How to process raw in Photoshop. Retouching RAW files in Photoshop: From and To

Many people, having taken a landscape photo of a beautiful place, wonder why it doesn’t look very good in the photo. How to get the kind of result that you see from professionals on different sites on the social network VK, Instagram, etc.? The answer is obvious, any photograph of any professional undergoes one or another processing. If you see a beautiful photo and the author says that he didn’t edit it, don’t believe it! In this Photoshop tutorial, we'll look at a landscape photography technique that many professionals use.

But first, a few words about the editor. Think of Photoshop as your personal darkroom. During the era of film photography, some photographers had black and white darkrooms at home. This way they could control the entire process of creating the image. A very select few had color darkrooms, as this was much more complex and expensive. Nowadays, we have at our disposal a complete color darkroom installed on a computer (or even an iPad) called Photoshop or Lightroom (it's not called that by mistake, it's the opposite of darkroom). If you have Photoshop or Lightroom, then you have a very powerful tool with which you can edit your images.

After

Let's make your photos expressive!

What does it mean to make photographs expressive? This can mean a number of characteristics, but generally it is more color, contrast and drama. As always, this means having a good image to work with. This is not about improving an average quality image. Make sure you choose a good reference image to work with and then proceed with the next steps.

Shoot only inRAW

Shooting in RAW format is a good start. I know you don't want to shoot in RAW because the file size is very large or you don't see the benefits, but RAW really is different. First, you are working with a complete, uncompressed data file. A JPEG image already has camera settings that compress it to the desired size. Some information is completely lost, meaning you are working with less information about the image, which in turn means less flexibility in the editing process. Of course, RAW is only useful if you're going to spend time processing your images in Photoshop or Lightroom.

Let's say you're going to edit and you took photos in RAW format. Open the file in Photoshop and you'll see the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) editor. This is truly a very powerful tool. Recent updates have made the ACR editor in Photoshop almost a separate post-processing tool, it's so powerful. When it opens, you will see a set of tools on the right side of the panel, mainly sliders such as: White Balance, Hue, Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Burns, Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation.

EditorCamera RawVPhotoshop CC

The camera raw editor contains some very powerful tools. The following steps will be done primarily in the RAW editor, then the image will be opened in Photoshop and edited further. Many of these adjustments are similar to those you can make in the Adjustments module in Lightroom, so you can make the same adjustments there as well.

EditorCamera RawVAdobe Photoshop CC

Basic editor slidersRAWclose-up

Settings VRAWeditor

Temperature– First of all, pay attention to the color in the scene. You can adjust the temperature to make the scene warmer (move the slider towards yellow) or cooler (move the slider towards blue). This way you can adjust the color tone or add some drama to the image. In this scene I decided to go towards warm colors.

Exposition– look at the exposure, the image may be very dark or too light. Use the sliders to adjust this.

Contrast– adjust the contrast so that the dark areas of the image are dark enough without losing detail.

Sveta– in this image the red indicator in the highlights shows me where there is very little detail. To compensate for this, move the slider to the left. If your highlights are underexposed, then move the slider to the right, but be careful not to overexpose them.

Shadows– The shadow slider can help you bring back detail in the shadows or darken them. Be careful with this and don't overdo it, as the shadows may look noisy (or the image will look like HDR).

White– This slider adjusts each white or partially white pixel in the image.

Blackout– This slider adjusts each black pixel.

Definition– The clarity slider controls contrast in midtones. This can add some structure to the image, but don't overdo it.

colorfulness– this slider affects any unsaturated pixel. This is a good start to add some expression to the scene.

Saturation– this slider adjusts all pixels, making them saturated or desaturated.

Basic settings inCamera RAW

Panel SettingsHSL

This tab contains three tools: Hue, Saturation, and Lightness (HSL). These settings will make changes to the image based on color channels. For example, if you click on the saturation tab, you can make the reds more or less saturated, the same goes for the oranges and all the other color channels. You can also make a specific color brighter using the Brightness tab. In this image I wanted to deepen the reds, yellows and oranges, as well as some blues.

Panel SettingsHSL

Gradient filter inCamera Raw

As well as using a filter on your lens while shooting, you can also add a gradient filter in Camera Raw. The beauty of using it in Photoshop is that you can make very subtle adjustments to your image depending on where you place the Gradient Filter Tool.

Click on the Gradient Filter icon at the top of the screen and you'll see a new dialog box with very similar functionality to the basic Camera Raw module. The difference here is that you will be clicking and dragging the filter down to highlight the sky. You can also click and drag from bottom to top to select the foreground. I'll do both (The gradient filter is applied to the image from the edge inwards).

Starting at the top, I click and drag the filter up to just over halfway through my image. This limits the effect to the top half. It's a gradient filter, so the effect will blend correctly and you won't see a hard line where it ends (the further you drag it, the wider the blending area, you can adjust that later too). I make some adjustments and you can see the difference in the sky area. Once you're done with one filter, click New (at the top of the dialog box) and repeat the process, but this time drag up from the bottom to edit the foreground. Once you've made all the adjustments, you can click Open Image at the bottom of the Camera Raw window to open it in Photoshop.

The Gradient Filter icon is highlighted

One of the key settings worth mentioning here is the Remove Haze tool. It does exactly what it says - removes haze and creates better contrast. Use it with caution, it can easily be overdone and your image will suffer as a result. This tool is really very useful for landscapes and sea views, as they often have haze, as was the case in my case. With its help, the haze was easily removed and the image became better.

You'll notice that you can also remove haze in the Gradient Filter window. Choose when to apply it at your discretion, but keep in mind that using it without a selection will apply the effect to the entire image. Using it here in the Gradient Filter means you'll have finer control over how it affects the image.

Click and drag the Gradient Filter from top to bottom to highlight the sky. Then select settingsthat you want to apply.

Selecting the foreground by dragging from bottom to top.

Open your image inPhotoshop

Once you've made all the adjustments in Camera Raw, the finishing touches can be done in Adobe Photoshop. Once again, the sky and foreground of this image will look different, so they need different settings.

To make a softer selection of the sky, click on the Quick Mask tool at the bottom of Photoshop's left sidebar. You can then use a soft brush to paint on the selected sky as a mask. Once you're happy with the selection (you'll see a red mask), click on the Quick Mask tool again to activate that selection. There is one trick regarding the Quick Mask that is worth mentioning. A mask means you select everything that is NOT red. So when you click on Quick Mask, you'll see a blinking highlight around the bottom of the image rather than around the red area. This is good because you can switch between these two areas very easily and apply the settings to each selection.

First of all, make the necessary foreground adjustments using Levels. In this image I wanted to make the foreground a little brighter, so I turned up the highlights. Next, I selected the opposite side (i.e. the sky). You can do this by holding down CTRL>SHIFT>I at the same time. This will switch the selection from foreground to background.

Red indicates the area that will be under the mask

Flashing dots show where the current selection is.

Setting Foreground Levels

CTRL>SHIFT> I will switch the selection, here the sky was selected and a Levels adjustment layer was applied to adjust the sky

Use Hue/Saturation to make final color adjustments

You can use the toggle function (CTRL>SHIFT>I) to select the sky and foreground alternately. Once you've made a selection, select the adjustment tool and the changes will be applied only to the selected area. In this example, I used the Hue/Saturation function to further enhance the image. I re-correct each channel. This gives me control over the range of colors that need to be saturated, and perhaps desaturate the rest that are slightly oversaturated. Go through each channel and make the necessary adjustments.

Hue/Saturation for final color adjustments

When you're done, you can sharpen the image as much as you like and save it for printing. The steps above will help you make any image better. If done correctly, your image will become more expressive and dramatic, just like you wanted.

Try it out and learn the process, these settings are done really quickly.

Final image

Translation: Tatyana Saprykina

A small sketch on the topic of processing RAW format in Photoshop. I know that it is better to take photographs without any processing at all, but unfortunately this is not always possible at home.
Since I’m used to this program and don’t want to change it, I decided to take a closer look at its subroutine for RAW.
So the original photo

Let's start by launching our FS, and click the File>Open tab> a window with images appears, select RAW files and click open
In FS, a window like this will appear in the program

On the left is a menu with selected photos.
At the top there are icons for editing (cropping, horizon, etc.)
On the left there is a lot in the carousel circle, the first tab there is the basic photo settings. Here you can turn up the light by playing with the sliders. You can even set a different shade for the entire photo.

Then you can partially or completely remove noise from the photo, it all depends on their quantity.
The red circle in the next photo shows the tab where the settings are located. The sliders are divided into two parts, those at the bottom and responsible for removing noise. We adjust until we get more or less suitable results.

In this photo, the vase turned out to be littered in order to align the photo as we need it. Click on the tool in the top panel with the corner pattern. and set the horizon in the photo at the angle we need. The program itself will set the framing according to it.
This is what appeared after the horizon was set.

The cropping frame can be edited in size, but the angle of inclination will remain the same.
At the bottom left is the save changes button. Click on the window to appear


The first line is the folder where you want to save the image.
2nd line title
3 select the file extension in the drop-down list.
4 set the quality if there is such a possibility. Click save.
So this is what I ended up with

And here’s the same photo, but I edited it in jpeg format, this is what I was able to get. There is more noise here. I'm not sure if this will be visible in the miniatures.

And the FS on top of the original RAW image makes an additional file in the same folder with the same name in the XMP extension. If you delete it, you can open the file again in its original form.

I hope that the information will be useful to those who already work with Photoshop and want to try shooting in RAW format.

Camera RAW is the most popular plugin for Photoshop. It comes bundled with many versions of Photoshop, but there is often a need to update it, since it is updated more often than Photoshop itself. Moreover, if you downloaded the Portable version of Photoshop, this plugin may not be there. Well, be that as it may, I’ll still tell you in detail now how to update to the latest version.

In this case, the installation will take place by copying just one file, you will not get any errors, and I am almost sure that this method will work for other, later versions of Camera RAW.

So, if you are trying to open a RAV file and you get this error:

then know that you do not have the plugin installed for Photoshop at all.

If you just have an old version of the RAV Camera, then you can simply go to the Help—>Updates menu. But there may also be a problem here. If you are using an unlicensed version (and who uses it now, if not in the West?), then you may receive the following error:

But there is definitely an effective way that will help you.

you can go to the official Adobe website and try to download the plugin there. Select our OS version.

So, this installation package contains the Camera RAW plugin. Although you won't find a file with that name. Let's go inside the AdobeCameraRaw-6.6-mul-AdobeUpdate.zip archive. Next to the payloads folder and

• if you have 32-bit Photoshop version , then in the folder AdobeCameraRaw6.0All-011211024650 there is an archive Assets2_1.zip, which contains file 1003. That’s right, without an extension. Copy it to your Photoshop plugins folder. For CS5, this could be the path \App\PhotoshopCS5\Plug-ins\ (which is in the folder where you installed Photoshop). Rename it Total Commander in Camera Raw 6.6.8bi. That's right, with expansion. You can also download .
• if you have 64-bit Photoshop version , then the folder for you is AdobeCameraRaw6.0All-x64-011211031019, it contains the archive Assets2_1.zip with a file without the 1002 extension, which also needs to be renamed to Camera Raw 6.6.8bi.

That's it, restart Photoshop and use the latest version of the plugin.

IMPORTANT! You can update absolutely any version of Camera RAW using this method. . . Just remember that some recent versions of Camera RAW will not be compatible with older versions of Photoshop.

ATTENTION! If you still had at least some version of the camera installed, then simply placing the new version in the plugins folder may not achieve anything. This can happen if you are using a Photoshop assembly other than the cracked licensed one. This is the so-called “Repack”. Repacks work the same way as the main programs, but either something has been added to them, or something has been cut back. In this case, you should look in the folder with plugins in the folder File Formats. If you don’t see a file there that says Camera RAW in its name, then here’s what you need to do: you have to launch Photoshop and try to open the raw file in it. Then in the folder File Formats start moving plugins one by one to a folder in a different location. The file that could not be moved is the RAV Camera, only under a different name. Close Photoshop, delete this file (this can be done because it will no longer be used by Photoshop), and return the plugins that you moved to another folder.

That's all. If you have questions, you can ask them in the comments.

——————————————

If you are interested in packaging products - stretch, tape, courier bags, you can find the full range.

Article text updated: 02/15/2019

The blog is already 4 years old. During this time, quite a lot of lessons for beginning amateur photographers have been published on its pages, having mastered which you can significantly improve the quality of your photographs. It's probably time to talk about why it's almost impossible to take the perfect picture when shooting in JPEG. Today’s photo lesson is intended for complete beginners: we will reveal the secrets of why the photographs of experienced photographers often look richer and sharper, even if they shoot with exactly the same camera and lens that are in your photo bag.

For some reason, after returning from home, I haven’t been able to write short articles. Get ready, there will be a lot of text below. So that you don’t drown in it, I’ll give you the content first.

1.0. RAW vs JPEG formats. Advantages and disadvantages

The debate over whether to shoot in RAW or JPEG format seems to be a never-ending debate in the field of photography. Some photographers prefer RAW, others prefer JPEG. What is the RAW format in digital photography? What are the advantages and disadvantages of RAW compared to JPEG and why? Should we shoot in RAW or JPEG format? Will shooting in RAW make post-production more difficult? These are some of the most common questions new photography enthusiasts ask after purchasing their first DSLR or mirrorless camera and learning its settings. Hopefully, with a full understanding of the pros and cons of both formats, photographers will be able to decide whether to use RAW in their work.

Note. Here and further in the description of settings when shooting, the following order is used: 1/100 – shutter speed in seconds, 9.0 – aperture, 100 – ISO value, 22 – focal length in millimeters. All pictures in this lesson were taken on an entry-level amateur DSLR Nikon D5100 with the simplest KIT lens Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S VR DX.

I remember the first time I looked through the camera settings and read the manual for the Nikon D5100, thinking about what the NEF file was for and why I should use it. JPEG is an image format that is used by default in most compact cameras and we are all very familiar with it, we view and share JPEG images online and upload/download them from our and our mobile devices.

But I wanted to know something about RAW right away. Maybe it was the word “raw” (that’s how you can translate the meaning of this word from English), which sounded intriguing, maybe it was the desire to certainly get the sharpest, highest quality and best photographs. Regardless of what it was, I changed the camera's image quality settings to "RAW+F" (shooting in NEF + JPEG of excellent quality) and tried to take a photo.

The first thing I noticed was how small my memory card had become. Wait a minute! Why did the number of photographs decrease from 959 to 270? The image on the LCD looked exactly the same, but took up three times the memory? I was disappointed. Then I took the memory card and inserted it into my computer. To my surprise, each file in the folder is presented in two types: JPEG and NEF. And I couldn't even open this NEF! It’s a good thing I didn’t decide, “This is no good, I should just stick with JPEG,” because later, when I learned to work in an NEF editing program called Lightroom, I redid all the frames.

Sounds familiar? If you are in a similar situation, do not immediately give up RAW, you will bite your elbows in the future. We really need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of both formats before making a decision so that we don't regret it later.

1.1. What is RAW format?

RAW images, also known as “digital negatives,” are actually raw files taken directly from the camera sensor. They are truly “raw”, like iron ore that must be processed to make iron or steel. Unlike JPEG files, which can be easily opened, viewed and printed by most image viewing and editing programs, RAW is a proprietary format that is tied to the camera manufacturer and sensor, and therefore is not supported by all software products.

RAV files store the most information about an image and typically contain more colors and cover a wider dynamic range than JPEG images. To display the recorded image on the camera's LCD, RAW files typically consist of two parts—the actual RAW data from the camera's sensor and a processed JPEG preview image. Many image viewing applications, including the camera screen, then use this JPEG embedded in the RAW file to display it.

1.2. Benefits of the RAW Format

1. Compared to 8-bit JPEG, which can contain up to 256 shades of red, green and blue (16.8 million in total), 12-bit RAW images contain the most information with 4,096 shades of red, green and blue (equivalent to 68 billion flowers!) or even more. On the Nikon D610 I can record 14-bit RAW files, which is equivalent to about 4.3 trillion. possible colors. This is simply a huge number compared to 16 million!
2. RAB files contain the widest dynamic range (the ratio between the maximum and minimum brightness of highlights and shadows) and can then be used to restore underexposed or overexposed images or parts of an image.
3. When you create a RAW image, all shooting parameters (also called metadata or EXIF), including camera-specific and manufacturer information, are simply added to the file. This means that the image itself remains unchanged - the settings are provided as information only, and you can make any changes to them later in post-production applications such as Lightroom and Photoshop. This is a huge advantage of using RAW because if we accidentally apply the wrong setting (such as white balance) in the camera, we will have the opportunity to change it later.
4. Due to the number of colors stored in RAW images, the type of color space set in the camera settings (sRGB or Adobe RGB) is also not important when shooting in RAW format - we will be able to change it to any value during processing.
5. Unlike JPEGs, RAW files use lossless compression, meaning they do not suffer from image compression artifacts.
6. Shooting in RAW does not sharpen the image, meaning you can use better and more complex algorithms on your computer to do so.
7. RAB files can be used as proof of your authorship and the authenticity (unmodified) of the image. If you meet a Bigfoot in the taiga and take a photo in RAW, no one will be able to tell that you used Photoshop to add a humanoid to the photo. 🙂

1.3. Disadvantages of the RAW format

1. RAW files require post-processing and conversion before viewing, which adds significant time to the photo acquisition process.
2. RAW takes up much more camera memory and flash drive space than JPEG. This means that the card can store fewer images and the camera's buffer may fill up quickly, resulting in significantly slower shooting speeds. To work with RAV images, we will also need more RAM and much more disk space on the computer.
3. RAW files do not have a common standard across manufacturers. For example, Nikon software cannot read RAW files from a Canon camera and vice versa. Additionally, not all image viewers and editors can open RAW files. If we have a brand new camera that has just been released, it may take some time for the software companies to update it with support for our model. Here are the main designations of the RAV format from different manufacturers: NEF - from Nikon; CRW, CR2 for Canon cameras, ARW, SRF and SR2 for Sony, RAF for Fujifilm, ORF for Olympus, RW2 for Panasonic, PTX, PEF for Pentax, SRW for Samsung, 3FR for Hasselblad (if there are owners of these medium format cameras that don’t know what RAV is) and DNG is a universal Adobe format.
4. We will need to convert the RAW files to a compatible format, such as JPEG or TIFF, before we can show them to friends and clients, as they may not have suitable viewing programs.
5. Since RAW files cannot be processed by third party software, the settings must be saved in a separate XMP file, which means more storage space and more complex file management (unless we convert our RAW files to DNG format).
6. Due to the size of RAW images, the archiving and backup process takes much longer.

1.4. What is JPEG?

Today, JPEG is the most popular format, capable of displaying millions of colors in a highly compressed file. JPEG uses a "lossy" compression method, which means that certain information is removed from the image. This format uses different compression ratios (in percentages), which affects the quality and size of the image. The more details saved, the larger the file.

1.5. Advantages of the JPEG format

1. JPEG images are processed in-camera and all adjustments such as white balance, color saturation, tone curves, sharpness and color space are already factored into the image. So you don't need to waste time post-processing the image - all you have to do is extract the image from the memory card and it's ready to use.
2. Jipegs are much smaller in size than RAW files, and therefore take up much less memory and require much less processing power.
3. Due to their smaller size, cameras can write JPEG files much faster, which increases the camera's buffer capacity. This means that compared to RAW we can shoot at higher speeds and for longer periods of time.
4. Most modern devices and programs support the JPEG format, which makes it easy to use.
5. Digital cameras support different compression and size options for JPEG files, giving us the ability to choose between image quality and image size.
6. Smaller file size also means faster copying.

1.6. Disadvantages of the JPEG format

1. The lossy compression algorithm means that we lose some detail from the photos. This loss of detail, especially in highly compressed files, will appear as "artifacts" in images and will be quite noticeable to the eye.
2. JPEG images are 8-bit, which imposes a limit of 16 million possible colors. This means that all other colors that the camera is capable of producing are essentially discarded when the image is converted to JPEG.
3. JPEG images also have a narrower dynamic range compared to RAW, meaning that recovering overexposed/underexposed images and shadows will be difficult, if not impossible.
4. Since cameras process JPEG images entirely, any errors in camera settings will be virtually irreversible. For example, if we sharpen it too much, we won't be able to do the reverse transformation later.

1.7. Which format should I choose, RAW or JPEG?

Let's move on to the most important question: should we use RAW or JPEG?

For me, the benefits of shooting RAW far outweigh the benefits of using JPEG. File storage devices are relatively inexpensive these days, and I don't worry about file size even when backing up. Since I already spend a significant amount of time taking photos, I don't mind spending a little more time and effort on processing the photos. True, if I had to process images individually in Photoshop, I would completely abandon RAW, because I would not have time to process several hundred photos from each trip. Thanks to great post-processing programs like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, we can work on images in batch mode and spend minimal time on individual post-processing (when necessary) - for example, my record: 600 images in 3 hours.

But processing time and file size are minor issues compared to the ability to recover detail from RAW files. Like other photographers, I've encountered situations where the lighting wasn't great, where I couldn't trust the camera and didn't have time to adjust the exposure, resulting in poorly exposed images. If I shot in JPEG, such details would be irretrievably lost, and I would end up with low-quality photos. But since I shoot in RAW, I can easily adjust the exposure and other settings and get a good photo. This makes a huge difference, especially in the case of rare, exceptional moments that cannot be re-shot.

Let's look at this frame:

I made a mistake and the image above ended up being underexposed by 1 - 1.5 stops. But thanks to the fact that I shot in RAW, Lightroom can almost completely restore the loss of detail. Below on the right is a restored frame from RAW (I increased the “exposure” and “fill light” in Lightroom, passed the mask over the light sky and darkened it).

As you can see, the frame on the right contains much more color and detail than the frame on the left. Discoloration in the shadows is especially noticeable because the JPEG file is 8-bit and contains much less information to restore color and detail. If we take a photo that is underexposed by 2 stops or more, we will see that it is almost impossible to restore it from JPEG, while from RAW we can get some of the colors and details.

Another common problem, besides exposure, is setting the white balance correctly. If it is poorly configured, then in this case we will get a low-quality photo.

The image above was taken with standard camera settings.

In any case, my opinion on the RAW vs JPEG debate is this: if we take our passion for photography seriously and plan to sell or display our work in the future, we need to shoot in RAW. If you take photos for family archives or fun, and there is no time for post-processing, then you can limit yourself to JPEG.

2.0. How I process my photos

In this article, I will explain what post-processing is and what stages it consists of in digital photography. One thing to keep in mind is that technique can vary greatly between photographers as there are so many variables and there is no standard workflow that will suit everyone. Therefore, the information presented here should be used as a guide only so that you can generally understand what photo editing is. It’s up to us to choose the most optimal processing method to suit your needs.

The photos in today's article were taken in November 2012, when my wife and I flew on vacation to Mexico with a 90-minute stopover in New York. I had a Nikon D5100 KIT 18-55 VR camera with me. I didn’t really understand the settings, so I usually shot in scene mode: “Portrait”, “Landscape”, “Night landscape”, etc.

On vacation, I always take photographs in two formats: “RAW + F”, that is, each frame is represented on a flash drive by two frames: NEF and in-camera JPEG with a low compression ratio (I view it on a netbook in the hotel in the evenings).

Since when shooting in RAV such parameters as white balance (WB), the degree of development of shadows and highlights (the main thing is that there is no clipping) are not particularly important, then my Jeep from the camera does not come out as beautiful as it could have turned out if I would specifically introduce settings for the situation: the correct WB, using the “Active D-Lighting” function to “pull out” details from dark areas of the image, etc.

However, I believe that a beginner who is too lazy to read the instructions for the camera and understand the settings in practice will end up with JPEG images similar to those you will see below. I hope my examples of photo processing in NEF will show you how much potential your camera has for improving the quality of your photos.

2.1. Processing in digital photography

Processing in this case is all stages of working with digital images from shooting to presentation to viewers. It consists of a series of interconnected steps developed by photographers to simplify and streamline their work. Simplification and standardization are two of the key words, as a well-established imaging workflow not only helps you make your imaging work easier and faster, but also helps you stay organized, increase efficiency, and maintain consistency in your work. The number of steps in this process may vary, but they are generally as follows:

1. Camera setup and shooting.
2. Copying images to a computer.
3. Importing images into the processing program.
4. Organizing and sorting images.
5. Post-processing.
6. Export images.
7. Backup.
8. Print or publish photos on the Internet.

Let's look at each of the steps separately.

2.2. Camera setup and shooting

The process of taking a photo starts with the camera, so the settings and how we take photos certainly affects the workflow. For example, if we shoot in RAW format, the workflow will be a little more complicated than if we shoot in JPEG. Why? Because RAV files need to be processed before they are suitable for printing or publishing. RAW files also take up a lot of memory, which will certainly slow down their import, export, and backup.

If you shoot in JPEG format, you need to decide which color profile to use, compression and file size, white balance, and so on. Both options have their advantages and disadvantages, but we will have to decide which is better in this case.

To get a high-quality image, even before pressing the camera shutter button, the photographer must adjust many processing parameters: white balance, Picture Control mode (it includes sharpness, contrast, brightness, saturation, hue), degree of shadow lightening (Active D-lighting ) and how strong the noise reduction will be.

The names “Picture Control” and “Active D-lighting” indicate processing menu items in Nikon cameras. In Canon EOS cameras these are “Picture Styles” and “Auto Lighting Optimizer”, respectively. Sony mirrorless cameras have a shadow brightening function called DRO (Dynamic Range Optimization). In Fujifilm X mirrorless cameras, shadow processing is set by three items: “DR”, “H tone” and “S tone” in the quick settings menu “Q” (quick menu).

In addition, if we decide to shoot HDR or panoramas, we will have to photograph a series of frames, which adds another step to the processing process - HDR images or panorama stitching. Therefore, we should decide in advance what camera settings we want to use and how we will shoot.

2.3. Copying images to a computer

There are many ways to transfer images to your computer. The first step is to connect an SD or CompactFlash memory card using a card reader or USB cable.

The second is the actual process of copying files from a card or camera to a computer. This can be done in different ways. You can copy files to a specific folder on your hard drive using the operating system, or use programs such as Adobe Bridge, Lightroom or Aperture for this.

Many photographers prefer to use the second method for importing. They rely on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to do this, and this application greatly simplifies the workflow because many of the steps described in this article are completed within one program.

For each photo shoot, I create a separate folder, which I name according to the following principle: “Year, month, date, keyword.” Each of them may have subsections: “Photos in JPEG”, “Photos in RAW”. In the example in the picture above, my section is called “2017 04 22 Photo processing”.

2.4. Importing images into the processing program

This step depends on how we transfer the pictures to the computer, because some programs perform this procedure in one step. For example, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Apple Aperture simultaneously copy images to the computer and import them into a catalog, saving us time.

The benefit of using such software is that you can customize the import process and add specific keywords, metadata to the images, and even set some presets for each image upon import, saving even more time in processing.

In the picture above you can see that when importing photos into Lightroom, you can tick the desired frames and import only them. The second approach is to load all available photographs from this section into the editor, in order to then sort them in the next processing step. The third is to pre-select the necessary frames by viewing them in a special RAV viewer program called “FastStone Image Viewer”; Remove defective and duplicate ones, leaving only the best ones to work with in the future.

2.5. Organizing and sorting images

Once the images are on our computer, we must decide how to organize and sort them so that they are not scattered all over the hard drive. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Aperture offer different ways to manage your photo catalog.

We can do everything from adding keywords, ranking favorite images with stars, color tagging images, creating custom image groups and more. In Lightroom and Aperture, all image information is stored in a database, making the process of searching for an image very simple. It's also a good way to quickly review photos and identify bad, blurry, and out-of-focus photos. Now let's move on to the next step - image post-processing.

In the Lightroom program, it is possible to assign ratings with “stars” and flags to highlight different categories of images: 1) photos that we process first; 2) pictures that we do not touch yet, but also do not delete from the computer; 3) unnecessary frames that we will delete.

Honestly, after a couple of times I highlighted defective frames with flags, and then accidentally deleted the originals from the first category along with them, I don’t use this tool. Most often I use approach No. 3, described in the previous section: I looked at the RAW in the viewer, immediately removed the defects (cropped hands, closed eyes, blurry frames, repeated shots, etc.) and uploaded only the necessary photos to Lightroom, so as not to waste time to tinker with mediocre shots. My FastStone Image Viewer shows NEF photos faster than Lightroom.

2.6. Photo post-processing

Now that we have organized the photos on the computer using the selected application, it is time to process them. Is this step necessary if the image already looks good straight out of the camera? I think it's definitely needed if we're shooting in RAW, and it probably wouldn't hurt if we're shooting in JPEG, since most images will still need some tweaking to make them look better ().

Let's try to show a few examples of the RAW processing sequence in Lightroom to make it clear how powerfully this program can influence image quality.

Example of processing in Lightroom No. 1. Cityscape

Have you noticed that the term “in-camera JPEG” constantly appears in the text? It means that this is a photograph taken from a camera “without processing” when shooting in Jeep. I put the phrase “without processing” in quotation marks, because the generally accepted opinion among beginners that a picture is not processed in a camera is a deep misconception - I will explain why in the next section.

What I don't like about this photo:

• When reducing the size for a blog post (to 1400px on the long side), the sharpness of the image decreased.
• The horizon is blocked - you need to straighten the photo so that the Brooklyn Bridge does not stand tilted.
• There is not enough contrast or detailing of the clouds in the blue sky.

Let's start post-processing. First, let’s align the horizon in one click using the “Ruler” tool and crop the photo the way we want. In the “Geometric Distortions” section we will correct the distortion that arose due to shooting at a wide angle with the lens tilted.

Secondly, let’s apply the preliminary image quality settings that I read in a lesson on post-processing images from the famous photographer and traveler Sergei Dolya:

• Increase image clarity: Clarity +17;
• Increase the saturation of secondary colors: Vibrance +25;
• Set sharpening: Amount 40; Radius 0.8; Detail 50; Masking 0. There's actually a Masking option to work with to prevent unnecessary sharpening of smooth details, but I forgot to do that in this example.
• I set the noise reduction (Noise Reduction): Luminance 65.
• In the “Tone curve” section I set the contrast to Medium. At the same time, my shadows turn out to be too black - I set “Shadows” +41.
• White balance – “Daylight”.
• I automatically correct chromatic aberrations and lens distortion in the “Lens corrections” section. As you can see, the Lightroom editor recognized the Nikon 18-55 kit lens and applied corrections to it.
• In the “Camera Calibration” section I set the color profile to “Camera standard”.

I will use all of the above actions in 99% of cases. To speed up RAW processing in Lightroom, it is possible to record your preferred processing algorithm as a preset and use it with one click. I called it "Import of photo".

I have two options. The first is to now select all the photos in the folder and synchronize the settings (three clicks), giving them the same parameters of white balance, sharpness, clarity, lens correction, etc. The second is to apply this preset at the stage of importing photos into Lightroom. Look at image No. 8 – the “Import of photo” preset is highlighted in red on the right side.

In the screenshot you see that you can always analyze the histogram, which is an indispensable tool for analyzing overexposure and underexposure in a picture. In the left panel below is the processing history; at any time you can return to the step that we implemented earlier.

2.7. Exporting images

Once we've finished processing the images, the next step is to export the images for printing or publishing online. And there are many options here. If we are going to print images, we will have to figure out what image formats are accepted for printing. These can be TIFF files in the Adobe RGB color space, or JPEG files in the sRGB or CMYK color space. Other important factors are the file size and what format of photo we want to print.

If we export images for the Internet, for example, we publish photos on our blog, Yandex.Photos, VKontakte, etc., we need to decide what image size to use during the export process and select sRGB as the color space. We may want to remove the EXIF ​​data from the image if we want to lighten the weight of the images.

When exporting, I selected the following settings: TIFF format, sRGB color profile, reducing images to 3500px on the long side at a density of 120 dpi. Since sharpening will be done in Photoshop, this option is turned off here. Enabled the preset for placing the watermark “www..

In the first three years of blogging, photo processing ended at this stage. The only difference was that in the “Sharpen” sharpness section I set the parameters that are indicated above in the “Import of photo” preset, and when exporting I set “Sharpen for screen”, “Amount standard”. And my exported image format was JPEG.

About six months ago, I installed a set of free “Google Nik Collection” plugins in Photoshop, which I use periodically, and to fine-tune the sharpness I began to use the previously mentioned “C3C Image Size”.

Example of processing in Photoshop No. 1. Basic stage

So, we exported the file in TIFF format, since it is almost as flexible in post-processing as RAW, unlike JPEG. Open the photo in Photoshop and apply the Polarization preset in the Color Efex Pro 4 filter from the Google Nik Collection.

As you can see, the “Polarization” filter from “Color Efex Pro 4” imitates the effect of a real polarizing filter: it made the blue color of the sky more saturated, the clouds appeared more clearly. I don't like the colors in this photo to be too acidic, so I lower the layer's opacity.

14.1. To prevent the sky from turning out too acidic, in Photoshop I reduce the transparency of the layer with the “Polarisation” filter.

The next stage is to reduce the size of the image for blog publication (1400px for horizontal or 1000px for vertical images on the long side) while simultaneously increasing sharpness. I do this with one click in the “C3C Image Size” plugin.

For horizontal frames, I set the “Sharpness” value to “2”; for vertical ones, to avoid oversharpening, “1” is enough.

All! This completes the process of processing photos in RAW in Lightroom and preparing the JPEG format in Photoshop for this particular image. I click “Save As” in Photoshop and save it in Jeep with quality “8” (i.e. 80% is a high-quality picture, which usually weighs no more than 250-600 KB). This is the result we got.

Example of RAW processing in Lightroom and Photoshop No. 2. White balance

The next photo, due to the fact that I chose the wrong white balance in the Nikon D5100 settings, turned out to be an ugly blue color.

If we were shooting in JPEG, we would have trouble getting the white balance right. When photographing in RAW, correcting this error is just one click on the “White balance” button in the Lightroom editor. I apply exactly the same processing algorithm as in the previous image, and I get this kind of candy.

Example of NEF processing in Lightroom and Photoshop No. 3. Radial filter

The following photo was taken at the famous bull next to the New York Stock Exchange. Due to the fact that we shot against bright light, the portrait turned out dark, and the sky behind was almost knocked out, i.e. it is white, not blue. Other tourists were also caught in the frame, spoiling the photo.

In addition to the standard processing with the “Import Photo” preset, I had to play with the “Shadows” and “Blacks” sliders. The picture began to look nicer.

After I removed the disturbing tourists around the edges, I decided to use the Radial filter tool. With its help, I lowered the brightness at the edges of the portrait (Exposure -0.56), and also reduced the sharpness (Sharpness -71). All this made it possible to focus the gaze on the main object in the frame (i.e., me), due to the fact that it is brighter and sharper than the background - the woman, distracting the gaze, became darker and less clear.

Well, this is what the final RAW portrait of the traveler looks like.

Example of RAV processing in Lightroom and Photoshop No. 4. Toning in highlights

The next shot is an eagle in front of the Statue of Liberty in Battery Park in New York. It's the same problem here with the foreground being shadowed due to the bright sky behind it.

The processing is the same as in the previous case. But I don’t like the color of the sky - it was actually so dull. I want a more juicy sunset. Let’s “draw” a little: apply orange tinting to the light areas of the image.

We enhance the effect after exporting to TIFF for processing in Photoshop: using the “Contrast color range” filter (adjusting contrast separately by color) in the “Google Nik Collection” set (Color Efex Pro 4 plugin) we increase the contrast of blue (Blue).

The final result, after processing in Lightroom and Photoshop, looks like this.

Example of RAV processing in Lightroom and Photoshop No. 5. Photo hunt

You don’t have to think that when shooting in Jeep, the pictures you get are always worse than in RAV. Sometimes you can “guess” and get a good photo right away in the camera.

An example of RAV processing in Lightroom and Photoshop No. 6. Gradient filter

When we photograph scenes where there is both a bright sky and a dark ground, it would be nice to attach a gradient filter to the lens, which allows us to correctly expose both light and shadow. If we don’t have this device, the “Graduated filter” tool in the Lightroom editor will partially help out. Naturally, we are talking about shooting in NEF.

I don’t like that the upper left corner is almost blown out (light sky), and also that the seagull at the top is almost touching the edge of the photo. Another disadvantage is the manhole cover, which distracts the viewer’s eye.

Using the Spot removal tool, move the seagull lower from the edge of the photo and paint over the hatch in the foreground. To be honest, I prefer to perform this stage in Photoshop - the tool there is called “Clone stamp”, but now I have demonstrated that a photographer, in principle, can get by with just Lightroom.

And this is what a picture looks like if it was taken in RAV format and processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Did you notice that at the last stage in Photoshop, using the mentioned “Clone stamp”, I “painted over” the dirty spots on the concrete parapet in front, removed the step, the hatch and the autumn leaves on the sidewalk at the bottom right? It seems like I should have gone over the face with a brush in Lightroom and lowered the definition to make the skin look smoother. At the same time, it was possible to make the eyes a little brighter and clearer.

An example of NEF processing in Lightroom and Photoshop No. 7. Fighting noise

What is the difference between a cropped camera and a full-frame one? Mainly because its working ISO is 2.5-3.0 times lower than that of a full frame. For an amateur camera Nikon D5100, a photosensitivity of 4000 is a very difficult case: digital noise appears, spoiling the image.

We see that we need to adjust the white balance and try to “suppress” digital noise by adjusting the parameters of the “Noise reduction” section. In addition, we will frame, pass the mask over the windows and lamps to reduce their brightness, brighten the eyes and make them sharp.

Sometimes I perform noise reduction in Photoshop using the Dfine 2 plugin from the Google Nik Collection.

Since the frame is still ruined due to the high ISO, let's practice converting the image to the “old film” style. We do this using the “Analog Efex Pro 2” filter from the Google Nik Collection.

The final image, post-processed in Lightroom and Photoshop, looks like this.

An example of NEF processing in Lightroom and Photoshop No. 8. Applying a mask

When we have to shoot in mountain gorges or in the urban jungle, the most difficult thing for a digital camera matrix is ​​the wide dynamic range of scenes: when there are very bright and very dark objects in the frame at the same time. In this case, you need to use the HDR technique (shooting several frames with different exposures and then combining them into one). But it’s not suitable for shooting moving objects—Active D-lighting comes to the rescue when we take photographs in JPEG.

We will process the image using the following algorithm: in Lightroom we will lighten the dark areas (Exposure +), and then take a brush and paint over the light sky, darkening it (Exposure -). Then we will make the slightly blue sky more attractive using the “Polarisation” filter in the “Color Efex Pro 4” filter from the “Google Nik Collection”, as we did with photo No. 14.

I note that the “Masks” tool (Adjustment brush) allows you to change not only the exposure in the selected area, but also the white balance, clarity, saturation, brightness of highlights and shadows, and much more. This function is used when you need to brighten eyes and whiten teeth in a portrait, make the hair of a fashion model clearer and hide uneven skin. The scope of application is huge.

Another note: Selecting an area is very difficult in Lightroom. Imagine that I needed to darken the sky not against the background of buildings, but against the background of pine branches with a thousand needles! It is impossible to do the procedure carefully. But in Photoshop you create a layer, desaturate it and get a mask that completely follows the contours of the object. Now you can edit individual areas of the image with high precision.

An example of NEF processing in Lightroom and Photoshop No. 9. Night photography

Well, let's look at the last case: shooting at night. The problem is that we have very heavy lighting - a lot of dark and bright areas, making it difficult to properly expose the frame.

When processing RAW, we’ll cut off unnecessary people in the frame and use the “Shadows” and “Highlights” sliders to level out the brightness.

But somehow I don’t like the red color of faces. It was possible to move the red slider in Lightroom, reducing the saturation and brightness. But I want to apply the “Cross Processing” filter in the “Color Efex Pro 4” plugin from the “Google Nik Collection”.

The result is a softer, calmer photo that does not irritate the viewer's eyes.

You need to understand that the examples of photo processing in Lightroom presented in this article are not lessons. Therefore, I did not provide data on working with images in a very step-by-step manner. To learn how to get high-quality results, you will need from two weeks to a couple of months to systematically study the program.

You can self-study by studying photo tutorials on Youtube or on specialized websites. The disadvantage of this method is that it is unsystematic; you will jump from one section to another. You can sign up for courses at a photo school - in my opinion, it’s a waste of money, because they won’t show you anything that you can learn by studying on your own.

The third option for learning the Lightroom editor is to buy a paper textbook or video course, which provides a huge amount of theoretical information and practical examples. Each genre of photography has its own processing characteristics: with a female portrait they work according to one rule, with a male portrait - according to another, with a landscape - according to a third, with a still life - according to a fourth, and so on.

A huge advantage of video courses over self-study on Youtube is that the information is systematized, presented from simple to complex; before photography school - you can study at the pace that suits you, you don’t have to wait for students who are lagging behind.

For those who are familiar with the Lightroom program and would like to learn Photoshop, I can recommend the video course “Photoshop for the Photographer.”

You saw in image No. 35 that it is more difficult to get a high-quality photo indoors than outdoors. Especially if you own a camera with a cropped sensor that produces a lot of digital noise. The problem is lack of lighting. And you can solve it, firstly, by buying a fast lens. Secondly, purchase an external flash.

Professional indoor portrait photographs using flash are also not easy to obtain, as the photographer must know many nuances. I suggest you familiarize yourself with the contents of the video course “The Secret of Flashlights”. From it you can learn how to set up a home photo studio, whether the TTL function (automatic flash power control) is needed, how to choose a radio synchronizer, how to control the light, how many external sources you will need to get started, and much other useful information.

2.8. Backup

While the computer is exporting photos from the processing program, it's time to start backing up. If a backup has not yet been made, then this should be done as soon as possible. How can we evaluate the processing if if the hard drive fails, we will lose all our pictures?

I used to back up to one external drive once a week, but after losing some very important photos when my hard drive died midweek, I now back up to two hard drives and other external drives after every shoot.

In addition, once a month I take an external drive and duplicate its contents on another drive. This may seem unnecessary, but at least I know that my photos are safe and I won't lose them. Also remember to back up your Lightroom catalog. It's not enough to copy just the photos or just the catalog - you need to back up both.

If we have a lot of photos and need a good backup storage solution, today there are many great products created specifically for photographers and videographers.

2.9. Printing or publishing photos on the Internet

The last step is to print the photos or post them online. To print, you need to upload exported images to the photo lab website (if possible) or copy the files to a flash drive. If you have a printer, exporting from Lightroom and Aperture, or any other software package, may not be necessary, since most of them support printing directly from the application and provide all the tools necessary for printing.

When it comes to publishing online, Lightroom and Aperture already provide the ability to publish directly to Flickr or Facebook. To publish photos on a personal website or blog, in Odnoklassniki, you must use the images exported in step 2.6.

3.0. Which program to choose for processing: Photoshop or Lightroom

The same question periodically comes from blog readers - many beginners do not understand the differences between Lightroom and Photoshop. In this chapter, we'll look at the main differences between these two Adobe software packages, what they're used for, and what we can do in Photoshop that we can't do in Lightroom.

3.1. What is Photoshop?

Photoshop was originally created as a tool for simple image editing, but since 1990 it has grown into a huge package of programs with many functions and capabilities for graphic designers, architects, animators, publishers, photographers and even 3D graphic artists. This is probably the Mercedes-Benz of image editing, with unlimited potential that increases not only with software updates, but also with special plug-ins, or “filters,” from Adobe and third-party developers.

Do you want to combine several photos into one panorama? Or create a high dynamic range (HDR) photo? Or get rid of skin defects in the photo? Or maybe make a person taller, shorter, thinner or fatter? Yes, Photoshop can do it all; and many many others. It would be pointless to try to list what Photoshop can do because the list would be endless. The term "photoshopped" is now part of our daily vernacular because we constantly see edited images that look realistic - that's the power of Photoshop.

3.2. What can Lightroom do?

The full name of the Lightroom editor is “Adobe Photoshop Lightroom,” which can be confusing because it contains the word “Photoshop.” This can be explained by the fact that Lightroom is a part of Photoshop with specific functionality that Photoshop does not have and probably never will have.

Lightroom was created to manage a large number of images and place them conveniently in one place. Photoshop is a very advanced image editing tool, but when editing hundreds of pictures, organizing them becomes a challenge over time.

Many photographers only work in Adobe Camera RAW (which allows you to open, convert and manage RAW files) and Photoshop (which is used for image processing) before using Lightroom. This is a complex, cumbersome, and inefficient process, even after you semi-automate it using batch processing in Photoshop.

The biggest challenge is organizing the edited images on your hard drive, sorting them, and cataloging them. We're not even talking about image search, because that's an impossible task that requires crawling through thousands of thumbnails and image metadata to find what you're looking for. As your file catalog grows, you realize you need to find a better way to organize your photos. And that's when you turn your attention to Lightroom.

Lightroom is a database-based photo management software that automatically reads metadata from a photo (such as camera make and model, date and time taken, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, etc.), called EXIF, and writes information about each photograph into a new database called a catalogue.

When you import images, Lightroom can add additional information to each photo, allowing you to tag images with specific keywords, flags, and star ratings. It makes it easy to sort through hundreds of images and select the best ones, edit them selectively or in batches, and then export the best photos directly to websites like Flickr and Facebook. This type of tagging and indexing is not available in Photoshop because it does not have a database of cataloged images.

In addition to media management capabilities, Lightroom contains a set of tools that let you work with your images. In short, Photoshop is an image editing tool and Lightroom is a photo management tool with some limited editing capabilities.

3.3. Editing Photos in Lightroom

Lightroom has a specific set of tools that make editing and managing photos easier. Here, for example, is a list of tools available in the “Develop Module” tab:

1. “Histogram” subsection: histogram, cropping and alignment, point removal, red-eye removal, gradient filter, adjustment brush.
2. “Basic” panel: white balance, color temperature and tint; exposure, recovery, fill light, black tones, brightness, contrast, clarity, richness, saturation.
3. “Tone Curve” panel: highlights, highlights, shadows, shadows, tone curve view.
4. Panel “HSL / Color / B&W”: hue, saturation, luminosity.
5. “Split Toning” panel: hue and saturation of highlights, balance, hue and saturation of shadows.
6. “Detail” panel: value, radius, details, masking for sharpness; brightness, details, contrast, color, details for noise reduction.
7. “Lens Corrections”: lens profile, distortion, chromatic aberration, vignetting.
8. “Effects”: style, value, midpoint, roundness, shading, lights to create a vignette; as well as the value, size and coarseness of the dots to give the image grain.
9. “Camera Calibration”: Process version, profile, hue for shadows, hue and saturation for red, green and blue.

As you can see, the list of tools is quite long: from cropping and changing basic exposure to lens-related issues. Below are screenshots of the Histogram and Basic panels:

Specific changes can be saved as a preset (a specified processing algorithm) and applied to an entire group of images. For example, you are engaged in subject photography of shoes (the same settings, the same lighting parameters, etc.): you processed one image, selected all the frames and synchronized the parameters. That's it, a thousand pictures have been processed.

As Adobe develops new versions of Lightroom, new subsections and other special features become available.

In addition to the processing capabilities described above, Lightroom has built-in modules for creating slide shows, printing photos, exporting photo galleries to the Internet, etc.

3.4. Editing photos in Photoshop

All of the above Lightroom image editing capabilities are automatically built into Adobe Camera RAW, which launches when you open a RAW file in Photoshop. Although this program is slightly different from Lightroom in appearance, every function is duplicated in Camera RAW. Adobe releases updates to Lightroom and Camera RAW at the same time, so even small changes, such as lens profiles, appear in both programs at the same time. Here's a screenshot of the Camera RAW panel:

Here's a comparison of the exposure adjustment panels:

As you can see, they have the same functionality.

To sum it up, we can do everything in Photoshop that we can do in Lightroom and more. Some photographers use Adobe Bridge and Photoshop and don't use Lightroom. Although Adobe Bridge supports some of Lightroom's features, it is not a database or catalog. It's more like a browser or file manager. Searching for an image requires going through all the files and can take a long time, whereas a similar search in Lightroom can be completed in seconds—again, because Lightroom's database is optimized for search. If you use Adobe Bridge, try Lightroom and you'll never go back to Adobe Bridge.

4.0. Main alternatives for Lightroom

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom isn't the only RAW converter available: there are quite a few alternatives. Apple Mac OS users can take advantage of Aperture, which is actually very similar to Lightroom, but is only compatible with that operating system.

If you are a Windows user, you can use the Capture One editor from Phase One. I've heard studio photographers praise it. There is also a program called "DxO Optics Pro". DxO is a very technologically advanced developer. Consequently, their software must be very accurate and efficient when it comes to, for example, correcting lens distortion.

Finally, there is "Silkypix". A separate Silkypix-based RAF converter is available with Fujifilm X-Trans based cameras such as the Fujifilm X-T2. It is reasonable to expect that Silkypix will offer very good support for RAF files of X-Trans sensors (these RAW files are slightly different from RAW files from other cameras due to different matrix structure and decoding algorithms).

These programs, along with Adobe Lightroom, are the most popular RAW converters. Each program has its own strengths and weaknesses. I tried Lightroom first and settled on this choice. Now using this program will take up most of my processing. This does not mean that this editor is better than its competitors in everything, it just started my acquaintance with professional photo processing, and I got used to it.

5.0. Camera settings when shooting in in-camera JPEG

Well, we have seen what great opportunities a photographer has when editing photographs in RAW format using third-party graphic editors. But what should those amateur photographers do who have neither the time nor the desire to understand all these programs? I think that they should carefully study the instructions for the camera and actively use fine settings for in-camera JPEG.

As you can see, the in-camera Jipeg can also be quite flexible. At the same time, if you compare the menu items in the camera and in the Lightroom and Photoshop programs above in the article where the algorithms for post-processing images are shown, you can see that there is a lot in common. But there are also features...

1. No beginner or advanced photographer, unless he takes 2,000 photos every day or is a psychic, can take the perfect photo using the JPEG format. Why? Because even before you press the shutter button, you must predict how much you need to brighten the shadows, what white balance to use, and the like.
2. Even a professional who shoots 2000 frames a day, 9 times out of 10, will not be able to take a perfect JPEG photo. The reason is that in the camera settings there are no local processing tools that are available in Lightroom: a brush, a gradient and radial filter, and a patch for removing spots. In reviews of Fujifilm X mirrorless cameras, there are statements that the in-camera Jipeg is so good that processing in the editor is not required. Nonsense! When editing a female portrait, I will use several brushes to whiten the whites of the eyes and teeth, make the iris of the eyes and lips saturated, increase the clarity in the hair and reduce it in the skin areas so that defects are not visible, remove pimples and wrinkles. When processing the landscape, I will increase the saturation of the blue color in the sky, increase the clarity so that the clouds stand out better, and use a mask to highlight the shaded areas under the Christmas tree. In addition, for example, when using noise reduction in the camera, only “high”, “normal”, “moderate” and “off” are available, and when editing in Lightroom we have 6 sliders that allow you to adjust the settings in 1% increments (see photo No. 33 higher). The same goes for most other post-processing options in Lightroom.
3. On forums you often come across photographers who post photographs and, with pompous lips, emphasizing their high importance and superiority over those who edit the pictures, declare: “Here is an in-camera JPEG. No processing was carried out!” Such amateur photographers are either incompetent or liars. Absolutely all digital cameras (cameras, video cameras, smartphones and phones) shoot in RAW format, after which, according to a given algorithm (similar to the one we used to process photo No. 10), they convert the images into Jeep. An in-camera raw JPEG without processing looks like this: dull, neutral colors, zero sharpness and blurriness of the image, no contrast and no color correction, there is strong digital noise, shadows fall into blackness and the white balance is unclear. Such a photo will not impress anyone and the only thing it is needed for is for subsequent processing in Photoshop. And then, the TIFF format is more suitable for Photoshop, since it is easier to edit due to the larger amount of stored information.

6.0. RAW processing in the camera editor

Photographers, at least those who own Nikon DSLRs, have another image editing option available: NEF processing in the built-in RAW editor.

How is this option better than the in-camera Jipeg? Because after shooting you can, by pressing a few keys, get a picture of higher quality than that generated by automatic JPEG (for example, you can change the brightness within a wide range). The finished result can be sent by mail if the photo is needed very urgently.

In practice, I don’t use the NEF editing option in the built-in editor. Firstly, the functionality is still poorer than in Lightroom. Secondly, the camera monitor is imperfect and does not display brightness, contrast and other parameters correctly - the picture will look different on a computer.

7.0. Conclusions to the lesson on photo processing in Lightroom and Photoshop

If you are a photographer who strives to create beautiful photographs, then the question is not whether you process your images or not (because you already do) but how well and consistently you do it. When I started photography, my processing was truly terrible (), and I suffered from a variety of problems, from not being able to find photos on my computer's hard drive to efficiently processing hundreds of images from my camera.

I learned the basics of photo editing in Lightroom in a couple of weeks, but it took me several years to develop a more or less coherent approach to post-processing that helps me edit photos effectively, and even simplify it thanks to new tools that appear in new versions of Lightroom and Photoshop . There's no doubt that my style of image processing will change, and as new technologies like cloud storage become more accessible, I'll be sure to add and remove steps to my workflow. I highly recommend taking a look at your editing process and seeing what you can optimize and improve—I'm sure there are ways to make it even simpler, more efficient, and more reliable. This article only discusses the stages of post-processing in general; it is not a photo tutorial on working with Lightroom and Photoshop. In reality, processing is more detailed, with more specific steps at each stage.

If you have not subscribed to blog updates, I advise you to do so using the form below. I “gestate” good articles for weeks and months. The next useful photo tutorial will focus on how to properly photograph with a wide-angle lens. Subscribing will help you not to miss that review. See you, colleagues and friends, on the pages of the site.

Who among modern people does not like to take photographs? Digital photographs have become almost one of the important components of our lives: mobile convenient selfies, sophisticated photo shoots and simply amateur shots. People love high-quality, good photographs, with the help of which they capture important events, their family, and unique places. And increasingly, SLR cameras are used to create such images, and all resulting frames undergo graphic processing.

How to open RAW in Photoshop is asked by many photography enthusiasts and image edits. It would seem that it could be simpler, but in fact, this problem has several nuances.

To answer the question of how to open the Rav camera in Photoshop, you first need to figure out what kind of format it is and why is it needed? "RAW" is translated from English as raw, unprocessed, and in our case means a digital photography format that contains raw data. Files of this format are usually obtained when using SLR, mirrorless, semi-professional digital cameras with non-replaceable lenses. Processing a photo card in the Rav format makes it possible to modify the frame parameters: exposure, saturation, white balance, sharpness, brightness, contrast. All changes can be made before editing. This function makes it possible to obtain the final photograph without losing either too dark or light areas of the frame.

Rav format files are supported by a large number of graphics programs.

Why doesn't Photoshop open RAW? In fact, in Photoshop you can open RAW format photos, however, for this, three programs are used in conjunction - the Camera RAW converter, Adobe Bridge utilities, Adobe Photoshop. These utilities are interconnected and are a single mechanism for editing and processing raster images and snapshots.

How to open Camera RAW in Photoshop?

Go to the editor's main menu, select the "File" menu and the "Open" command. In the window that appears, select the required Rav file. Select it with the mouse and click the “Open” button. This way the file will open immediately in the converter. This method is also used to open several files at once.

Opening RAW via Adobe Bridge

How to upload one photo

To open one image in the converter, you need to select the photo in the Adobe Bridge mini-image window by clicking the left mouse button, then use Ctrl+R. Or right-click on the thumbnail of the image, and from the menu that appears, select the “Open in Camera RAW” command. In this case, the picture will appear in the converter window, without using Photoshop, ready for transformation.

Having opened a photo in Rav format, you can then edit and adjust it in a variety of ways, achieving the desired result.

How to upload multiple photos at once

To load multiple images into Camera RAW, you need to select them in the Adobe Bridge thumbnail window by simultaneously pressing the Ctrl/Shift keys and selecting them with the mouse, then press Ctrl+R. After you right-click, select the “Open in Camera RAW” command, you can also use the aperture icon, which is located under the main menu.

After completing the above steps, all your selected images will appear in the converter. Their smaller copies will be available on the left side of the window, which allows you to conveniently switch between pictures. If the thumbnail strip interferes with your work, then you can move its border to the left side of the editor interface, in which case it will be minimized, and the selected picture will be stretched to fill the entire screen.

How to properly close a photo after editing?

To properly close the photo, saving all the changes and adjustments made, click on the “Done” button, which is located at the bottom of the program window. If you want to save the photo without saving the edit in RAV format, you just need to select “Cancel”. If you need to return to Photoshop and transfer the photo card there while saving all the settings you have made, you must use the “Open Image” command.

Working with Rav extension files is very convenient and easy using Photoshop. This editor in conjunction with a converter allows you to change, edit and process your photos and images to obtain the desired result, making them brighter, richer and more interesting.