Australian_Photography_-_March_2016_

AUSTRALIANPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 35

HOW TO Optimise Raw Images and use Smart Filters

In this step-by-step

tutorial, imaging expert

Mark Galer shows you

how to optimise an

image in Lightroom

and then create an

abstract version

using Smart Filters in

Photoshop CC.

Bridge

The

SOFTWARE

Lightroom CC

Photoshop CC

RATING

Intermediate

I

took this image of the Bolte Bridge from

a f loating pontoon. It was moving too

much to capture a long exposure, so this

shot was captured hand-held with an ISO

setting of 12,800. There’s some noise in the

original capture and the colour and tone are a

little f lat. The aim of the following tutorial is

to show you how I would go about optimising

an image like this in Lightroom and then have

some fun with it in Photoshop using the very

handy Smart Filters feature. You’ll find that the

skills you learn here can be applied to your own

projects in a variety of ways.

Note: You may notice that the RAW file we’ve

made available for download on our website is

a little smaller than usual. The file is around

five megabytes in size but has the full dynamic

range of the original Raw file. The original

raw file was opened in Adobe Camera Raw

(ACR) and exported as a compressed DNG.

If you want to do this with one of your own raw

images, in the File Settings section of the Export

dialogue box check the Use Lossy Compression

option and then in the Image Sizing section

check Resize to Fit. Megapixels was selected as

the sizing option and then 5.0 entered in the

megapixels field. ❂

AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY MARCH 2016