Photoshop CS3 RAW

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CHAPTER SEvEn

ADVANCED TONAL CONTROL WITH CAMERA RAW AND PHOTOSHOP

To illustrate this technique, I’m going

to use the work of photographer and

eminent digital photography educator

Michael Reichmann. Michael took the

shot in Figure 7-32 with a Canon EOS 1DS

Mark II. As confirmed by Camera Raw’s

histogram, the camera captured details

in both the highlight and shadow areas

for a RAW image with superb dynamic

range. However, to prepare this image for

optimal viewing or printing, I’ll need to

selectively compress the dynamic range.

Simply using Camera Raw Basic tab

controls doesn’t do the trick, as you

can see in Figure 7-33. Even though the

background is better, detail is still lacking

in the foreground. (Using the Point curve

tone controls didn’t help much either.)

To solve this problem, I’ll present here

what I did to Michael’s image, step-by-

step. I’ll break the process into two main

parts.

Advanced Tonal

Control with Camera

Raw and Photoshop

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Chapter SIX

Some RAW images need more work than others to make them

display properly on a typical monitor, or print correctly on a

printer with limited dynamic range. Let’s look at an advanced

technique that comes in handy with images that contain ex-

treme highlight and shadow tonal values.

Figure 7-32

Figure 7-33