what is saved to the metadata of your image file. When you bring an image into Camera 13_584743-ch08.indd 25213_584743-ch08.indd 252 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Chapter 8: Processing Photos in the Camera Raw Workspace 253 Raw, it has its own methods of interpreting color and chooses profiles that are the best for your particular camera make and model. After you click the Camera Calibration tab to open the Camera Calibrations panel, you can choose what profile to use from the Camera profile drop-down menu, as shown in Figure 8.39. You can see a significant difference in the color of your image by clicking through these profiles. After choosing a profile for your image, you can tweak it by using the color sliders to adjust individual colors and saturation. FIGURE 8.39 Your camera profiles in the Camera Calibration tab may be different than the ones shown here. Adjusting Sharpness and Reducing Noise When you have completed all the other changes to your image in Camera Raw, you are ready to open the Detail tab shown in Figure 8.40, where you can adjust the sharpness and reduce noise in your image. You make these adjustments last because their effectiveness is reduced when other adjustments are added to them. 13_584743-ch08.indd 25313_584743-ch08.indd 253 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Part II: Working with Camera Raw Images 254 FIGURE 8.40 The Details tab Noise reduction Noise is defined as random pixels throughout your image that give it a messy look. Noise is intro- duced in several ways. The higher the ISO setting on your camera, the more noise is created in your image. Lightening, as well as other adjustments, also creates noise. You can reduce the noise in your image by adjusting the following settings: l Luminance: Reduces the amount of grayscale noise. l Color: Reduces the amount of color noise. l Edge Detail: Is tied to Luminance and Color sliders and allows you to increase the con- trast of the edges in your image, reducing the blurring effect that Noise Reduction can sometimes have. Note Keep in mind that Photoshop reduces noise by blurring your image and decreasing contrast of individual pixels. Sharpening also affects your image at the single pixel level. It is important to preview your image zoomed in at least 100 percent in order to see and fine-tune the effects of both noise and sharpening on your image. n Sharpening Sharpening works by increasing the contrast around the edges of your image to bring it more into focus, adding detail to your image. 13_584743-ch08.indd 25413_584743-ch08.indd 254 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Chapter 8: Processing Photos in the Camera Raw Workspace 255 Camera Raw sets the default sharpening at 25 for raw images. This is not a huge amount; in fact, it is comparable to the sharpness your camera applies to a processed image. Lots of experts will tell you, though, that adding any sharpening by default is a bad idea, so if you want to change the default setting to 0, reset the slider and choose Set New Camera Raw Defaults from the Adjustment Tabs menu. Sharpen your photo by using the following adjustments: l Amount: This sets the amount of sharpening applied to your image. The amount you choose is directly tied to your Radius and Detail settings. l Radius: Choose your Radius based on the size of the detail in your image. An image with very small detail should have a small Radius setting. Images with larger details can get away with a larger Radius setting, but keep an eye on that preview; a large Radius setting can introduce an unnatural amount of contrast to your image. l Detail: This setting heightens the detail of your image as you raise it by applying the sharpness to higher frequency areas of your photo. A very high detail setting gives your image an almost textured look. l Masking: Raising this setting applies more of the sharpening effect to the edges of your image and less to the overall image. Tip If you hold down the Alt/Option key while you adjust the Sharpening sliders, you see a preview of what the control is doing to your image. This is a great way to get more familiar with the Sharpening controls and find the optimal setting for your image. n Summary This chapter really got into the meat and potatoes of Camera Raw. You learned about color and light and how they can be adjusted using the tools and panels in Camera Raw. Specifically, you learned how to do the following: l Change the light settings to improve the exposure and contrast in an image l Make color corrections to an image or individual colors in that image l Make targeted adjustments to only selected portions of your image l Create artistic effects with your images l Put the finishing touches on by correcting camera aberrations, sharpening, and reducing noise in your image 13_584743-ch08.indd 25513_584743-ch08.indd 255 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM . center by default, so you probably want to crop these images so the focal point of your photo is close to the center. Change these options to create a vignette, as shown in Figure 8 .37: l Style:. to create depth. FIGURE 8 .37 Adding a vignette highlights the focal point of an image. 13_584743-ch08.indd 25113_584743-ch08.indd 251 5/3/10 10:23 AM5/3/10 10:23 AM Part II: Working with Camera. called chromatic aberration, and it’s caused either by the inability of the camera lens to focus all the colors onto the sensor at once or by those colors being focused but slightly different