Operation Manual

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 12 CLASSROOM IN A BOOK 123
Working with camera raw images
Raw images are high-quality image files that record the maximum amount of image
data possible, in a relatively small file size. ough larger than compressed formats
such as JPEG, raw images contains more data than TIFF files and use less space.
Many common file formats involve in-camera processing of the incoming image
data that can effectively degrade the quality of the image. In creating a compressed
file, data deemed superfluous is discarded; in mapping the spread of captured data
to a defined color space, the range of the color information can be narrowed.
In contrast, raw images retain all of the data captured for each and every pixel.
Capturing your photos in raw format gives you more flexibility and control when
it comes to editing your images. Raw files do incorporate camera settings such as
exposure, white balance and sharpening, but this information is stored separately
from the image data. When you open a raw image in Photoshop Elements, these
recorded settings effectively become “live;” the Camera Raw plug-in enables you
to adjust them to get more from the raw image data. With 12 bits of data per pixel,
it’s possible to retrieve shadow and highlight detail from a raw image that would
have been lost in the 8 bits/channel JPEG or TIFF formats.
In the following exercises, you’ll work with a raw image in Nikon’s NEF format as
you explore the Camera Raw window> is section will also serve as a review of
the image editing concepts and terminology that you learned earlier.
1 In the Organizer, isolate the Lesson 4 images in the Media Browser,
if necessary, by clicking the arrow beside the Lesson 04 keyword
tag in the Tags panel. In the thumbnail grid, locate the camera raw
image DSC_5683.NEF. Right-click / Control-click the thumbnail and
choose Edit With Photoshop Elements Editor from the context menu.
Photoshop Elements opens the image in the Camera Raw window.
e moment you open a camera raw file for the first time, the Camera Raw plug-in
creates what is sometimes referred to as a sidecar file in the same folder as the raw
image file. e sidecar file takes the name of the raw file, with the extension “.xmp.”
Any modification that you make to the raw photograph is written to the XMP
(Extensible Metadata Platform) file, rather than to the image file itself, which means
that the original image data remains intact, while the XMP file records every edit.
2 Use the Windows System Tray or Notification Area, or the Dock on Mac OS,
to switch back to the Elements Organizer. In the My Folders list in the left panel,
right-click / Control-click the Lesson 4 folder and choose Reveal In Finder from
the menu. A Windows Explorer or Mac OS Finder window opens to show your
Lesson 4 folder. Click the folder, if necessary, to see the contents; the newly
created XMP sidecar file, DSC_5683.xmp, is listed beside the NEF image file.
3 Return to the Editor—and the Camera Raw window—in Photoshop Elements.

Note: Although not
all digital cameras can
capture raw images,
the newer and more
advanced models do
offer this option. To see
an up-to-date list of the
camera models and pro-
prietary raw file formats
currently supported by
Photoshop Elements,
visit the Adobe website.

Note: The Camera
Raw plug-in, used by
Photoshop Elements
to open raw files, is
updated as new cam-
eras are added to the
list of those supported.
Check for updates and
download the latest
version of the plug-in at
www.adobe.com.