Many photographers prefer to shoot in JPEG format so that they don’t have to spend time processing raw images to get better colours and tones within Photoshop Elements’ standard editor. Because JPEG photos are already processed in the camera, they instantly take on the colours produced by the camera’s picture style and white balance settings.

However, a lot of the colour and tonal information is thrown away when you shoot in JPEG, so you can end up adding noise or blocky compression artefacts to the shot if you do need to edit it later.

You can retain the colour and tonal information that JPEGs discard by switching the file format on your camera to raw, and processing the shots in Adobe Camera Raw.

Adobe Camera Raw places all the most useful photo-fixing tools close to hand as sliders and icons, so editing is a very simple process – there’s no need to rummage through lots of sub menus hunting for particular commands.

Our before image

In this Photoshop Elements tutorial we’ll show you how to set up Adobe Camera Raw to get the best possible pictures from your raw files.

You’ll learn how to adjust a raw file’s tonal range to give an image more contrast, how to boost the colour saturation of an image without creating over-saturated and unprintable colours, and you’ll also learn how to remove unsightly sensor spots.

And finally, you’ll learn how to give your processed shot more impact by sharpening those delicate details.

How to process raw images in Photoshop Elements: steps 1-2

01 Set the depth
In Photoshop Elements, choose File>Open and browse to your start image. The image is a Digital Negative so it will open in Adobe Camera Raw. To squeeze as much colour and tonal information out of the file as possible set the Depth drop-down menu to 16 bits/channel.

02 Set the white balance
The shot’s mountains look a little too warm. Because it’s a raw file you can cool things down easily by dragging the Temperature slider left to 4900. You can counteract the image’s slightly green hue by dragging Tint right to –1. This creates a Custom White balance setting.

How to process raw images in Photoshop Elements: steps 1-2
How to process raw images in Photoshop Elements: steps 3-4
How to process raw images in Photoshop Elements: steps 5-6
How to process raw images in Photoshop Elements: steps 7-8
How to process raw images in Photoshop Elements: steps 9-10
How to process raw images in Photoshop Elements: steps 11-12
How to process raw images in Photoshop Elements: steps 13-14
How to process raw images in Photoshop Elements: steps 15-16

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Many cameras allow you to manually convert raw images in camera, enabling you to share or print the images

Beginner tips for raw images: 01 All images in your camera start life as raw images

When you fire the shutter, the image is recorded on your camera’s sensor, where the light is converted into an electrical signal that forms the image data.

It’s then combined with the information needed to build the image and written to your memory card.

With a JPEG, however, before the image is written to the card, the original raw data is processed. How it’s processed depends on what camera settings you’ve chosen.

The file is then converted to JPEG format and finally written to your memory card.

Your camera produces raw images, but it’s up to you whether you let it process these for you into a JPEG or stick with a raw file.

PAGE 1: All images in your camera start life as raw images
PAGE 2: You need to select raw on your camera
PAGE 3: Raw lets you fine-tune your images
PAGE 4: Raw images can slow down your shoots
PAGE 5: Raw images let you rescue detail
PAGE 6: Not all raw images are the same
PAGE 7: You need special software to view
PAGE 8: Raw images offer non- destructive editing
PAGE 9: Make selective adjustments
PAGE 10: You can expand dynamic range by combining raw conversions
PAGE 11: Pros and cons of shooting raw images
PAGE 12: Raw conversion software options

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By shooting in your camera’s raw quality format you have much more tonal and colour information to work with, which enables you to produce better-looking results in your final image.

In our raw start image there are some very delicate midtone details such as the incense sticks and ash that we’d like to subtly sharpen, but this runs the risk of adding more noise to the shot’s soft bokeh. Fortunately, Adobe Camera Raw has some handy additional sliders that will help you to reveal midtone texture and detail while masking out the unwanted noise.

Here, we’ll also show you ways to preview which areas are being sharpened, so that you can get a balance between revealing detail and losing noise.

How to use the Adobe Camera Raw sharpening tools

Zoom in
Go to File>Open and go to your start image. It will open in the Adobe Camera Raw editor. To sharpen, grab the Zoom tool and right click. Choose 100%. Much of the shot is deliberately soft due to a shallow depth of field. Use the Hand tool to view the foreground incense stick.

Adjust Amount
Click on the Detail tab. Drop the sliders to 0 and drag Amount to 91 to increase the contrast around the edges. Increase the spread of the edge contrast change by setting Radius to 2.0. Click the Preview box to compare the before-and-after versions.

Restore detail
The change is very subtle. To reveal more of the delicate texture on the ash and incense sticks, drag Detail to 45. If you Alt-click as you drag this slider you’ll see a greyscale preview. The darker areas will become sharper and the grey areas will remain unsharpened.

Mask out noise
To prevent the soft background bokeh (and its picture noise) from being sharpened, Alt-click as you drag the Masking slider. Now only the lighter areas in the preview will become sharpened, leading to less noise. A value of 65 produces a good compromise.

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Lightroom 4 is far more than just an image organiser. Its Develop module houses a set of tonal controls that at least match, and arguably surpass Photoshop stalwarts like Levels and Curves.

These tools enable you make a range of useful edits – from basic tonal tweaks to more creative effects. If you’re used to Photoshop’s Camera Raw plugin you’ll find a near-identical set of controls on the right of the Develop Module’s interface.

Whether you want to make basic exposure tweaks, correct lens distortion, crop in tighter or remove spots, the Develop Module is the place to begin.

And because Lightroom allows you to make these changes non-destructively to raw files, you can work on your images while retaining the highest possible quality.

In this tutorial we’ll start by making a few fundamental tweaks to exposure and tone in the Basic Panel, which is the best place to begin editing your raw files. We’ll go on to use targeted tools to lighten eyes and darken the corners.

One of the main reasons to work in Lightroom is that every single edit you make is completely reversible and editable at any time. So not only can you undo or tweak anything at any stage, you also have the freedom to try out different effects and treatments.

The Develop Module isn’t just essential for basic enhancements, it also lets you take your images in interesting and unexpected directions.

6 fundamental edits for raw files in the Adobe Lightroom Develop module

01 Make Basic Tweaks
Open Lightroom and click the Library Module, then hit the Import button and import develop_before.dng. Next, click Develop. Go to the Basic Panel on the right of the interface and use the sliders to improve the tones. Set Exposure +0.35, Contrast +7, Highlights +20, Shadows +49, Whites +18, Blacks -7, Vibrance +29.

02 Curves and vignette
Scroll down the set of controls on the right until you come to the Tone Curve. Either drag the line, or input these settings to create an S-shaped curve line: Highlights +15, Lights +5, Darks -9, Shadows -17. Next scroll down to the Effects Panel and set Post crop vignette, Style: Highlight Priority, Amount -20.

03 Crop in tighter
Go to the tools below the histogram and click the Crop tool. Now scroll up to the top of the right-hand settings to find the Crop options. Click the Lock icon to lock the aspect ratio, then crop in to the top and right. Next, click the Adjustment Brush and hit Z to zoom in to the eyes.

04 Paint in adjustments
Check Show Selected Mask Overlay, then set Brush size to 14 in the settings on the right. Click over Iris to set a pin, then paint over both irises. Hold Alt and paint to erase if you need to. Hide mask overlay, go to settings and input Exposure +0.94, Contrast +51, Clarity +48, Saturation +51 to boost the iris.

05 Reveal highlight details
Click New at the top right of the screen, then click on the bright white flower to set another pin. Paint a new mask over the flower, as well as some of the brighter parts along the arm, then set Highlights -26 to reveal more of the detail in those areas. Next you need to grab the Graduated Filter tool.

06 Remove the flower
Drag in from the edges to create several gradients, each with Clarity set to -71, to create a soft blur around the edges. Grab the Spot Removal tool. Set Spot Edit: Heal, Size 79 then zoom in to the flower under the arm. Click over the flower and drag to the left to remove it.

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As more and more DSLR owners are realising, raw format is the best capture format for photographers who want maximum quality and control.

Raw format files don’t go through any in-camera processing and therefore contain a complete record of all the information your camera records, while JPEGs (the other format option) are processed in-camera, with any unused information discarded.

As a result, raw files often look a little flat straight out of camera when compared to JPEGs, as you may have noticed if you’ve been shooting in Raw+JPEG mode.

Our before image

Because of this, once you’ve downloaded your raw files, you’ll usually want to make a few changes to improve the tones. The best place to begin making these improvements is Photoshop’s Basic Panel.

Available in both Photoshop’s Camera Raw plug-in and Lightroom’s Develop Module, the Basic panel houses 11 sliders that allow you to make simple yet powerful edits: setting White Balance, fixing exposure issues, rescuing details, adjusting contrast and tweaking colour. Find out how to get the basics right with these seven pro tips.

Raw Processing Tips: 01 White Balance

Open your start image and correct the White Balance. The drop-down list of presets is a useful starting point.

The Temperature slider is measured in Kelvin. Drag it left for cooler tones and right to add warmth.

Use Tint to correct magenta or green colour casts. Alternatively, grab the White Balance tool and click over a neutral point.

Here we’ve set Temperature 6900, Tint +10.

PAGE 1: Raw Processing Tips – 01 White Balance
PAGE 2: Raw Processing Tips - 02 Exposure
PAGE 3: Raw Processing Tips - 03 Whites and Blacks
PAGE 4: Raw Processing Tips - 04 Highlights and Shadows
PAGE 5: Raw Processing Tips - 05 Saturation and Vibrance
PAGE 6: Raw Processing Tips - 06 Contrast and Clarity
PAGE 7: Raw Processing Tips - 07 Previews

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The Adobe Camera Raw interface can be daunting, especially if you’re figuring out where to start and which tools to use first.

As a rule of thumb it’s best to start working clockwise around the interface, starting with the tools in the top options bar to crop and compose before moving onto the main adjustments under the Basic tab.

Here’s a few of the most common Adobe Camera Raw adjustments.

Your most important tools in Adobe Camera Raw: 1-2

01 White Balance tool
Click into an area of neutral grey within the image to set the white balance. In this image the rocks in the foreground seem like a good point to use.

02 Straighten tool
If you think your picture is a tad askew, click on the horizon on the left of the image and drag the cursor across to the right to quickly level your landscapes.

PAGE 1: Your most important tools in Adobe Camera Raw – 1-2
PAGE 2: Your most important tools in Adobe Camera Raw – 3-4
PAGE 3: Your most important tools in Adobe Camera Raw – 5-6
PAGE 4: Your most important tools in Adobe Camera Raw – 7-8

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When shooting a backlit subject like our paddling toddler, your camera’s Evaluative metering mode may close down the aperture to avoid over-exposing the image’s brightest areas.

It won’t understand that the main point of interest is the subject’s face, so it allows these areas to be plunged into shadow.

You could try changing the Metering mode to Spot and exposing for the face, but this can cause the background highlights to become blown out.

Our before image

Or you could manually trigger the flash to fill in any under-exposed shadows. But sometimes a photo opportunity is fleeting, so you may have to shoot first and ask camera setting questions later!

If you shoot in compressed JPEG format, you could try using Photoshop’s Shadow/Highlight command to brighten a shot’s shadows to reveal more detail. However, this can also reveal picture noise in the adjusted areas.

A JPEG’s brightened shadows tend to look quite desaturated too. By shooting in raw format you’ll have much more tonal and colour information to work with, and the Adjustment Brush in CS4’s version of Adobe Camera Raw enables you to dodge or burn specific areas with precision.

Here, we’ll show you how to use the Photoshop Adjustment Brush to target the boy’s under-exposed face and body, and gently brighten them to make him stand out. You’ll also learn how to use extra raw-editing tools such as masks to discover which areas are being altered and then fine-tune them if necessary.

How to use the Photoshop Adjustment Brush to make selective adjustments

01 Open and crop
Click on the link to download the Advanced folder. Go to File>Open. Browse to your start image and click Open. The image will open in Adobe Camera Raw. Hold down the mouse on the Crop tool, then untick Constrain to Image. Drag the crop window over the image and hit Return to lose the foreground rocks.

02 Clobber clipping
Press 0 to view any over-exposed highlights as patches of red. You’ll notice these blown out (clipped) areas on the boy’s sunlit shoulder and in the specular highlights on the water. Drag the Recovery slider to 30 to claw back missing highlight detail. The red patches will vanish.

03 Make global adjustments
Set Exposure to +1.00 and Contrast to +56. This brightens up the face, but the rest of the shot is over-exposed. Luckily you can take these settings and apply them to specific areas using the Adjustment Brush. Restore Exposure to 0.00 and Contrast to +25.

04 Grab the Adjustment Brush
Grab the Adjustment Brush from the top tool bar. The Exposure and Contrast settings you used in the previous step are perfect to brighten up the boy’s under-exposed face, so set Exposure to +1.00 and Contrast to +56. Set Size to 7 and Feather to 60.

05 Lighten the face
By default the Adjustment Brush is set to New. Click to place a pin on the boy’s face. Spray the tip over his face to lighten it using the desired Exposure and Contrast settings. This makes a tonal adjustment that lightens the face, leaving other areas untouched.

06 Target the top
In the Adjustment Brush panel, click New. Click to place a new pin on the boy’s backlit blue top. Dial down the strength of the adjustment by setting Exposure to +0.60. Set Contrast to +40 and Size to 10. Spray over the sweatshirt, hat, hands and feet to lighten.

07 Marvellous masks
Tick the Show Mask box. Any areas being adjusted by the second pin will show as grey patches. Spray to include any bits of sweatshirt you’ve missed. To remove areas from the adjustment tick Erase and spray over. Untick Show Mask when you’ve finished.

08 Darken the parents
The background parents are a little washed out. Click New in the Adjustment Brush panel. Set Exposure to -40, Contrast to 0 and Size to 7. Click to place a pin on a background figure. Spray to darken – this helps them stand out from the light background.

09 Brighten the eyes
The boy’s eyes are a key feature, but they are still a little under-exposed. Click New and set Size to 4. Click to place a pin on the left eye. Set Exposure to +0.35 and Contrast to +47. Spray on the eyes to lighten (dodge) them. This gives them more impact.

10 Global adjustments
Click on the Zoom tool to exit the Adjustment Brush panel and access the Basic panel. For stronger shadows, set Blacks to 10. You can also brighten the midtones a little by sliding Fill Light to 7. For more striking colours, set Vibrance to +36.

11 Remove dirt
By brightening the face we’ve revealed some dirt, so grab the Spot Removal tool and set Type to Heal. Click and drag to draw a red circle over a dirty patch. Drag the connected green circle to a clear patch of skin to replace the dirt. Repeat to clean the face.

12 Fine-tune the effects
The great thing about editing in raw is that the changes you make are non-destructive. Click back on the Adjustment Brush, then click on the pin that controls the facial adjustment. Drag Exposure up to +1.10 to brighten this important area a little more.

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How to process raw images the right way

At first glance the Camera Raw editor may seem fairly basic, a place perhaps to make a few quick tweaks before opening your files into Photoshop. But delve a little deeper and you’ll find that Adobe’s powerful raw plug-in has much to offer.

Many features can be found in the panels to the right of the interface, but there are also plenty more that may not be so obvious.

In this tutorial we’ll take a tour of the Camera Raw interface and uncover a host of tips and tricks used by the pros, from setting camera profiles and using the Tone Curve to tweaking preferences, making selective adjustments and cropping for print.

If you’re a Lightroom user, you’ll find these tips equally useful, as the tools in Lightroom’s Develop module are virtually identical.

One of the biggest advantages of working in Camera Raw is that every single edit you make is completely non-destructive.

This is because Camera Raw (as well as Lightroom, Aperture and Capture One) employs parametric image editing, which means that rather than altering the pixels that make up the image, any edits are instead logged as sets of instructions or parameters, and typically saved as a ‘sidecar’ file.

When you’re working on an image, you’re not actually making changes to it, you’re changing the way the imaging software interprets the data. Any setting can be edited or undone at any time, so you can apply the following tips in any order and on any image you like.

How to use Adobe Camera Raw for just about everything: steps 1-6

01 Host ACR through Bridge
Did you know the ACR plug-in can be hosted by Bridge? Photoshop needn’t even be open, which saves on processing power. Open Bridge, right-click nextsteps_before.dng and choose Open in Camera Raw. If you like, set ‘Double-click edits Camera Raw settings in Bridge’ in Edit>Preferences>General.

02 Set the camera profile
It’s tempting to begin adjusting tones in the Basic panel, but often the Camera Calibration panel is a better starting point. Adobe Standard doesn’t always look best, so experiment with others. Nikon and Canon cameras are supported, but for others you’ll need to download profiles. We’ve used the ACR 4.6 profile.

03 Recover detail
Go to the Basic panel and set Temperature to 4350 and Shadows to +16. Hold Alt while dragging the Whites slider to check for clipped pixels. We won’t be able to bring back detail in the sun completely, but we can perform a recovery by dragging whites to -32.

04 Vibrance and Saturation
The Saturation slider adjusts all colours, and Vibrance targets the less-saturated colours. A decrease in Vibrance with an increase in Saturation can give good results. Set Vibrance to -10 and Saturation to +26. Set Clarity to +22 to add punch to the midtones.

05 Boost the tones
Go to Tone Curve and click Points. Cmd/Ctrl-click over the image to set a point along the curve line, then use the arrow keys to move it. Cmd/Ctlr-click on  lighter clouds, then repeatedly tap up. Cmd/Ctrl-click on the grey rocks then tap down to boost contrast.

06 Lighten the foreground
The foreground is too dark, so grab the Graduated Filter tool, then set Temperature to +10, Exposure to +70, Highlights to +16 and Clarity to +15. Drag upwards from above the rocks towards the horizon while holding Shift to keep the line perfectly vertical.

PAGE 1: How to use Adobe Camera Raw for everything: steps 1-6
PAGE 2: How to use Adobe Camera Raw for everything: steps 7-12
PAGE 3: How to use Adobe Camera Raw for everything: steps 13-18

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Like modern digital photographers, traditional film-based photographers used (and still use) Neutral Density filters to help them avoid over-exposing the sky while preserving a scene’s colours.

They’d use the camera’s light meter to set aperture and shutter speed to capture a balanced exposure. However, film photographers knew that when they pressed the shutter button that was only half their task to capture a perfect print.

The job would continue in their darkroom as they developed the negative – dodging and burning selective areas to reveal detail where it was required.

Many digital photographers review their shots on the back of the camera and make an instant judgement about the success or failure of the photo.

Our original image

A shot may look like it has little detail in the shadows and suffers from a blown-out sky, but that’s like criticising an undeveloped negative.

When you shoot in your camera’s raw format, the image is crammed full of information regarding the scene’s colours and tones.

Only by processing your raw format files in Photoshop’s Adobe Camera 
Raw (ACR) editor can you really assess the quality of the images and create a perfect picture.

The latest incarnation of Adobe Camera Raw boasts a number of powerful new processing tools, making your digital darkroom even more effective.

You can coax colour and texture from apparently blown-out skies thanks to the new Graduated Filter, the selective Adjustment Brush lets you dodge and burn specific areas, and the Spot Removal tool clobbers ugly sensor spots into submission.

We’ll put all of these powerful tools through their paces in this advanced photo editing tutorial to show you how to make a good shot great.

How to process raw images (steps 1-6)

01 Adjust the exposure
Open your raw file. Start by adjusting the ground’s tones, as the murky mountains make up most of the shot. You can fix the sky later. Increase Exposure to +0.30 to make a global adjustment, then slide Fill Light up to +19 to reveal more midtone detail in the backlit mountains.

02 Tweak the contrast
For a healthy range of tones from black shadows through to bright highlights, drag Blacks to 10. 
This will darken the shadows of the foreground stones. Increase the Contrast to +41 to reveal a lighter mist against darker midtones. This helps to reveal shapes in the landscape.

03 Colour and detail
By pushing the Vibrance slider up to +57, you can bring out features such as the warm yellowing grass and the cold looking greenery on the background hills, drawing attention to various textures in the scene. Warm the cold background up a little by sliding Temperature up to 5600.

04 Add a graduated filter
To capture sky detail on location we would have needed to close down the aperture by a couple of stops, but this would have plunged the backlit landscape into darkness. To make a selective sky adjustment, grab the Graduated Filter tool. Set the Exposure to -2.15 and the Contrast to -30.

05 Draw a gradient
Click at the top of the frame and drag the Graduated Filter down towards the top of the mountains. This will create a gradient that darkens the sky, revealing hidden textures and colours. It will also gently darken the top of the mountains, making them stand out from the rest of the scene.

06 Selective adjustment
Select the Adjustment Brush from the top tool bar. Set Exposure to +0.35, Size to 6 and Feather to 56. Next, spray over the stone path to lighten it a little – this will help to lead the viewer’s eye into the scene. Use the left square bracket key on your keyboard to shrink the brush tip when required.

PAGE 1: How to process raw images – steps 1-6
PAGE 2: How to process raw images – steps 7-12

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Adobe Camera Raw’s clever Adjustment Brush does an amazing job of enabling you to selectively dodge or burn (lighten or darken) the tones of your raw format files.

However, this extremely cool little tool is only available in Photoshop CS4 onwards. This means that if you have an older copy of Photoshop CS or are using Photoshop Elements’ more basic Camera Raw editor then you’ll need to try using an alternative technique.

In order to get the best results, and keep artefacts to a minimum, here we’re going to use the Camera Raw editor’s sliders to create two versions of our shot.

We will then show you how to combine the relevant areas in the standard Camera Raw editor using layers, masks and brush strokes. Finally, we’ll demonstrate how to make further selective adjustments to the image.

The easy way to correct exposure problems in older versions of Camera Raw

01 Create a background version
Open your start image in your Camera Raw editor. Use the techniques covered in step 1 to crop the shot. Set Recovery to 30 to remove clipped highlights and push Blacks up to 10 for darker shadows. Click Open Image. This version of the shot features correctly-exposed background details.

02 Tweak the tones
Go to File>Open Recent>selective_before.dng. The start image will open with the crop and tone tweaks you made in the previous step. Push Exposure up to +0.20, drag Fill Light to 50 to lighten the backlit face and push Contrast to +49. Drag Clarity to -21 to smooth the blotchy skin and set Vibrance to +36.

03 Combine the images
Click Open Image to take the second version into the standard editor. Choose Select>All then Edit>Copy. Go to the darker version and choose Edit> Paste. Layer 1 exposes the scene to reveal the backlit boy, while the Background layer is exposed for the rest of the scene. Choose Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All.

04 Make selective adjustments
Grab the Brush tool. Choose a soft round tip from the Brush Preset picker and set Size to 300. Click on the black layer mask, set the foreground colour to white and spray the white brush over the boy to selectively lighten him while leaving the background on the layer below unaltered.

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