Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers

156 Digital Darkroom

Once you understand that any RAW capture includes

an almost infinite number of potential images that can

be derived from the RAW original, it becomes clear

that vision and planning are of the utmost importance.

You need to know

where y

ou want to go (the image

you want to end up with). With a fairly clear picture of

the desired end result in mind, you should also stake

out a road map of

how y

ou are going to get there. Of

course, a road map of a proposed journey should never

preclude productive detours along the way!

There are three general ways you can use Photoshop to

adjust exposures:

n

An overall exposure can be adjusted as part of the

process of converting a RAW image.

n

Several entirely separate exposure conversions can

be made from a single RAW image, and combined.

n

A variety of Photoshop mechanisms can be used to

tweak and adjust the image once it has been con-

v

erted from RAW.

The first of these two mechanisms are the most power-

f

ul. Most photographers, even those who are adept at

using Photoshop (or other software) for post-process-

in

g, don’t regularly take advantage of this power. The

big secret o

f the digital darkroom is to take advantage

of the power of RAW conversions, particularly multiple

RAW conversions. And now that I’ve told you, it’s no

longer a secret for a select few digital photographers.

You can use it in your own ...