Part II: Working with Camera Raw Images
202
printed at 72 dpi looks extremely pixilated, giving it a jagged look. Increasing the resolution to at
least 200 dpi gives you a much better result.
Increasing the resolution automatically reduces the size of your image without resampling it.
Instead of spreading 72 pixels per inch over 30 inches of photo, you can use the same pixels to
pack 300 pixels per 7 inches of photo, giving you not only a better print resolution, but a more
reasonable print size.
Sharpen For/Amount
This allows you to apply output sharpening for Screen, Glossy paper, or Matte paper. This option
is best used when you are planning to use your image straight from Camera Raw without opening
in Photoshop. Sharpening an image is usually the last step you take before output because sharp-
ening not only loses its effectiveness as other adjustments and filters are placed over it, but it is also
one of the more destructive edits, making visible changes to the pixelization of your photo.
After you have chosen an output to Sharpen for, you can choose to sharpen a high, standard, or
low amount.
Open in Photoshop as Smart Objects
Opening your raw image as a Smart Object makes it a little more complicated to work with in
Photoshop, but it protects it from the Photoshop edits and allows you to open it back up in Camera
Raw and make additional changes to it. Smart Objects operate very differently from image files. You
can’t make adjustments directly to them—limiting changes to the layer adjustments. The filters added
to a Smart Object also are added as separate sublayers. After you’ve learned more about Smart
Objects and how they work, the benefits and drawbacks of this option will be clearer to you.
Cross-Ref
You learn more about Smart Object layers in Chapter 10. n
Now that you’ve seen the Workflow options, the blue readout at the bottom of Camera Raw should
make sense to you. You can glance down at any time to check your Workflow option settings and
click to make changes if they are not set correctly for the image you are working on.
Note
The Workflow Options settings stay the same as the last time you set them even if you are working on a new
image in Camera Raw. Even if you resize an image, the next image is set to the same resize option. This is con-

venient if you want your color workspace to always be set to ColorMatch RGB, but it’s something to be aware
of when working with different sizes of documents that you may or may not want sharpened. n
Setting Preferences
The Camera Raw preferences can be accessed by clicking the Open Preferences icon in the tool
menu, as shown in Figure 7.8. Preferences allow you to make changes to the way the image file is
handled in Camera Raw. You find these options in the Preferences dialog box:
12_584743-ch07.indd 20212_584743-ch07.indd 202 5/3/10 10:22 AM5/3/10 10:22 AM
Chapter 7: Camera Raw Basics
203
FIGURE 7.8
You can reset Camera Raw preferences by opening the Preferences dialog box in the tool menu.
General
The General preferences allow you to change your image and sharpness settings. You can choose to
save your changes to a raw file as a DNG file or a XMP file and choose where to store that XMP file.
You also can decide to apply sharpness to the saved file or just to the preview.
Save Image settings in
Changes made to camera raw images are not actually stored in the raw image file. Instead these
changes are stored in separate location. These settings can be stored in one of three ways; as a side-
car file with a filename ending in .xmp, in a camera raw database that Photoshop provides on the
local computer, or as part of a Digital Negative (DNG) file.
12_584743-ch07.indd 20312_584743-ch07.indd 203 5/3/10 10:22 AM5/3/10 10:22 AM
Part II: Working with Camera Raw Images
204
The sidecar .xmp files are files with the same name as the camera raw image file, except they end
in .xmp. These files have the advantage of being able to transfer from one computer to another
along with the camera raw image.
The camera raw database is a simple database that is part of the Photoshop application on the com-
puter. Using the camera raw database means that you do not need to worry about any secondary
files; however, the database is not available if you open the image on other computers.
If you choose to save your camera raw files in the DNG format, the settings you make in Camera

Raw are embedded into the file, eliminating the need for a sidecar .xmp file and making the set-
tings portable. DNG files are discussed in depth later in this chapter.
Note
The default preferences you configure are applied only to camera raw images that have not been opened in
Camera Raw. Camera raw images that have been opened before use their previous settings. This is an excellent
reason to review and set your preferences long before you open more than one file in Camera Raw. n
Apply Sharpening to
This setting gives you the option to sharpen the image preview only, which is the one you’re look-
ing at in the document window, or to sharpen the image output as well by selecting all images.
This setting works with the Sharpness slider in the Detail tab. If you choose to sharpen the preview
images only, the Sharpen slider does not affect the output image. You may or may not want to
sharpen your images at this stage, but you probably want the Sharpness slider to be an accurate
representation of the sharpness applied, so this setting is best set to all images.
Default image settings
The default image settings allow you to apply auto adjustments to images that are opened in
Camera Raw. Auto adjustments override the settings applied to your image by your camera, but
they are non-destructive and changeable, so you can tweak your images on a case-by-case basis.
You can also make your preferences specific to the camera or ISO setting in this area of the Camera
Raw Preferences. That means that the preference settings will only be applied to the camera used in
the selected image or the ISO setting of the selected image.
Apply auto tone adjustments
When you open an image in Camera Raw, it reads the settings made by the camera to the metadata
of your image and previews your image with those settings. If you check Apply auto tone adjust-
ments, Camera Raw reads all the metadata and tries to apply its own settings for the best image.
You also can apply auto settings by clicking the Auto link in the Basic panel, so I recommend you
leave this option unchecked and try the auto settings on a photo-by-photo basis.
Apply Auto grayscale mix when converting to grayscale
When you create a grayscale image from a raw image by selecting the Convert to grayscale option in
the HSL/Grayscale panel, you are presented with a color mixer that allows you to set the grayscale
12_584743-ch07.indd 20412_584743-ch07.indd 204 5/3/10 10:22 AM5/3/10 10:22 AM

Chapter 7: Camera Raw Basics
205
tones of the various color information in your image. By default, Camera Raw sets those tones to an
auto balance, hoping for the best mix to begin with. This is a good place to start, so I recommend
leaving this setting checked.
Make defaults specific to camera serial number
If you shoot with multiple cameras that use different initial settings, select the option to Make
defaults specific to camera serial number. When you are adjusting an image and save the default
settings, the settings are applied only to images taken by the same camera.
Make defaults specific to camera ISO setting
If you are shooting at different ISO settings that require their own auto adjustments, select the
option to Make defaults specific to camera ISO setting.
Camera Raw cache
This specifies the amount of space allotted to Camera Raw for processing information. The higher
the memory, the more temporary information Camera Raw can store on your computer. That
memory on your computer is always allocated to Camera Raw, however, making it useless for any-
thing else. The default is set to 1GB. If you increase the size, it can make processing time in
Camera Raw faster. You can choose to create this cache on any drive connected to your computer.
DNG file handling
The settings in this area deal with DNG files. If you are using DNG files, you can choose from these
options.
Ignore sidecar “.xmp” files
If you have decided to work using the DNG file format, selecting the Ignore sidecar “.xmp” files
setting stores your settings embedded in your DNG file and an XMP file is not created.
Update embedded JPEG previews
If you are working with DNG files, you can select the Update embedded JPEG previews option so
other applications can preview the image without having to read the camera raw data. You can
choose to set the preview file size to either Medium or Full size.
JPEG and TIFF handling
Choose these options for either JPEG or TIFF files:

l
Disable JPEG/TIFF support: This prevents JPEGs or TIFFs from being opened in Camera Raw.
l
Automatically open JPEGs/TIFFs with settings: You can specify whether to open a
JPEG or TIFF in Camera Raw. To open one of these file types in Camera Raw, right-click
the image preview in Bridge and choose Open in Camera Raw.
12_584743-ch07.indd 20512_584743-ch07.indd 205 5/3/10 10:22 AM5/3/10 10:22 AM
Part II: Working with Camera Raw Images
206
l
Automatically open all supported JPEGs/TIFFs: This automatically opens supported
JPEGs and TIFFs in Camera Raw before opening them in Photoshop. You can make tonal
and color changes faster in Camera Raw than in Photoshop, but you don’t have the tonal
range that you do with a raw image. These changes are permanent and destructive to a
JPEG or TIFF file.
The Camera Raw Panel Menu
The Camera Raw panel menu is accessed by clicking the Panel Menu icon under the Image
Adjustment tabs as shown in Figure 7.9. In this menu, you have the following options:
FIGURE 7.9
The Camera Raw panel menu
Panel menu icon
l
Image Settings: This option applies to images that you have previously opened and
changed in Camera Raw. A check mark next to it indicates previous settings. After making
additional changes, you can select this option to return to those settings.
l
Camera Raw Defaults: If your image is newly opened in Camera Raw, this option is
selected. You can click it at any time to return to the original camera raw settings.
l
Previous Conversion: This option applies the settings used for the last image open in

Camera Raw to the current image. This is handy if you have photos that were taken at the
same time with the same camera in the same lighting conditions.
l
Custom Settings: After you make changes to an open image, the Custom Settings option
is checked. This allows you to check the original image by selecting Camera Raw defaults
or Image Settings and then returning to the changed image by clicking Custom Settings.
l
Preset Settings: This option displays any Presets you have applied to your image.
12_584743-ch07.indd 20612_584743-ch07.indd 206 5/3/10 10:22 AM5/3/10 10:22 AM