Customer Reviews

Camera RAW 101: Better Photos with Photoshop, Elements, and Lightroom

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The simple truth is that there are many photographers out there with the capability to shoot RAW but are still shooting JPEG. It's mostly because of the fear that shooting in RAW format will increase their already hectic workflow. Then there's the photographers that just don't really get how much of a difference in flexibility and capability that shooting in RAW can have on the outcome of a digital photograph. If you fall into either of these camps then this book may be just the ticket you need to getting the most out of your images.

No, it's not for everyone. You're really not going to learn much if you already have a solid RAW work-flow, although there were a couple tricks and tips I did pick up that I either didn't know or had forgotten about.

This isn't about how experienced you are as a photographer either, it's about how knowledgeable you are about your work-flow. That's what's important. The better and faster you are at getting your images from your camera to final output the more time you'll spend behind the lens instead of in front of a computer monitor.

While you can get much of this information around the Internet I've always found it much handier to have a book that will take you step by step and to have access to as a reference when it comes to software.

I think our author does a fine job of explaining and showing the capabilities found in Adobe Elements, Photoshop, and Lightroom as RAW work-flow software programs. A pretty good book to get if you aren't already shooting in RAW.

Jon Canfield's CAMERA RAW 101: BETTER PHOTOS WITH PHOTOSHOP, ELEMENTS, AND LIGHTROOM comes from a digital photographer and software expert who explains how to take advantage of the latest versions of Photoshop, Elements and Lightroom to get fine results. Adobe Camera Raw has grown and changed from its original Photoshop CS2 version: this provides a survey of how RAW files are superior, and the techniques involved in organizing and developing RAW images in both ACR and Lightroom. Highly recommended for any advanced photo library.

Great - I have read this book from cover to cover and used it and refered back to it when I download my photos from RAW into PhotoShop I find that you should make as many if not all corrections you need to make in RAW before saving the photo to another format. This book can help you achive your best photos ever. Highly recommended to all who shoot in RAW or to those who want to shoot in RAW but are not sure what to do with the photos after you have taken them.

What this book attempts is admirable -- to introduce digital photographers to the process of using Photoshop to convert RAW images to fully usable formats. But it aims at a broad audience audience of users of so many programs -- Photoshop, Elements, and Lightroom, in all their various versions -- and this is its fatal flaw. For there are differences among these various programs and the many versions thereof, some minor but some very significant, and the book's efforts to distinguish among them are desultory and inadequate.

The book is also extremely incomplete, sloppily put together, and carelessly edited -- like a cookbook whose recipes were never field-tested before being published. Here are just a few examples. The many excellent illustrations showing screen shots of Adobe Camera Raw in action switch from one version of Camera Raw to another, without comment. Up until p. 58 we see one version of Camera Raw, but suddenly on p. 59 there is a shift to a different version -- one that has different control sliders. But there is no comment about this in the text. How is the reader to make sense of this? Which sliders from the first version correspond to which from the second? The author never even discusses the differences between versions. There is only a vague reference to "all versions of Camera Raw" on p. 59 to even hint to the reader that there are many versions of the camera raw plug-in, and that the one the reader is using may not match the illustrations and descriptions in the text. It is left to the reader to make guesses. I suppose that what is called the "Shadows" slider in one version is called the "Blacks" slider in the other, but who knows? And what about the important "Recovery" slider? There doesn't seem to be any corresponding slider in the other version. What is worse, the author doesn't even mention this slider, either in the text or the index. I had to go to my trusty "Photoshop Elements 7: The Missing Manual" to discover that this important control allows you to bring back detail in overexposed highlights without overexposing the rest of the image. How could a careful and responsible author fail to even mention this feature? It boggles the mind.

Pages 156-161 put forward a fascinating procedure for increasing dynamic range, allowing you to salvage a photograph with a compressed dynamic range by in effect combining two images -- one adjusted for shadow detail and the other for highlights. Unfortunately, the procedure does not work. Where it breaks down is on p. 158 where the author tells us to "open the same image [a second time] in Camera Raw" without bothering to mention that after the image was manipulated the first time in Camera Raw, an .xmp file was created recording the raw conversion data for the image. Once that file is created, opening the image in Elements bypasses the Raw Conversion software altogether. I'm sure there's a way around this, but the author never gives us a clue that problem even exists.

Finally, there is almost no discussion of the crucial issue of file formats, which ones to use and when to use them. At various points in the conversion process, one is faced with the question of whether to save one's work as a .jpg, or a .dng, or a .psd (among others). How is the beginning user of raw conversion software supposed to decide this when the issue is not even broached in the text?

So my advice is not to waste your money on this book. For just a few more dollars, you can get Ben Long's excellent "Getting Started with Camera Raw," which is not plagued with the problems that bedevil Canfield's deeply flawed manual.

This is just what I hoped for. Ir is very clear in instructions for Elements 7. Well written and informative.

This is a superior introduction to working with RAW files in Photoshop. It's the best and easiest to understand that I've come across.

I received this product as a gift and found out that it is outdated because I also received Photoshop Elements 10 & this book was written in 2009 for older Photoshop versions.

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements. This book helped me understand and improve my use of this software's RAW module; at the same time this book explains the features of the more advanced RAW modules in Lightroom and CS4 which is very useful information should I wish to upgrade in the future. Until reading this book, I captured all images in both RAW and JPG formats; now I have the confidence to capture only RAW images except for those situations where the levels tools of JPG are needed such as to add labels to a particular image. Very helpful book!

An excellent text book if you edit with Photoshop Elements. I am using it to help a beginner shooting RAW mode.

In as simplified a way as possible, Canfield walks you through the virtues and processes to use Camera RAW. It will be a must for all Digital Photographers to understand.