{"id":2042,"date":"2017-11-21T15:39:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T13:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themanual.local\/?p=2042"},"modified":"2023-09-07T09:48:14","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T07:48:14","slug":"image-processing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simonbarnett.co.za\/themanual\/image-processing\/","title":{"rendered":"Image Processing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

The rise of the iPhotographer<\/h2>\n

Many of you will be taking your own photos and using them on your website.<\/p>\n

Smartphone cameras have shown steady improvement, and side-by-side comparisons with DSLR cameras give impressive results.<\/p>\n

Still, whether or not you used a “proper” camera or a smartphone, or even if you bought a pic from a photo library, it’s likely to need a tweak or two to improve the pic.<\/p>\n

We are talking strictly the tone and colours of a pic, not changing the placement of pixels, or adding or removing things in the pic.<\/p>\n

For this you need a good image processor<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Lightroom et al<\/h2>\n

The best program for this is a RAW processor like Adobe Lightroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some links to articles about alternatives to Lightroom are at the end of this article.<\/p>\n

They recommend Apple Photos<\/a> and Google Photos<\/a> which also have powerful built-in controls.<\/p>\n

Photoshop vs Lightroom and other image processors<\/h3>\n

Photoshop<\/h4>\n

Photoshop is primarily for changing areas of pixels in a photo: compositing, making collages and editing, which is why it is referred-to as a photo editor.<\/p>\n

Lightroom<\/h4>\n

Lightroom – sometimes named “Adobe Photoshop Lightroom” – is a different beast to its namesake, Photoshop.<\/p>\n

Lightroom is simpler. It’s a processor, which implies that it processes the whole photo.<\/p>\n

In actual fact Lightroom does have rudimentary selection tools, but its main strength is in its algorithms – the mathematical formulas that underlie the controls.<\/p>\n

Lightroom and other image processors have a range of powerful controls which adjust the various aspects of a photo in ways that have a closer bearing to the real world than what Photoshop can easily achieve.<\/p>\n

Or do they?<\/p>\n

Hello there, Photoshop Camera Raw<\/h3>\n

It seems Photoshop has something to say.<\/p>\n

If you don’t have Lightroom, but you have Photoshop – which is more likely to be the case – you have access to a sort of “Lightroom Lite”, the Camera Raw<\/strong> processor.<\/p>\n

The Camera Raw processor in Photoshop features a set of controls very similar to Lightroom.<\/p>\n

In fact if you’re willing to live without the workflow and cataloging features of Lightroom, Photoshop Camera Raw is all you need.<\/p>\n

So much for the previous section.<\/p>\n

Update Camera Raw<\/h4>\n

Your version of Camera Raw may need to be updated.<\/p>\n

Find the correct version for your version of Photoshop here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Using Camera Raw<\/h4>\n

Here’s how to access Camera Raw from inside Photoshop.\"\"<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Open Photoshop<\/li>\n
  2. Go to File > Open<\/li>\n
  3. Locate the folder with the pic you want to open<\/li>\n
  4. Select the pic with a single click ie. without opening it<\/li>\n
  5. (On a Mac, click the Options button, bottom-left. I don’t know if there’s something similar in Windows).<\/li>\n
  6. At the bottom of the Open Dialog Box, go to Format<\/li>\n
  7. Choose Camera Raw<\/li>\n
  8. Open the pic<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The controls are fairly intuitive and although each slider influences every other slider, they are quite linear by the fact that they are sliders, and the workflow progresses from top-to-bottom (the sliders), left-to-right (the panel switches at the top).<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"LR-Before\"\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t

    Once you’ve worked your way down the panel, tweaking settings, move back up to the top and switch to the next panel using the panel switches:<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"Lightroom-Panel-Switches\"\n\t

    The first five panels are the ones you’ll probably find most useful.<\/p>\n

    See here for a guided walkthrough video<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"CR-After\"\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t

    Once I’ve gone through all the controls I sometimes go back to the beginning and work through them again, improving what I’ve done already.<\/p>\n

    In fact I always do that. Sometimes many times.<\/p>\n

    Lightroom \/ Camera Raw can be really addictive.<\/p>\n\t

    External Articles about Alternatives to Lightroom<\/h2>\n

    Lightroom Alternatives | UPDATED November 2017<\/a><\/p>\n

    The best free alternative to Adobe Lightroom 2017 | TechRadar<\/a><\/p>\n

    The Best Subscription-Free Lightroom Alternatives for Every Budget<\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    How to easily improve the appearance of images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,10,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-image-optimisation","category-general-advice","category-specific-instruction","category-content-manager"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonbarnett.co.za\/themanual\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonbarnett.co.za\/themanual\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonbarnett.co.za\/themanual\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonbarnett.co.za\/themanual\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonbarnett.co.za\/themanual\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/simonbarnett.co.za\/themanual\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonbarnett.co.za\/themanual\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonbarnett.co.za\/themanual\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonbarnett.co.za\/themanual\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonbarnett.co.za\/themanual\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}