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Lesson Info

Adobe Camera Raw Optimized Images

Kamerad isi know is really a fundamental part of getting your images to look good so it's not just one little piece it iss where how would I used to say it? Sometimes it might be that eighty percent of my images on lee go through camera and they never get open in photo shop just not needed and then there are other times when I needed to extensive work where I open it all the way in the photo shop but regardless it always starts became iraq it I for the most part never skipped camera the only exception would be if a client provided me with an image that has been pre adjusted and they hired me to do some retouching or something thank I might, uh bypass camera, but if if the picture last came from a camera it's going through camera raw and I'm going to be moving those sliders so if you ever see me on the second or third day ever opening pictures that I dont open through camera just assume that I've already done that process don't assume I'm skipping it. This is just a matter of I pre adju...

sted these pictures, whereas today we're starting with images from scratch, so now what I'd like to do is show you a series of images that have been corrected in camera I should say optimized and cameron and you could just see the difference that before I'll start actually with the after I believe and then go to the before and you'll get a sense for how big of a difference is there sometimes it's a subtle difference? Sometimes it's a dramatic difference and also pay attention to how often one of the differences is cropping because I only mentioned that once you knew how to do it, but I would say that the vast majority of pictures I run into could look better if cropped because your camera you really have to think about when cropping what kind of end result you're going to use this for if it's going to be used for the internet, you're cropping is free there's no constraint there you could have a square image, you have a wide image, you have a tall image, that kind of stuff, but if you're going fits your image and you want somebody to frame it if you do odd size is all the time everybody's going to need a custom frame, whereas if you standardize on the same sizes as they make premade frames for you could save a lot of people of money when it comes to things sometimes that's not convenient but it's just something to consider, and if so, if you remember in the crop tool in camera, you could click and hold down on it and give you a list of aspect ratios but then there was a choice called I think was called custom, and we could type in your own. And so if you found out the width and height ratio, the the kind of paper or frame that you want to standardize on, you could do it that way, buddy. Wait let's, take a look here. I have a bunch and I mean a bunch before and after and let's just go through them know that all of these images went from start to finish in just came around. No full photo shop was needed, so here's one before I'm sorry, this is the after this is the before. So you say he's, just a dull image getting brightened up here's an after before, though, didn't look so great on camera as faras the brightness goes, but there's my after after before that's a lot of adjustment brush where I brushed in darkening to darken it wherever I didn't think your I really needed to spend time to make it so the brightest part of the picture was where I wanted your your time to be spent. So if there's before where I could go just about anywhere after, I'm just tryingto influence where you might end up looking there's are after before mainly a crop there in a little darkening er after before sees how dramatic sometimes the crop penis because you might not have the right lens on to get what you want. That guy comes out, looks out his window. By the time I changed lenses and left my camera again, he'd be gone, but with this, I can really crop it in and just get rid of anything that is the distraction only focusing on the interesting parts, but there's the before here's the after before cleaning up all the crowd around the edges. Oftentimes I find that that's the case is there's just a lot of clutter, and I don't I actually like kind of framing a little looser like this because it allows me to shoot more quickly where I'm not being too concerned with getting the framing. Instead, I could be concentrated more in the moment that's going on and then later on, I confined to knit photo shop, and I have more possibilities than with really getting the choices down if I think about it too much in the field than becoming a little too, uh, I don't know just to anal about all the details instead of just being in the moment. Uh, so yeah, there is there. So what I'll do is I'll go through some of these like here there's something we haven't learned yet for its just look at the building notice it's a bit crooked and I think about my camera tilted a little bit and where is after it's? Much more straightened out, so I'll show you how to deal with some of that the same is true here whenever you tilt up on a building, the top of the building will look smaller than the bottom of the building. So here I can see a line near the edge that looks like it's moving towards the middle of the frame as it gets higher and higher that's just the the top of the building looking smaller and we can correct for that and then fine tune the colors that's my wife karen there there's the original and this one I actually did take into futter shop afterwards. This is not the final version. This is what I was able to do in camera, but I found this area on the right side, lower right to be too distracting where you could see through the building to the sky in the distance. And so I retouched that out too just about solid black in the end results here, I wouldn't be drawn there no, this is the after before, after before this one's a little bit more dramatic as faras angles go just the angle sometimes the angle like khun shoot from its constrained there's a car park somewhere there's a telephone pole or something else in the way and it might have to shoot it from an off angle but when I'm done I might change things up a bit also you notice a sign in the lower left how right now it's not that noticeable in the end result but in the before do you see how more prominent it wass so I to deal with some of that and so we might be able to look at that one and so here's an after before and there's this mainly I find your eyes drawn to the areas that are bright and colorful bright, colorful and detailed and so if I want your eye to be attracted to a particular area, I'm going to try to make sure that one of those three qualities that that area where I want your eye to go to has the most either brightness, color or detail and something is like a little magnet to pull you there or it could be that it's the other way around it's that everything else is less bright, less colorful, less detailed it might be that I'm toning down the rest of the image and said there you can see a little bit of that be toning down things and trying to make it so it's less distraction in the background now, there's quite a big difference. Here is the before there's the after just because that's what the scene looked like, whatever captured I might start once they get used to the sliders, they're in camera start bld interpret images of mme or where I'm not thinking about him or literally as what I saw there, but just what would be the potential there cleaning it up, making it really get where your I want teo go that's the before the after so you get a sense for the difference between what my camera captured, which is not always the most exciting material and what my end result looks like and these are all straight camera no going beyond that into photoshopped this one I want to read touch in photoshopped to give him a base like to play because he looks so perfectly put in there. I thought it was great there's the before and there. I'm just mainly trying to clean up things. I'm not actually overly happy with the end result because you know your eyes often drawn to what is bright, colorful detail, he might be detailed, but you see the a big bright area behind him why I can't help but pop up there and check out what's there even though there's no payoff when you get there. If my eyes drawn to anything in a scene, I want there to be a payoff when I look there is there of some flowers, there's or something of interest in whatever area my eyes drawn to otherwise I want to see if I can crop it out, darken it, make it less colorful or less detailed if I could do one of those things your eyes not going to be drawn to it quite as much then in this case, that particular area in the back was just too bright. If I darken it too much, it starts looking artificial so that's one thing where I wasn't able to get an ideal capture so this guy can even see him in the before he's in there he's right up here thinks you're my mile says there is the end result, so sometimes their dramatic differences sometimes not so much. This is one thing where if I'm going to shoot a building or anything it's rectangular and I'm in a low position and I would usually need to tilt my camera up anytime you tilt your camera on anything it's rectangular, the top part of the rectangle is gonna look smaller than the bottom you used to that with buildings, you know, take a picture of a skyscraper of top of the skyscraper smaller in the bottom. Same is true with a framed piece of art work till your camera up, you get the same thing. So oftentimes what I'll do just to prevent that from happening is I won't crop tightly in the camera. I'll crop in the camera in such a way where I don't need to tilt up so that the source that I'm shooting stays like a rectangle and then it's just afterwards, I crop it to get that and therefore won't feel is distorted, and I don't have to do is much fixing it's more cropping than than fixing the distortion from my tilting. So there you could just see a little straightening a little bright ning we'll make the colors little more enhanced, but just concentrate on the interesting parts. Don't show him everything, just the interesting and then try to get it so you can help direct their eye by thinking about, uh, look, I mentioned the detail, the color of the brightness, uh, does it give you sense? So you can see that you get some normal shots and just the end result needs to be cleaned up.