Ansel Adams and the photographers of his era established the standard for modern photography. Get the full range of light, from the blackest blacks to the clearest whites. Adams also helped establish the rules to achieve that goal. Control the process every inch of the way, from picking your equipment until the final print, to capture your vision.
The modern digital photographer can achieve that control by using all the features of his camera and the software available to him for processing. The leading software is Adobe Photoshop. Manufacturers have adopted a format called Raw that captures the most data so that the photographer can exercise the most control in processing. Adobe has responded with Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) which helps photographers squeeze that data from the file to allow digital photographers to meet the Adams standard.
Rob Sheppard has produced a book on using ACR that always keeps in mind that the purpose of ACR is to help the photographer produce an image that embodies his vision. There are several books available about using ACR that describe how to use the sliders and what the effects are. Sheppard's book covers the same ground, but he also relates the technique to the artistic purpose. For example, he tells you how the shadows slider works to change the black point in a picture. But he tells you that you should not just extend it to some arbitrary limit that insures the image has the greatest range. He discusses the fact that varying the black point helps to give snap to some pictures and that increasing areas with no shadow detail may actually help to achieve the photographer's vision.
The author recognizes that the process begins with taking the image and, after a discussion of the Raw format itself, tells you how to use the in-camera histogram that comes with many higher end cameras, to bring the best possible image to ACR. Then he selects a number of specific images, with a full range of differing processing requirements, to illustrate the use of the ACR tools to achieve the photograph that reflects the photographer's vision. The book is profusely illustrated with step by step images that remove any doubt one might have about what to do. And thankfully, for my eyes, the illustrations were large enough to see clearly without a magnifying glass.
I particularly liked the chapter "The Noise Problem No One Talks About" which was a problem that I've never been able to find enough help in solving. There was also a chapter on compact digital camera Raw processing which recognized that not all photographers are shooting digital single lens reflex cameras.
Sheppard recognizes that sometimes even ACR cannot capture all the data available in a single conversion and includes a chapter on combining separately adjusted files of the same image in Photoshop to extend range even more. He includes a chapter discussing other Raw converters that are available.
This book is aimed at slightly more experienced photographers then another favorite of mine, "Raw 101" by Jon Canfield. Moreover, it doesn't cover the post ACR process in Photoshop, for which I would recommend Tim Grey's "Photoshop CS2 Workflow". Finally, there is no hands-on work here. If you learn better that way, you may want to read Barry Haynes' "Photoshop CS Artistry", which includes extensive tutorials, although at least in prior versions, gave ACR short shrift.
For me, Sheppard's book seemed the perfect explanation of ACR.
