Photoshop® Elements 8 All-in-One For Dummies®

Chapter 3. Working with Camera Raw

In This Chapter

• Getting familiar with Camera Raw

• Understanding the Camera Raw settings

• Opening files from the raw converter

• Saving files

When you work with digital photos in Elements, the file format of your images is an important point to consider. You choose this format before you take your pictures, and the format is carried over to your computer when you pull images off your camera.

The most common file formats that digital cameras offer are JPEG, TIFF, and Camera Raw. Some cameras offer other options, but these formats are the most common. Low-cost, point-and-shoot cameras offer you only the JPEG format. The more expensive cameras, including the SLR types, offer you both JPEG and Camera Raw; some cameras offer JPEG and/or TIFF, and Camera Raw.

This chapter aims to give you an understanding of how to work with Camera Raw files.

Understanding Camera Raw

Cameras that produce JPEG images process images with JPEG compression before saving them. It's as though your camera performs a darkroom method of film processing when the shot is taken.

The Camera Raw format provides you with an optimum image for editing in Elements. When a Camera Raw image is saved to a media source, all the information that the sensor captured is saved with the file; you process the images after you open them. (See the "Opening Camera Raw Files" section, later in this chapter, to find ...