Digital Camera World » shooting raw

Reduce Noise: a quick, proven method for bagging clean images

jmeyer — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 15:30:21 +0000

Are you disappointed by grainy images every time you shoot? It doesn’t have to be this way! Our quick tutorial below shows you a quick and easy way to set up your DSLR to reduce noise and start cleaning things ups.

Follow these three simple steps and you’ll reduce noise sufficiently, building confidence in your ability to shoot just about anywhere.

How to set up your camera to reduce noise

01 Use a low ISO
Select the lowest ISO your camera will allow. This will ensure there’s no ‘gain’ applied, which  will result in digital noise. Most SLRs’ default ISOs are 100 or 200, so don’t be tempted to use an extended lower ISO because this will also introduce noise.

02 Shoot in raw
Always shoot in raw mode because the captured image won’t be processed in-camera, which would introduce noise and other compression artifacts. There’ll be much more room to tweak exposure and smooth any noise present in the raw file.

03 Remove noise
If you do end up with noisy images, which is something that often occurs in low-light situations, use a raw editing program to initially reduce noise before reducing it even further in Photoshop (or a specialist noise-reduction program).

Raw Editing: what you need to know about white balance correction

jmeyer — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 01:00:43 +0000

In our latest Raw Tuesday post on using the raw format, find out the subtleties of white balance correction and how to neutralise colour casts.

White balance settings are necessary because ‘white’ light isn’t plain white at all. Different light sources and lighting conditions have different colour temperatures: indoor lighting is warmer (more orange) than daylight, though daylight itself is warmer at dawn, turns cooler (more blue) in the course of the day, and becomes warmer again towards sunset.

Your brain compensates automatically, so that you perceive colours as pretty consistent; and your camera’s Auto White Balance setting is designed to do the same.

However, it can get it wrong, overcompensating when you don’t want it to and coming up with unusual hues in mixed lighting.

You might be lucky: your camera’s Auto (or preset, for that matter) WB setting may have been spot-on, so your image appears perfectly neutral when you open it in Adobe Camera Raw with the default As Shot setting applied.

However, considering that Auto settings aren’t infallible and camera presets are generic, you’re likely to have to make some minor tweaks at the very least.

Go to the White Balance menu in the Basic tab, and try the Auto setting first; if that doesn’t do the trick, try the preset you think best represents the lighting conditions under which the shot was taken.

The presets (not available if the shot isn’t a raw file) correspond to settings found on most cameras, and have the same effect on the image as choosing that setting in-camera would have done.

Flicking between As Shot, Auto and the presets will give you a fair idea of what works, and you can fine-tune with the Temperature (blue/yellow) and Tint (green/magenta) sliders.

Alternatively, you can click on a suitable tone with the White Balance Tool.

PAGE 1: What you need to know about raw white balance correction
PAGE 2: How to fix a colour cast
PAGE 3: Common questions about white balance correction

Raw Tuesday: shooting raw files the right way

jmeyer — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 01:00:39 +0000

In our latest Raw Tuesday post on using the raw format, we take a closer look at shooting raw files. By now we all know that you capture more detail when you shoot raw files, but if you don’t set up your camera properly it’s a wasted effort. In this tutorial we explore how to set up your camera to shoot raw and get it right in-camera, as well as answer some of the common questions about shooting raw files.

Raw files are a way of maximising the quality of your images, but they aren’t a kind of ‘magic bullet’ that can solve everything. They can help you make a good shot great, but they can’t help you turn a technically bad shot into a good one.

Think of them as providing the icing on the cake. With a raw file you might get better colour from a shot taken in mixed lighting than if you’d shot a JPEG, and you might be able to recover some detail in an overcast sky that would be blown in a JPEG. But gross exposure errors or focusing mistakes, for example, simply can’t be fixed.

Part of the knack of shooting raw files is knowing what you have to get right at the shooting stage, as opposed to what can be made right later on.

Best camera settings for shooting raw
Should you shoot differently in order to make the most of the raw file format? We’ve explained that images can retain a greater dynamic range, and that you can alter the white balance, sharpness and more when you convert them, but do you have to set up your shots differently in order to make the most of these characteristics?

There are certain things you can do, but beware of altering your technique to the extent that every shot you take requires some kind of correction before it becomes serviceable – don’t let image-editing take over from photography.

To start with, your focusing technique and choice of lens aperture should be the same. You can save time by leaving the white balance on auto, and the contrast, saturation and sharpness settings at their default values.

These parameters are saved with the raw file to allow quick conversion, but can be ignored when you want to adjust the conversion settings manually. The single principle difference is in exposure technique.

Expose to the right…
Digital sensors mean that highlight detail is more easily ‘blown’ than in the old days of film. Blown highlights with no recoverable detail look nasty, and it can be tempting to underexpose when you’re shooting to be on the safe side.

However, because less data is captured at the shadow end to start with, brightening underexposed areas is always less successful than darkening bright areas, which have a better ratio of image data to noise: lightening dark areas rapidly brings out noise and causes posterisation or ‘banding’ of tones and colours.

The best strategy when shooting raw is to ‘expose for the highlights’ as far as you can – keeping as much of the data on the right-hand side of the histogram – without overexposing, then darken down if need be, pushing detail down into the shadows. ‘Clipped’ shadows look more palatable than blown highlights anyway.

PAGE 1: Best camera settings for shooting raw files
PAGE 2: Common questions about shooting raw files

Raw Tuesday: the best way to save a raw file

jmeyer — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 01:00:57 +0000

In our latest Raw Tuesday post on using the raw format, we’ve told what you need to know before shooting raw files, explained what a raw file actually does for your images, how to convert raw files and what edits to make (and when) in Adobe Camera Raw. It’s a pretty exhaustive list, but we’re not done! This week we tackle the subject of how to save a raw file.

We’ve taken some of the most common questions on saving raw files, such as what are the best file formats and what is non-destructive editing, and provided answers to them all in this latest installment of Raw Tuesday.

When I come to save my converted raw images, my photo-editing software offers lots of file formats, such as JPEG or TIFF, along with 8-bit or 16-bit. Which is the best format for saving raw files?

The best format for saving your converted raw files depends on what you want to do with the images.

TIFF files can be saved over and over again without any loss in quality, whereas each time you re-save a JPEG image some file information will be lost, degrading the quality.

This is fine if you are doing all of your adjustments in raw, and just need a file to view, print or send.

However, if you want to make further adjustments in the main Photoshop interface, and want the best quality possible, TIFF is best.

When saving a TIFF file you have the option of 8- or 16-bit, and there is much more tonal information in a 16-bit file.

But this isn’t compatible with all of the adjustments and features in many types of software.

You can make use of this extra information if you are using Photoshop CS5, but if you are using Photoshop Elements to edit your images, 8-bit TIFF is the better option, because this application doesn’t have many editing options for 16-bit files.

PAGE 1: The best file format for saving a raw file
PAGE 2: Isn’t a JPEG just a JPEG?
PAGE 3: What is the .xmp file format?
PAGE 4: What is non-destructive editing?

Raw Tuesday: what to edit (and when) in Adobe Camera Raw

jmeyer — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 01:00:42 +0000

In our latest Raw Tuesday post on using the raw format, we’ve told what you need to know before shooting raw files, the honest truth on what shooting raw can actually do for your images and last week we showed you how to convert raw files.

This week on Raw Tuesday we’ll explore what edits to make (and when) in Adobe Camera Raw.

OK, so you’ve opened your raw files in Adobe Camera Raw. In which order should you do what?

Because Adobe Camera Raw offers so many ways of editing raw files, you may assume it doesn’t matter which you use and when.

However, some adjustments, such as white balance, will obviously have an impact on the effect of others, such as exposure.

For this reason, it’s best to try and make your raw adjustments in this order:

Adjust white balance
Correct exposure, including contrast and saturation
Sharpen the image, including noise reduction

Now that you know the best order for editing raw files, we’ll take you through each step and explain what you’re actually doing, as well as tips on best practice.

PAGE 1: The best order for editing raw files
PAGE 2: Adjust white balance
PAGE 3: Correct exposure
PAGE 4: Recover lost highlight detail
PAGE 5: Recover lost shadow detail
PAGE 6: Sharpen the image

Raw Tuesday: how to convert raw files

jmeyer — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 02:00:26 +0000

We’ve told what you need to know before shooting raw files, and last week we gave you the honest truth on what shooting raw can actually do for your images. In our latest Raw Tuesday post on using the raw format we’ll explore some of the common questions about raw conversion. Our simple guide should have you getting more from your raw files in no time.

Which software should I use to open and edit my raw files?

There are loads of different options when it comes to choosing raw conversion software. Which is best for you depends on how many pictures you shoot, what type of images you take and how much you want to adjust your raw images.

Most digital cameras come supplied with software that you can use to convert your raw files. These programs are a good place to start, especially as they’re free, but they tend to be slow, clunky and a bit basic.

For more comprehensive corrections to your raw images, such as highlight or shadow recovery, try using the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) converter built into Photoshop CS or Photoshop Elements.

The converter  in Photoshop CS5, for example, offers a huge range of adjustments, including a Healing Brush for removing dust spots and a great black-and-white conversion tool (ACR is so good you can often avoid having to use Photoshop proper).

The Elements version of ACR isn’t quite as powerful for editing raw files, but is still more comprehensive and easier to use than the program that came with your camera .

Dedicated raw-processing software is also handy if you regularly need to process and organise large numbers of images – try Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Apple Aperture or Capture One Express/Pro 6.

These useful programs offer much smoother and easier workflows than Adobe Camera Raw or your camera maker’s own software, but they also have lots of enhancement and editing options.

If you are used to Photoshop’s layout and features, you’ll probably find Lightroom the easiest of these to master, because it’s based on the same ACR software.

PAGE 1: Which software should I use to open and edit raw files?
PAGE 2: I can’t open my raw files in Photoshop CS or Elements. What can I do?

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Raw Tuesday: the honest truth on what raw files can do for your photography

jmeyer — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 02:00:16 +0000

Last week we kicked off our Raw Tuesday series on using the raw format by exploring five key points every photographer should know before shooting raw files. This week we thought we would delve deeper into shooting raw and get into the how’s and why’s. In this article we’ll ask five common questions we hear about raw files, such as ‘do all pros shoot raw?’ and ‘what’s the most useful advantage of raw files over JPEGs’. We’ll explain what shooting raw files can actually do for your images, as well as what it can’t.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of shooting raw?

There are plenty of reasons to shoot raw, but there are also some reasons to stick with JPEG. Raw gives you more potential for fine-tuning your images and better overall quality.

Because most of your camera’s settings, such as white balance, sharpening and saturation, are not applied to a raw file, you are free to adjust and fine-tune them on your computer.

Raw files also contain much more picture information than JPEGs, especially with regards to tonal range.

This means that any tonal transitions, particular in areas of similar tone or colour, are much smoother, and are much less prone to problems like banding and pixelation when any raw adjustments are made.

These advantages do come at a price, though – raw files are typically three to five times larger than a high-quality JPEG, so you won’t be able to squeeze as many images onto your memory card.

Unlike JPEG images, raw files aren’t easily viewed or printed without special conversion software (see page 42), so if you want to share or print your images, you’ll need to convert them first.

Which brings us to the greatest niggle with the raw image format: you need to spend more time editing raw files, and the sheer number of adjustments available in applications such as Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) can make this a confusing process.

PAGE 1: What are the advantages and disadvantages of shooting raw?
PAGE 2: What’s the most useful thing I can do with a raw file that I can’t with a JPEG?
PAGE 3: All professional photographers shoot raw files, don’t they?
PAGE 4: How do I select the option to shoot raw files on my camera?
PAGE 5: Which settings can I ignore and which do I still need to set in-camera?

Raw Tuesday: 5 things you need to know before shooting raw files

jmeyer — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 03:00:07 +0000

Shooting raw files has become one of the most important photography tips we offer our readers on a daily basis. Yet while most photographers agree it’s important to shoot raw files, the nuance of fine-tuning and editing raw files is often at the top of said photographers’ list of most common photography problems.

In our new weekly series, Raw Tuesday, we aim to demystify the experience of using the raw format. Every Tuesday we’ll bring you new tips and tutorials strictly relating to using the raw format.

In our first installment we ask the question, ‘What are raw files?’ as well as address four other key things you need to know before shooting.

Many Digital Camera readers will have tried to shoot raw files because there’s no doubt that you can end up with richer, more detailed images as a result. Left to its own devices, your camera will shoot in JPEG format, which, while certainly convenient, means that you automatically lose some of the original image’s detail.

With raw, you don’t lose anything.

Sadly, many readers will also have discovered that raw can be a pain in the rear. Images saved in raw can be huge, and they don’t always open  in your photo-editing software. Frustratingly, camera makers can’t agree on a unified format for raw shots, which causes a lot of needless hassle.

The good news is that once you’ve got your head around shooting and editing raw shots, it’s  a relatively painless process that can really take your photography to the next level. In this first tutorial, we’ll start from the beginning, explaining the whys and wherefores of raw files.

Click to get started.