Video Training Review - Adobe Photoshop CS3: Camera Raw Workflow Essentials With Matt Kloskowski From NAPP

Released in June 2007, Adobe Photoshop: Camera Raw Workflow Essentials with Matt Kloskowski is the new video training DVD for those who have experience with a recent version of Photoshop and want to learn how to unlock the power of the Camera Raw workflow. It is hosted by Matt Kloskowski, one of the education and curriculum developers for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, or NAPP. If you are not familiar with NAPP, please read my review on Photoshop User magazine, to gain more insight on what NAPP is all about, and why you might want to join.

Adobe Photoshop: Camera Raw Workflow Essentials is contained on a single DVD that runs 174 minutes and can only be used on a computer based system. It is aimed at users new to Photoshop as well as those who have basic intermediate skills and want to move to the next level. The author goes over the material in 24 lessons which are divided into 3 sessions that will have you unlocking the world of Camera Raw within Photoshop like a pro.

Session 1:
Lessons 1-2 cover what Camera Raw is, and what it can be used for. The lessons explains the differences between Raw and JPEG files and what makes Raw files so much more powerful. It also explains how to open Raw files in both Bridge and in Photoshop, and what the differences are when you do so.

Lessons 3-5 cover the fundamentals of White Balance Here you will learn how white balance affects your perception of an image because "eyes adjust, cameras don't." You will learn how to work with a white balance tool to target neutral grey, what to do when you can't find a neutral grey You will also learn about the white balance presets and how much easier it to do in Camera Raw.

Lesson 6 shows you how to crop and straighten your images. Kloskowski prefers to insert the cropping at this point in his work flow because it changes how the histogram is affected. This way, when he works with the cropped image, he has a more accurate representation of the image. Straightening is explained by showing how to use the straightening tool.

Article Author: T. Michael Testi

T. Michael Testi is a writer and a photographer out of Edmond Oklahoma. You can see his photographic and art work at T Michael Imaging.

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