
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
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