In the old days, say 5-10 years ago, to do quality photographic imaging, one would have to go into the chemical darkroom, spend hours in isolation from others, while working in the dark. The advent of digital processing has brought the photographer back into the light, and has changed the way that we look at, and work with images.
The tools and the media may have changed, but the search for the quality image has not. With the onset of digital capture came a new concept, that of the digital negative, or the RAW file. While JPEG's are convenient and easy to use, by their inherent nature they throw away a lot of the data that the camera has captured, and that loss of data is permanent. The RAW file retains that information, and that gives the photographer the power and control over their image much in the same way the film photographer had in days gone by.
Photoshop CS3 RAW: Get the Most Out of the Raw Format with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Bridge is all about how to process that RAW file. Like the film negative, you can take the RAW file and just process it using common methods, and what you will get is a common image. But, as in the days of old when you would go into the darkroom, you can now work with a RAW processor application such as Adobe Camera Raw, and with some tender loving care, you can get the same spectacular image that you could with a negative. Photoshop CS3 RAW's goal is to show you how to get that spectacular image. The book is 251 pages in length and is divided into 12 chapters.
Chapter 1, "Shooting RAW," begins by looking at the critical things you need to know before you start shooting RAW. These include the basic questions of why shoot RAW in the first place, when to shoot RAW, and the difference between RAW and JPEG. Chapter 2, "Using Adobe's Photo Downloader," describes Adobe Bridge which is a standalone application that comes with Photoshop CS3. By using its downloader application you can extract the images from your camera.
Chapter 3, "Photo Editing RAW in Bridge," continues with the Bridge application although now, however, it focuses on the Bridge application itself. By using Bridge, you can preview your images, work with Metadata, create a custom workspace, rename files, and edit a photo session. Chapter 4, "Getting Started with Camera Raw," gets into the meat of RAW processing by giving you an overview of the basic controls and features of Camera Raw. These include workflow, the Camera Raw tools, and analysis in Camera Raw.
Chapter 5, "Photo Editing with Camera Raw," takes you beyond the editing seen in Chapter 3 to the editing power in Camera Raw. Here you will work with analytical tools like the histogram, magnification levels, the ability to open and work with multiple images, as well as synchronizing to apply your corrections in a batch mode. Chapter 6, "Using Camera Raw Basic Tab Controls," shows that while Camera Raw can do much of the computational work in the background, there are a lot of tools available that will help you get the image the way you want it. Here you will learn how to get more advanced control over the color and tone of your images.
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