Photoshop CS3 RAW

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PART ONE: CREATING TWO VERSIONS

In this rst part, I’ll show you how to create multiple versions

of the same RAW le as Smart Objects in Photoshop. Part Two

shows a couple of ways to use Photoshop to selectively merge

the dierent versions into one.

Here are the steps for this first part:

Starting in 1. Bridge, as shown in Figure

7-34, open the RAW file into Camera

Raw (File→Open in Camera Raw).

In Camera Raw, use the Basic or Tone 2.

Curve controls to adjust for either

the highlights or shadows. Don’t try

to compromise. Just make one or

the other right. In Michael’s image

(Figure 7-35), the highlights in the

background are now correct but, as

indicated by the blue shadow clipping

warning, the shadow areas in the

foreground are lacking detail.

Select Camera Raw workflow 3.

preferences by clicking on the link

at the bottom of the Camera Raw

window. In the Workflow dialog box,

select Open in Photoshop as Smart

Objects (circled in Figure 7-36).

Part One: Creating

Two Versions

Figure 7-34

Figure 7-35

Figure 7-36

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CHAPTER SEvEn

PART ONE: CREATING TWO VERSIONS

Select Open Object from the bottom 4.

right of the Camera Raw window. The

RAW file, with your adjustments, will

open in Photoshop as a Smart Object

(as you can see in the History palette

in Figure 7-37). It will retain its original

characteristics and remain fully editable

at any time in Camera Raw.

Back in Bridge, open the same RAW 5.

file again into Camera Raw. This time,

adjust the exposure so the shadow

areas are correct. Now Michael’s

background is blown out, as depicted

by the red highlight warning in Figure

7-38. I quickly noticed that opening

up the shadow areas revealed a

lot of image noise. At this stage of

the process, I ignored this obvious

distraction, choosing to fix it later with

Photoshop’s Reduce Noise filter. (For

more on this filter see Chapter 9.)

Open this version as a Smart Object 6.

in Photoshop. You’ll now have two

versions of the same image open in

Photoshop as Smart Objects. Next

you’ll need to create a multi-layered

document. With both images open in

Photoshop, select a layer (it doesn’t

matter which one in the Layers palette

of one of the images), hold the Shift key

and drag the layer on top of the other

image. The Layer Palette I created with

Michael’s image is shown in Figure 7-39.

Note that both layers are Smart Objects,

which means both are independently

editable.

Figure 7-37

Figure 7-38

Figure 7-39

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PART ONE: CREATING TWO VERSIONS

Now you are ready to blend the images,

which I’ll go into detail shortly.

Using Bridge’s Place in Photoshop

You can also bring multiple versions of

the same image into Photoshop as Smart

Objects directly from Bridge by using

Bridge’s place command. The first time

you use the Place command on your RAW

file it won’t open in Camera Raw, but you

can always go back and perform your

adjustments there later. The second time

you use Place on the same RAW file, it will

open in Camera Raw and you can make

adjustments then or later.

To do this:

Select File1. →Place In Photoshop from

the Bridge menu, as in Figure 7-40.

After the first version is automatically 2.

placed in Photoshop, go back to

Bridge and repeat step one.

This time, when Camera Raw appears, 3.

make a tonal adjustment for either

highlights or shadows and select

OK when you are done. The second

version will open in Photoshop and be

pasted into the original one as a Smart

Object, as shown in Figure 7-41. It’ll

have a large X across the image. Select

the Commit button from the Options

bar, circled in Figure 7-42.

Figure 7-40

Figure 7-41

Figure 7-42