WORKING WITH RAW FILES
6
Finish editing
Click Done and the changes you’ve made to the sliders
will be stored with the file automatically. You can then
open it in the future and continue fine-tuning the settings.
Sharpening can create noise, which is why there’s also a Noise
reduction section in the Detail tab.5
Mask it
The Masking slider also helps you to protect clear
areas such as the skin from the sharpening. Hold down
Alt and drag the Masking slider to the right to see a
monochrome preview. The white areas show you which
details are being sharpened. Set the Masking slider to 75.4
Reveal key details
Reduce Amount to 41 and Radius to 1.8. Tick the
Preview box to toggle between a sharpened and
unsharpened version of the image. Hold down Alt as you
drag the Detail slider. The greyscale preview shows you which
details are being sharpened. A value of 17 works well.3
Recognise artefacts
To understand how the sliders work, set Amount to- This increases the strength of the contrast change
around edges and makes them stand out more. Set Radius to - This increases the spread of the contrast change around the
edges. These extreme settings make her skin pores stand out.
2
Zero the sliders
Grab the Zoom tool and right click to see the
image at 100%. Hold down the space bar and drag
the image to the eyes. Click the Detail tab and drag the
four sharpening sliders to the left so you can see how soft
the photo really is.1
Zoom in
Open ty_elements29.dng. If you’ve followed the previous
pages to tweak our raw portrait’s colour and tone then
the adjustment settings will still be applied to the relevant
sliders. If you haven’t followed those steps, don’t worry –
you can still sharpen the unedited image.