Customer Reviews

Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Let me start out by saying that when it comes to photography, I'm a control freak. I love the histogram and blinkies on my DSLR, and naturally I shoot in camera raw so that I can control processing even more. I've used the camera raw plug-in for PhotoShop ever since it came out. But I;ve been unhappy with the information I?ve been able to find about camera raw in the various books and magazines I've read. Oh, everything you need to know is in the off-line and on-line documentation, but I've always found you have to know what you are looking for to find some of the features. A typical example for me was sharpening. I knew that I wanted to sharpen my images after I got done with all of my adjustments so I set sharpness at zero in the camera raw plug-in, but sometimes that meant that I had to make adjustments in camera raw on fuzzy images. I never knew that you could set the preferences for camera raw so that there was sharpening of the preview but not of the image exported to PS. It was in the manual but I never found it.

All that's changed since reading "Real World Camera Raw". It's all in there along with lots of information about the File Browser, metadata and automation. And it's in a readable form! You can start on page 1 and go through to the end on page 218 in a day without too much trouble. Of course, you'll have to return to individual paragraphs when you go to apply what you learn, but you will know the power of these features.

This book is not about art, or what adjustments you should actually make to get the output you want. For that, I still recommend Barry Haynes' "PhotoShop Artistry" series, with its extensive tutorials. This book is about procedures. For example because the gamma of the raw image is linear, so that much more data is concentrated in the highlight end of the scale, the last adjustment that you should make in the plug-in is normally shadows.

Much of this book is aimed at heavy-duty users. I doubt that I will ever need to process hundreds of images a day so that I will need to use most of the automation functions described by Fraser. But there are a few I will try.

Obviously this book is for the serious PhotoShop user. But if you fall into the category, I can't see how you will not benefit by reading this book

Many find his other books a bit overwhelming (Real World Photoshop, Real World Color Management). This one is short and to the point.
He tells you how to squeeze every drop of quality from your digital capture. And, he says how to do it quickly and reliably with Photoshop's built in RAW processor.

The language in this book is simpler. Or maybe it is just that I have already read the other books.
One idea that I have picked up already and will use every day is "Highlight recovery" using the exposure slider. I had always figured that burned out highlights meant a trip to the trash can. "Not necessarily so" he says.

Highly recommended for intermediate to advanced users.
He has given me more useful advice for Photoshop than all other writers combined.
Henry Domke
www.henrydomke.com

I gave this book only 4 stars because of the photos, the before and after of which are surprisingly similar, if not identical. Didn't anyone proof the photos in a Photoshop book?!

If you are an intermediate or advanced Photoshop user, it is a most informative and easy to understand book. If you want to learn about why to shoot in RAW and how to process with the RAW format, it's all here. Having used the basic Camera Raw program that came with my camera, it is such a joy to use Photoshop Camera Raw program with understanding and skill!

Other than this book though, you should know that there is a wealth of information on Camera RAW right on the Adobe website under Support. Click on Search and enter first the White Papers, and next enter "Digging into Camera Raw" under tutorials and troubleshooting. This information gave me all the instructions that I needed. But I also copied the links for you:

[...]
Many of the Adobe Digital Photography White Papers and primers discuss the same topics covered in this book

[...]

[...]

I am not a professional photographer, rather an interested hobbyist. I just finished studying Camera Raw by Bruce Fraser. I use the term study, because it is a very "readable", but very technical manual which does a great job of explaining the basics of Camera Raw theory and implementation. I took this book with me on a vacation (it is not for vacation reading)and it honestly took me full week to read, re-read and re-read a third time to begin to fully grasp the beauty of a small book which goes from general theory, narrows the focus down to the working detail and then steps back and ties it all together at the end of each chapter and at the end of the book. Bruce Fraser is clearly a very talented writer and teacher. In addition to covering Camera Raw he also explains the use of the File Browser, Metadata, Workflow and Automation better than any other author I have read. If you are "baffled" by the Adobe Photoshop "Help" files explanation of the above, then just give this book a chance and you will come away feeling very much more in control of your Photoshop CS, your camera and your own "style" of using the above mentioned tools. The "clinical" examples are explained step-by-step with visuals of the actual photos and the computer displays to go along with each step in the production workflow. It is just filled with clinical "pearls" of information which all got highlighted with my yellow magic marker. In fact, when I finished, the whole book was one big yellow page, because it is all there with no wasted verbage.
My only critique is one of the printing format. To explain, I have to tell you that if you use bifocals (like I do) it is very difficult to actually see the small print in some of the displays of the actual Adobe menu boxes that are used as examples on at least every other page. So maybe, if this book is updated and re-published, Mr. Fraser could use larger type size in the examples. The type size of the narrative is perfect.

William E. Weddle, MD

Not much to add to others' praise of this book - it's terrific.

Bruce Fraser is also one of the foremost experts on color reproduction around. Bruce gives you step-by-step instructions on pp 62-64 for calibrating the plug-in to work with your camera. Those instructions alone are worth the price of this book. Take an hour to make these adjustments. Not only will you save yourself hours of work in Photoshop down the road, but you'll also be sparing the lives of millions of innocent pixels from the ravages of Photoshop color adjustments.

Before getting this book, I knew the advantages for shooting with the raw file format, but dreaded the workflow issues associated. Bruce's book changed all that and now I can't wait to shoot using raw more often. Not only did Bruce throroughly explain the advantages of using RAW, but he also tells you where Adobe Camera Raw works better than Photoshop, where Photoshop works better than ACR, and how to automate a few of the functions to improve your workflow dramatically. I can't begin to explain how much time I now save when processing raw files.

It's not a long book, but I have to say it has been one of the most helpful Photoshop books I ever bought. I'll never use my camera's native raw software again!

I am relatively new to DSLR cameras and I've spent the last few months playing with Adobe Photoshop elements 2 and the Canon converter since it came with my camera. I knew however that I was missing something since it took forever to process, plus, elements 2 can't handle 16 bit/channel which makes it kind of pointless to shoot RAW. So, I figured JPEG was the best bet until I read that the new Adobe photoshop had a new RAW converter which would allow both RAW converting and photoshop editing in the same program. However, the workflow issues were difficult unitl I found Fraser's book. It's VERY well written, very easy to follow (even if you're non-technically inclined) and when he does introduce very hard concepts (like editing text directly in .xml files) he explains them well or tells you why you either would or would not need to use them. In other words, he doesn't make you feel bad for not using some complicated feature meant only for pros.

I loved his step by step presentation of ALL the sliders, how to use the alt or control key to check for clipping, how to fix an image and how to set personal camera preferences in the advanced box. I guarantee that even if you've never tried shooting in RAW, you'll be inspired to after reading this book. It's rare that I find a book so helpful and clear, but I have to admit that I loved this book and have already gone back through it several times with pleasure to look for smaller details. He deserves an A+

This book is a must have by any serious amateur or professional photographer interested in mastering Photoshop's CS Camera Raw plug-in. Mr. Fraser is not only a guru in all things Photoshop, but also has the talent to write with explanatory skill and clarity. The books logical chapter flow, starting with the advantages of shooting in RAW, to a thorough explanation of all the control features in Photoshop CS Camera Raw and the possible workflow methods is extremely well done. If you work through this book in its entirety, you will certainly be rewarded with a very considerable working knowledge. Mercifully, he avoids going into the mathematics of algorithms and various formulas and maintains his usual style of providing practical and informative information throughout the book.

My only negative comment would be regarding the quality of a few of the illustrations and photos used to illustrate the point he is making. Unfortunately, in some it is difficult to determine the difference when asked to compare in his accompanying text or caption. I hope this will be corrected in the second edition.

In spite of my only negative comment, I gave this book 5 stars and if available 10 stars!

While this book offers some good advice for handling RAW format photos, I found it to be quite repetitive. Very often, the author makes a point in an opening chapter, then repeats the very same point with little elaboration in later chapters. Also, I was disappointed that the photos used in the exercises are neither included on a CD with the book, nor are available for downloading at the publisher's or auther's site. That makes it difficult to actually perform the exercise that the author describes when he is processing various photos. Instead, one has to rely on screen shots in the book to see the adjustments he has made.

Frasier is a gifted author, but I think he missed the mark on this book.

This is an end-to-end walkthrough of using RAW with Photoshop CS. It's only two hundred pages or so. About 50 are the basics of RAW. It's a good introduction but I would have liked a little more camera-specific coverage. After that it's a 150 walkthrough of the features of the RAW converter with some rudimentary examples. The last chapter is on automation. The only book on RAW so far, it seems, and it's a good starting point on this very important topic.