subscribe 0330 333 1113I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.ukI 15 June 2019 35
Perspectivecorrections
Theperspectivecorrectiontoolsin Camera
Rawaresuperiortothosein Photoshopand
therewillbenolossin imagequalityif applied
asa CameraRawfilter.Therefore,youcan
usetheCameraRawfiltertoapplyUpright
adjustmentsoryoucanadjustthemanual
Transformcontrolstomakeyour images
unique and a work of art.
Addacreative
sharpeninglayer
Tomakeyourimagessharpyoucanuse
CameraRawtoapplyadditionalDetail
sharpeningadjustmentsthatbringoutmore
detailwhereit is neededmost.Havingdone
that,youcanedittheSmartObjectlayermask
torestrictthesharpeningtoonlythose areas
that require extra sharpening.Darkenskies
Whileyoucanapplyanadjustmentlayerand
editthelayermasktodarkena sky,usingthe
CameraRawfilteryoucanaddandedita
GraduatedFilteradjustmenttoachievethe
sameaim,buthavelotsmorecontrolover
thefiltereffect.Forexample,youcanusethe
RangeMasktoselectivelyapply an adjustment
to the sky colours only.IT CANsometimesbevery
usefultoapplytheCameraRaw
filtertovideofiles.First,you’ll
havetoconverta videofile toa
SmartObjectbeforechoosing
toaddCameraRawasa filter.
Thisthenallowsyoutouse
nearlyalltheCameraRaw
editingtoolstoimprovethe
appearanceof a videoclip.
In theexampleshownhere,
I foundit usefultoadda
GraduatedFilterlayertolighten
andsoftenthelightin the
backgroundandtherebymake
thiscliplookmorelikethe
othersthatI hadfilmedthatday,
wherethelightingwasmore
consistent.Havingdonethis,
I couldexporttheeditedclip
usingFile>Export>Render
Videotoexportas,say,an
MP4 format video clip.CameraRawadjustments
viaPhotoshop,goto
theFiltermenuand
chooseCameraRawFilter
(Command+Shift-A[Mac],
Control+ Shift-A[PC]).
Ideally,it is besttoapply
CameraRawadjustments
non-destructivelybyfirst
convertingtheimageorimage
layertoa SmartObject(Smart
Filter)layer.Thisallowsyou
tore-edittheCameraRaw
settingsjustasyouwouldwhen
editinga rawimage.Thiscan
benefit certainworkflows.For
example,whenworkingwith
scannedimagesyoucanuse
theCameraRawfilterto
applythecapturesharpening.
Or,maybe,you’llfeelmore
comfortableusingtheCamera
RawBasicpaneltonecontrols
insteadofLevelsorCurvesto
toneeditanimage?There’s
alsothebenefit ofbeingable
toapplyotherCameraRaw-
specific adjustmentssuchas
Claritytoadjustthemid-tone
contrastorCameraRaw-style
black&whiteconversions.
However,somelimitations
canonlybeexpected,such
asfeaturesmissingfromthe
CameraRawfilterdialog.
Therearenoworkflowoptions
(thehyperlinkbeneaththe
preview).Thisis becausethe
workflowoutputsettingsare
notrelevantwhenprocessing
animagedirectlyinPhotoshop
- it will already have been
renderedtoa specific RGB
spaceandbitdepthandthe
histogramRGBvalueswill
refertothedocumentcolour
space.Youcan’tsavesnapshots
becausethereis nowhereto
savethem.TherearenoCrop,
StraightenorRotationtools,
andtherearenolens-profile
correctionoptionsbecause
thereis alreadytheLens
Correctionsfilteryoucanuse
inPhotoshop.Thereis also
theoverheadthatcomesfrom
havingtocreatea Smart
Object,whichinevitablyleads
tobiggersavedfilesizes.Above
all,if youcareaboutoptimum
imagequality,youshouldn’t
reallyskipcarryingoutthe
CameraRawprocessingatthe
rawimagestage,asCamera
Rawis mosteffectivewhenit’s
usedtoeditrawimages.You
can’texpecttoachievethe
samerangeofadjustment
controlona non-rawimage
whenadjusting,say,the
Highlightsslidertorescue
extremehighlightdetail.
Thepositivesthoughare
thattheCameraRawfilter
is essentiallya wonderful
conveniencetohavewhen
workinginPhotoshopasit
cansaveyouhavingtoexport
animageorlayertoapply
theCameraRawprocessing
separately,andit extendsthe
rangeofimageadjustments
youcanapplywhen
working in Photoshop.Camera RawFilter for video fi lesYoucanalsoapplytheCamera
Rawfiltertovideofiles, such as
in this example