Photoshop CS3 Raw: Get the Most Out of the Raw Format with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Bridge [Paperback]

Mikkel Aaland (Author)

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Book Description
Because RAW files remain virtually untouched by in-camera processing, working with them has given digital photographers greater flexibility and control during the editing process -- for those who are familiar enough with the format. Camera RAW, the plug in for Adobe Photoshop CS3, has emerged as one of the best and most familiar tools for editing RAW images, and the best way to master this workflow is with Photoshop CS3 RAW.

Award-winning author Mikkel Aaland explores the entire RAW process, from the practical reasons to shoot RAW, to managing the images with the new features of Bridge 2.0 navigation software, to processing your images with the new power of Adobe Camera RAW 4 and Photoshop CS3. The book's unique four-color, photograph-rich design helps you grasp the subject through visual instruction and clear explanation.Photoshop CS3 RAW focuses on Photoshop editing techniques, such as:

• Automating RAW workflow
• Correcting exposures
• Extending exposure range
• Manipulating grayscale
• Working with the DNG open standard

Aaland helps you establish the best tool for each phase of your workflow, from managing shoots to perfecting photos. A digital photography pioneer and author of eight books, including O'Reilly's groundbreaking tutorial Photoshop Lightroom Adventure, Aaland's trademark ability to teach complicated topics on digital imaging with straightforward, easy-to-follow text makes this book a valuable learning tool for anyone serious about digital photography.

Required reading for professionals and dedicated photo hobbyists alike.

Seven RAW & Photoshop CS3 TIPS by Mikkel Aaland
#1) Shoot RAW when technical quality is critical, memory plentiful, and post processing is feasible. Shoot JPEG if capture speed is an issue, camera memory is limited, and processing time is of the essence.
#2) When shooting RAW critical camera settings include ISO (sensor sensitivity), and exposure--even though with a RAW file you have a greater margin of error. Not-so-critical settings include: white balance, sharpening, color space, and the choice between grayscale and color. These settings can all be applied later, using RAW processing software such as Photoshop Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw.
#3) When shooting RAW with grayscale images in mind, don’t bother using different color filters over your lens to produce dramatic black and white effects. Adobe Camera Raw provides graysale conversion which provide color sliders that "dial" in a filter effect.
#4) To recreate accurate colors in your RAW file, when possible, include in the shot a xRite ColorChecker target which cost around $50.
#5) To safeguard your images against unwanted usage, use Adobe Bridge’s Photodownloader and have it automatically add a copyright notice to every image downloaded. (The Photodownloader is found under Bridge’s File menu,"Get Photos from Camera".)
#6) Create and use different Bridge workspaces to work with your RAW files. For example, the default workspace displays small thumbnail versions of your images so you can see the entire collection at a glance for quick editing. The Horizontal and Vertical Filmstrip presets display large previews of your images for close examination and comparison. You can create custom workspaces as well.
#7) RAW files remain untouched when worked on with Adobe Camera Raw (and Adobe Lightroom), and developing instructions are saved separately, in XMP sidecar files. Avoid confusion, and the possibility of unreadable data, by converting your native RAW files in DNG, an open-standard RAW file format championed by Adobe.

About the Author
Mikkel Aaland is an award-winning photographer and and the author of nine books, including Photoshop CS2 RAW (O'Reilly 2006), Shooting Digital (2nd edition, Sybex, 2006), Photoshop Elements 4 Solutions (4th edition Sybex/Wiley, 2006), Photoshop for the Web, 2nd edition (O'Reilly, 1999), Still Images in Multimedia (Hayden, 1996), and Digital Photography (Random House, 1992), Since 2001 Aaland has been a regular guest on G4's Call For Help TV Program with Leo Laporte. In 2003 he was a guest columnist for newsweek.com. In 2004, Shooting Digital was named the best "Digital Photography" book of the year by the Designer's Bookshelf.

Aaland's documentary photographs have been exhibited in major institutions around the world, including the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the former Lenin Museum in Prague. In 1981 he received the National Art Directors award for photography. He has contributed both text and/or photography to Wired, Outside, Digital Creativity, American Photo, The Washington Post, and Newsweek, as well as several European publications.

Aaland has been a pioneer in digital photography, an interest that dates back to a 1980 interview he conducted with Ansel Adams. When Aaland asked Adams what he would be pursuing if he were just starting out, Adams discussed at length his fascination with digital photographs of the planets. Aaland has pursued this new technology since its infancy. During the 1980s he reported on digital photography as west coast editor of the Swedish FOTO magazine, and wrote a column on the subject for American Photographer magazine. Aaland is one of the few orginal Adobe Lightroom's alpha and beta user, and he served as an unpaid advisor on the project for over a year.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (January 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596510527
• ISBN-13: 978-0596510527
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,061,045 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Only RAW Book You'll Ever Need, February 8, 2008

By 

David A. Huss (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Photoshop CS3 Raw: Get the Most Out of the Raw Format with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Bridge (Paperback)

Photoshop CS3 Raw: Get the Most Out of the Raw Format with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Bridge
I have been working with Camera Raw since it was considered to be a strange format that most photographers talked about and few if any used. Since that time I have seen it become the format of choice for many professioals and a tsunami of book titles devoted to it. This book is one of the very few books on the topic that not only tells you how to make the most out of using Raw files but also how to hone your photographic skills in the use of the Raw format as well as how to use the portions of Bridge, Camera Raw, and CS3 designed to work with Raw.
The book's content is both straight to the point and well written. Ink is not wasted by the author with lame puns or jokes (if you want a laugh read Dave Berry). One of the greatest things I appreciated about this book is how the author examines each topic thoroughly. For example, in several other Raw books, when it comes to the tool designed to remove Chormatic Abberation (CA), they describe the CA tool and its contols and quickly move on. I do not fault these authors. I am sure they just weren't that sure how to use it themselves. In this book, the problem of CA is discussed, the tool to correct it is explored, and then the author takes you through the steps needed to remove it. Too cool.
If you shoot photos in Raw format, you have to have this book. Once you get it, make sure you sit down and read a secton, download the sample files that are provided for the tutorials, and do them. You can learn a lot reading but you can retain the knowledge that you learned by applying it doing the tutorials.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Call for a Moratorium, January 31, 2008

By 

Conrad J. Obregon (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Photoshop CS3 Raw: Get the Most Out of the Raw Format with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Bridge (Paperback)

Here's a simple, clear introduction to CS3 Camera Raw.

RAW is the generic name for the file type created by digital single lens reflex cameras and some other high end cameras that contains the basic, unprocessed data captured by the camera. As explained by Aaland, manipulating this data will allow the photographer to more accurately create his or her vision of a captured subject.

Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) is the built in software included with Photoshop that allows processing of raw files.

The book includes instruction on the use of Bridge, the common front end for all Adobe Creative Suite products, and Bridge's Photo Downloader, as well as limited information on using Photoshop to process images that have gone through ACR. It is not a manual for the use of the basic Photoshop.

The author goes through the use of ACR's basic controls, advanced tonal control, sharpening, noise, vignetting and chromatic aberration controls, black and white processing and DNG files. I was particularly pleased to see that Aaland covered all the controls in the 4.1 update to ACR, including the new sharpening facility, as well as Photoshop's Smart Sharpen. Old hands interested in learning about the new sharpening might benefit from reading the sharpening chapter, although the book is clearly aimed at beginners.

The author's method is to present text explanations on the outside of a page and illustrations next to the fold. There is plenty of white space and explanations are always adjacent to illustrations. Aaland takes you through the application of each of the tools in a step-by-step fashion with easy to understand text.

I do have a few complaints. The first is that the screen captures of the ACR menus, while plentiful, are too small for aged eyes. I confess to keeping a magnifying glass at hand to examine these illustrations, although Aaland's text usually explained the procedures in sufficient detail so that it was often not essential to see the captured menus.

My second complaint is applicable not just to this book, but many image processing books. I hereby call for a moratorium on the use of the word "art" in book titles and on covers. The subtitle is "Transform your RAW images into works of art". I suppose one could interpret that as merely a wish for your use of the software, but most people would probably think that there was going to be something about making your pictures more artful. There is not. This book is about using the sliders.

If you are a beginner, looking for a good introduction to the use of ACR to manipulate your files to help you create better pictures, this book is as good as it gets.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Top Notch Coverage on a Fascinating Tool for Photographers, February 6, 2008

By 

Jeremy Hall (Pleasant Grove, UT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Photoshop CS3 Raw: Get the Most Out of the Raw Format with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Bridge (Paperback)

Aaland writes in a way I can best explain as what every good help manual SHOULD be, with clear explanations and plentiful examples. Whether your skill level is as a beginner through advanced Photoshop user and photographer, you will have no difficulty understanding this book.

From start to finish Aaland takes the reader through every aspect of the Photoshop RAW application leaving no stone unturned. If you are already familiar with RAW, even previous versions, the first half of the book may be a bit redundant and slow as you are walked through the common tools and features. That said, this is one of the books I read cover to cover as the insights shared on each tool often bring to light a better understanding of how and why you would want to use individual tools.

On a critical note, in many cases his screen shot examples were presented too small to read the settings he referenced without including the info with the text of the page. At times it was also difficult to see the visual changes within his examples that were key to understanding his intended point being made.

This is the second title I have read of Aaland's, the first being his Lightroom Adventure. Already his style feels familiar and inviting. For all users looking to start using RAW processing with Photoshop, or those that have used it looking to improve their skills in the process, this book is the best I have read for the process.