Creating Artistic Effects You can’t create many artistic effects in Camera Raw just yet, but you can add grain or a vignette to your image using the Effects panel.. Use the following sli
Trang 1FIGURE 8.34
Color and depth are added to the sky by using the Graduated Filter
Creating Artistic Effects
You can’t create many artistic effects in Camera Raw just yet, but you can add grain or a vignette to your image using the Effects panel Both can add depth and interest to a photo, and as always in Camera Raw, these edits are completely reversible
Open the Effects panel by clicking the Effects tab in the Adjustment tabs, as shown in Figure 8.35
This panel provides sliders to add and customize grain or a vignette to your image
Adding grain
When you add grain to your image in Camera Raw, it is added to areas that are out of focus more heavily than it is added to the focused areas This adds depth and interest to the softness created
by a short focal length Use the following sliders to add and fine-tune grain in your image:
l Amount: Until you adjust the amount of grain above 0, no grain is added to your photo
This is a rare setting in Camera Raw, because it is always set to 0 when an image is opened Many of the other settings remain right where you left them Adjust the Amount slider up to add a little or a lot of grain to your image
l Size: This determines the size of the grain added to your image.
l Roughness: This adds contrast between the grains to enhance the roughness of the texture.
Trang 2FIGURE 8.35
The Effect panel
FIGURE 8.36
Adding grain to this photo turned the soft background into grittier, more interesting texture
Trang 3Adding a vignette
A vignette is a soft, circular border around an image that highlights an area of the image In Camera Raw, a vignette is created uniformly around the edges of your image, targeting the center
by default, so you probably want to crop these images so the focal point of your photo is close to the center
Change these options to create a vignette, as shown in Figure 8.37:
l Style: From the Style drop-down menu, you can choose Highlight or Color priority The
Highlight priority adds black or white pixels to create the vignette The Color priority either lightens or darkens the existing colors in the image to create the vignette
l Amount: Adjusting this slider above 0 creates a lighter vignette; the higher the value, the
more opaque the vignette is Going lower creates a darker vignette
l Midpoint: This adjusts the size of the vignette.
l Roundness: Moving the roundness slider up creates a rounder vignette, while moving it
down causes it to conform to the shape of the image
l Feather: This sets the softness of the vignette edges.
l Highlights: This slider is available only if you have created a dark vignette It pulls
high-lights out of the image in the darker areas to create depth
FIGURE 8.37
Adding a vignette highlights the focal point of an image
Trang 4Correcting Camera Quirks
The Lens Correction and Camera Calibration tabs give you options to correct aberrations that occur with lenses and cameras that distort the color and tonal value of your image
Lens corrections
If you zoom in to an image until you can distinguish the pixels, you’ll probably notice a color
fringe around some of them, especially highlights This is called chromatic aberration, and it’s
caused either by the inability of the camera lens to focus all the colors onto the sensor at once or
by those colors being focused but slightly different sizes, producing color fringes
Camera Raw can correct the second type of chromatic aberration using the sliders in the Lens Corrections tab, as shown in Figure 8.38 Zoom in tight to your image, and adjust the sliders until the color fringes are less visible When you have set the sliders, select Defringe and use the drop-down menu to choose Highlight Edges or All Edges You can preview both settings and use the one that works best
FIGURE 8.38
The Lens Corrections tab
The other Lens adjustment on the Lens Corrections tab is Lens Vignetting I just showed you how
to create a vignette as an artistic effect, but what if your lens has created the vignette and you don’t want it? You can remove it by using the Lens Vignetting sliders to adjust for it, almost the exact opposite of creating one in the Effects tab
Camera calibration
Trang 5Raw, it has its own methods of interpreting color and chooses profiles that are the best for your particular camera make and model
After you click the Camera Calibration tab to open the Camera Calibrations panel, you can choose what profile to use from the Camera profile drop-down menu, as shown in Figure 8.39 You can see a significant difference in the color of your image by clicking through these profiles After choosing a profile for your image, you can tweak it by using the color sliders to adjust individual colors and saturation
FIGURE 8.39
Your camera profiles in the Camera Calibration tab may be different than the ones shown here
Adjusting Sharpness and Reducing Noise
When you have completed all the other changes to your image in Camera Raw, you are ready to open the Detail tab shown in Figure 8.40, where you can adjust the sharpness and reduce noise in your image You make these adjustments last because their effectiveness is reduced when other adjustments are added to them
Trang 6FIGURE 8.40
The Details tab
Noise reduction
Noise is defined as random pixels throughout your image that give it a messy look Noise is intro-duced in several ways The higher the ISO setting on your camera, the more noise is created in your image Lightening, as well as other adjustments, also creates noise
You can reduce the noise in your image by adjusting the following settings:
l Luminance: Reduces the amount of grayscale noise.
l Color: Reduces the amount of color noise.
l Edge Detail: Is tied to Luminance and Color sliders and allows you to increase the
con-trast of the edges in your image, reducing the blurring effect that Noise Reduction can sometimes have
Note
Keep in mind that Photoshop reduces noise by blurring your image and decreasing contrast of individual pixels
Sharpening also affects your image at the single pixel level It is important to preview your image zoomed in at
least 100 percent in order to see and fine-tune the effects of both noise and sharpening on your image n
Sharpening
Sharpening works by increasing the contrast around the edges of your image to bring it more into
Trang 7Camera Raw sets the default sharpening at 25 for raw images This is not a huge amount; in fact, it
is comparable to the sharpness your camera applies to a processed image Lots of experts will tell you, though, that adding any sharpening by default is a bad idea, so if you want to change the default setting to 0, reset the slider and choose Set New Camera Raw Defaults from the Adjustment Tabs menu
Sharpen your photo by using the following adjustments:
l Amount: This sets the amount of sharpening applied to your image The amount you
choose is directly tied to your Radius and Detail settings
l Radius: Choose your Radius based on the size of the detail in your image An image with
very small detail should have a small Radius setting Images with larger details can get away with a larger Radius setting, but keep an eye on that preview; a large Radius setting can introduce an unnatural amount of contrast to your image
l Detail: This setting heightens the detail of your image as you raise it by applying the
sharpness to higher frequency areas of your photo A very high detail setting gives your image an almost textured look
l Masking: Raising this setting applies more of the sharpening effect to the edges of your
image and less to the overall image
Tip
If you hold down the Alt/Option key while you adjust the Sharpening sliders, you see a preview of what the
control is doing to your image This is a great way to get more familiar with the Sharpening controls and find
the optimal setting for your image n
Summary
This chapter really got into the meat and potatoes of Camera Raw You learned about color and light and how they can be adjusted using the tools and panels in Camera Raw Specifically, you learned how to do the following:
l Change the light settings to improve the exposure and contrast in an image
l Make color corrections to an image or individual colors in that image
l Make targeted adjustments to only selected portions of your image
l Create artistic effects with your images
l Put the finishing touches on by correcting camera aberrations, sharpening, and reducing noise in your image