WORKING WITH RAW FILES
5
Boost the shadows
If you need to reveal shadow and midtone detail, you can drag
the Shadows slider to the right. A value of +58 will gently lighten
some of the midtone detail in her face. The shadow clipping warning
patches will shrink a little, revealing more shadow detail. Another way
to make sure that you have some strong black shadows and bright white
highlights is to drag the Contrast slider to the right, but keep it to a low
value such as +15 to minimise clipping.7
Boost the saturation
If you boost the Saturation in a raw file it will increase the
strength of the colours equally. This can produce colours that are
unprintable. It can also make skin tones look too orange and fake. Push
Vibrance up to +45. This boosts the strength of weaker colours (such as
the green field) without over-saturating stronger colours. It leaves the
subject’s skin tone saturation relatively unaltered, too. We now have
healthier colours and tones.6
Enhance midtone contrast
The histogram is now looking healthier, with information
spreading throughout the tonal range. However, we can boost
the midtone contrast to make subtle textures and details stand out.
Drag the Clarity slider to +27. This gives the subject’s facial features
more impact. Don’t go too far with Clarity because this can exaggerate
unwanted details such as skin pores and wrinkles. Tweak the Exposure
to -0.25 to lift the overall brightness.8
Non-destructive editing
Feel free to experiment with different slider settings, because
you can’t permanently change the look of the original file.
By clicking Default you can reset the sliders to 0. The Vibrance and
Clarity sliders need to be manually reset. When you’re happy with
the look of your processed raw file, click Open Image to open it in the
main Photoshop Elements editor. You can then save it as a JPEG and
share it with family and friends.