BACK IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS...
Digital Photo Processing In the olden days we took the film cassette out of the camera and took it to Boots or sent it to Bonusprint to have prints made. Now we can do the same by taking the SD card out of the camera and taking it to Jessops to have prints made or, more likely, just leave the images on your PC/tablet.
But tonight...we re doing our own processing
I shall be covering...workflow everyone has their own approach Workflow logical steps of processing images from the camera, on to the PC, editing, saving and then...? Getting images on to computer from SD card. SD cards, common image file formats. Typical editing jobs on JPEG images. Dealing with RAW files. Saving the edited picture and backing it up.
SD Cards SDSC original format SDHC Highest capacity SDXC Latest
IMAGE FILE FORMATS
Common Image File Formats JPEG joint photographic expert group RAW raw image format TIFF tagged image format PNG portable networks graphics
Looking at what you ve got on the camera. Get rid of the rubbish? Reduce digital drudgery. Getting images off the SD card onto the PC. Look at them on the card on the PC first how? Can RAW be a problem? Yes additional software required (more later). Copy the keepers on to a folder on PC. Do a backup before reformatting SD card. Do they need editing?
Let s start with JPEG Images Do they need editing? (wonky horizon, underexposed, cropping etc.) Edit in what? Picasa, Adobe Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom. Common editing jobs Elements...
Wonkie Horizon
Saturation?
Exposure
How it s done in Elements Some Common Editing Jobs Practical Demo
Saving the Edit Do you want to keep the original, if so, what format? Decide what you are going to do with the edited image. Save for later? Print it now? Resize for Online display or email? Job done.
Job Done But what About RAW? Why Bother? Is it worth it?
WHAT IS A RAW IMAGE? An image file format containing data as it came from the camera sensor with no digital processing in camera?? Not so... Needs special software to view it (cannot be seen in Explorer unless...later). Software is (usually) specific to camera manufacturer. What you see in the rear screen of a camera is not the RAW image it is an embedded JPEG image the camera has edited already. RAW offers better quality than JPEG but bigger file and requires extra digital processing.
Advantages of using RAW More dynamic range than JPEG can recover over/under exposure and more detail. Editing tools are available in RAW editing software that are not available in Elements for JPEG editing. Many cameras can produce RAW and JPEG images simultaneously hence image can be seen in Explorer but what if it cannot...?
How can you view a RAW image on the PC? You can t in Explorer (unless RAW + JPEG). Camera maker s supplied software e.g. Nikon View NX or.. Use your editing software PS, Elements, Lightroom. New camera and your software can t recognise the image file??? Update editing software... Use Faststone Image Viewer: download, free... http://www.faststone.org/fsviewerdetail.htm
Editing RAW Images considerations RAW files need to be converted to other formats to be useable. The original image is not physically changed. The initial conversion includes editing, where the changes are saved with the RAW file. What are you going to change it to? PSD, TIFF, JPEG think it through before you delete the original RAW file and the editing changes you have made. The usual next stage (for me) is to open the file in Elements for further editing.
Editing RAW in Elements - demo
Notes on RAW Editing Tools Saturation: boosts all colours equally can give strong colours garish results. Vibrance: boosts weak colours more than stronger colours. Also better for skin tones. Vibrance and Saturation: can be used in tandem good for skin. Try reducing Saturation by -15 and increase Vibrance by the same amount. Clarity: When clarity is increased, edge of image mid tones becomes more distinct which adds sharpness to photo. Also changes saturation levels but mainly on mid-tone colours. Reducing Clarity in portrait images gives smoothing effect try it.
Finally, Lightroom