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By: London Photographer
When working with RAW files it is often difficult to know where to start. Most RAW conversions give a very conservative stating point and need to be processed before that can be said to look as good or better than the JPG images produced out of the camera. But what should be done first and how do you know how much to adjust each setting. Here is a very rough rule of thumb that is useful to get a good starting point for image processing. First open your image in the Developer module (Press ‘D’) There are several things to adjust using the sliders that should give you a pleasing result without having to go on to the tone curve. It is important to set each level in the correct order, Adjust the overall exposure using the exposure slider Make sure that the preview panel (top right) is visible. Hold down the Alt key (on the PC) and drag the exposure slider to the left or right to approximate the correct exposure. You will notice that the main screen has gone black - this is ok! As you move the slider to the right you will see detail starting to appear, this is the point at which clipping is occurring in the highlights. As soon as this occurs back off the adjustment a little. Keep an eye on the preview screen to make sure that your main subject appears correctly exposed. Use the recovery slider to brig back any highlight clipping. Again hold down the Alt key (on the PC) and drag the recover slider to the right. This is a great way to bring back detail that you thought may have been lost for example in a white wedding dress. Use the Blacks slider to increase contrast Again hold down the Alt key and slowly move the blacks slider to the right. This time the screen goes white and black starts to appear when you start to clip. You will probably only need a small movement before the blacks start to clip. When you get a little clipping in the black area back of the slider a little. Make any small adjustment to the ‘Fill Light’ slider to bring back detail in the shadows. Do not overdo this as it can produce some artificial effects. Fine tuning of the colour saturation should be made using the Vibrance slider which is a much more subtle tool than the Saturation slider (which should generally be avoided). That’s it - this method is a great way to start processing an image and can dramatically improve the ‘wow’ factor of a picture.
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