05_774820 ch01.qxp 1/3/06 6:15 PM Page 9 1 Getting to Know Bridge, Camera Raw, and Photoshop In This Chapter ᮣ Shooting raw images ᮣ Getting images to your computer ᮣ Viewing, organizing, and opening images in Bridge ᮣ Processing images in Camera Raw ᮣ Adjusting images in Photoshop CS2 emember the days (just a few years ago!) when digital photography con- Rsisted of having fun shooting photos, transferring them to your com- puter, and enhancing them using Photoshop? The choices were simple: shoot in JPEG or TIFF format. JPEG format is pretty good, but TIFF was supposed to be better (even though the resulting image files were huge). Before long, we figured out that JPEG quality was pretty close to TIFF quality; for the most part, shooting images in TIFF really didn’t offer much advantage. Discerning digital photographers have always wanted a file format that works like a digital equivalent of a traditional negative — giving the photographer total control overCOPYRIGHTED processing the image data captured MATERIAL by a digital camera. (Sure, you could skip the tweaking and leave it all up to the camera’s internal processing soft- ware — but why settle for blah results?) In the past few years, new digital camera models have delivered just that — the raw image format. The software that gives you control of those raw images is called (logically enough) Camera Raw. 05_774820 ch01.qxp 1/3/06 6:15 PM Page 10 10 Part I: Getting Your Feet Wet Shooting in the Raw Well, no, you don’t have to walk around wearing only your camera when you take photographs. I’m referring to shooting photos in the raw format with your digital camera. Today’s digital SLR and advanced compact cameras (also called prosumer because their features are in-between “pro” and “con- sumer”) can capture images in raw format, leaving the enhancements up to the digital photographer. That unprocessed image file — a digital negative — provides more artistic control. An example is the image shown in Figure 1-1. Unprocessed raw image Processed in Camera Raw and Photoshop CS2 Figure 1-1: Raw format gives photographers more creative control in processing images. Why raw? As a photographer, I shoot in raw format because it gives me better creative control over the image data captured by my digital camera. Raw format gives me an image file created exactly as the digital camera’s sensor captured it. I can adjust white balance, tint, brightness/contrast, and hue/saturation exactly the way I want. I don’t have to settle for what my digital camera’s firmware (built-in internal software) does to the image. As an added bonus, shooting images in raw format gives me a huge advan- tage over JPEG: I can correct nearly any incorrect exposure or off-kilter white balance I may have made while shooting. Don’t get me wrong, getting the cor- rect exposure and white balance is still just good photographic practice and well worth the effort — you have less tweaking to do later — but sometimes, when you’re out in the field taking photos and (say) that bright green UFO lands right over there, you may have to shoot first and ask questions later. Also, getting an accurate reading of the exposure is tricky if you’re simply squinting at the images you’ve just taken (and their tiny histograms) on your digital camera’s LCD screen — especially if you’re shooting outdoors on a 05_774820 ch01.qxp 1/3/06 6:15 PM Page 11 Chapter 1: Getting to Know Bridge, Camera Raw, and Photoshop 11 bright, sunny day. When you download those images to your computer and view them in Photoshop, you may discover that your image is either under- or overexposed. (It happens!) Raw format lets you use the capabilities of Photoshop to compensate for under- or overexposed photos without degrad- ing the quality of the image. It’s a nice backup if you ever need it. Not all raw files are the same Contrary to popular belief, not all raw images are the same; after all not all images — and not all cameras — are the same. The actual image data col- lected by a digital camera’s image sensor can vary noticeably from one manu- facturer to another; the electronics are different from model to model. For that reason, camera manufacturers offer their own proprietary software to process the raw images produced by their cameras. If you purchase (for example) a Nikon digital camera such as the model shown in Figure 1-2, and that model offers the ability to capture raw images, you can process those raw files with a proprietary pro- gram, either Nikon Picture Project or Nikon Capture (advanced raw- conversion software available at an additional cost). If you also own a Canon digital camera that produces raw images, however, you won’t be able to use Nikon’s software to process them. For those images, you have to use Canon’s proprietary soft- Figure 1-2: Newer advanced digital cameras ware, Digital Photo Professional — can capture images in raw format. but you can’t process Nikon images using Canon’s software. And if (like the pros) you also have other cameras by other makers . you get the idea. So did Adobe. That’s why Camera Raw exists. I detail the advantages and disadvantages (yes, there are some) of shooting raw images in Chapter 2. Though different camera manufactures have their own versions of “the” raw format, Photoshop CS2 provides a standard platform you can use to process just about any raw image, regardless of all that proprietary fuss. As an added bonus, Camera Raw can handle the whole process of adjusting and editing your raw images (called workflow) with no need to add other software pro- grams. (Imagine that — something about photography has actually become simpler!) Adobe provides a list of the digital cameras with which Camera Raw is compatible at http://adobe.com. (For more about workflow concepts, spin through Part IV.) 05_774820 ch01.qxp 1/3/06 6:15 PM Page 12 12 Part I: Getting Your Feet Wet Transferring Image Files to Your Computer If you’re already well versed in transferring images to your computer, feel free to skip to the next section. (I won’t even be offended. Honest.) If you’re still wrestling with transferring images from your camera to your computer, you can use any of several methods, but these two are the most common: ߜ Connecting your digital camera directly to your computer. When you first get your digital camera home from the camera store, you have to unpack all those manuals, CDs, and cables that come in the box. The CDs include a software utility used to transfer images to your computer; one of the cables is for plugging your digital camera into your computer so you can transfer the images. (Refer to your camera’s owner’s manual to figure out which connection on the camera to plug the cable into. The other end of the cable connects to your computer’s FireWire or USB port.) ߜ Using a card reader. The fastest way to download images to Figure 1-3: Card readers are the fastest, safest your computer is to use a card way to download images to your computer. reader. Card readers (such as the one shown in Figure 1-3) are devices that plug into your computer’s USB port or (with some models) the faster FireWire port, providing an efficient way to transfer images — often from various cards with differ- ent formats such as Compact Flash, SD (secure digital), or memory stick. Using a card reader to download images to your computer also offers added security. With a direct connection, there’s often the worry that your digital camera’s battery might go dead while the image transfer is going on. A card reader can be especially reassuring if you have a large batch of images to transfer, and want it to happen correctly the first time. To download images to your computer, follow these steps: 1. Determine where you want the downloaded images to go on your computer. If you’re a Windows user, the easiest place to put your downloaded images is in the My Pictures folder (opened by choosing My Computer➪ My Pictures). You can also create a new folder to hold your images. (More information on image management and creating image folders can be found in Chapter 4.) On a Mac running OS X, the Pictures folder is a convenient location for downloading your images to. 05_774820 ch01.qxp 1/3/06 6:15 PM Page 13 Chapter 1: Getting to Know Bridge, Camera Raw, and Photoshop 13 2. Plug your digital camera into the computer, using the supplied USB or FireWire cable. Before you connect, make sure your digital camera is turned off. If you are using a card reader, make sure it’s plugged into an available USB or FireWire port on you computer. 3. Turn on your digital camera or insert a card into your card reader. Turning on your digital camera will automatically start the downloading process on your computer. If you’re using a card reader, inserting a memory card into the card reader starts the downloading process automati- cally. Your computer recognizes the digital camera or card reader as an external device and displays the window shown in Figure 1-4. 4. Copy images to your computer. Choose to open your folder, Figure 1-4: After your computer automatically using Windows Explorer as recognizes your digital camera, you can shown in Figure 1-4.