[last updated : Jan 2006]
4. editing raw files -
select, add metadata, and correct raw files :
During editing, start with general settings, and then work down to the specific. In other words, do global changes to white balance and exposure first, and then touch up single images which still need it.
Since we’re editing for proofing and web galleries at this point, it will also help your speed and efficiency if you aim for good, not perfect.
Apply keywords and metadata if you want to search for specific photos later on. This depends on how or whether you want to keep track of your images. This step can be earlier on in the workflow, depending on the software you work with. Keywords are recorded in various ways, which will also be affected by the software you work with. Some write them in databases, Adobe Camera Raw writes it to the sidecar files, BreezeBrowser Pro writes them to the actual file.
It is easier to “edit in”, than to “edit out”. I therefore select the photos I want to keep, i.e. those that go to proofing and for the galleries.
I create two folders – “RAW selected”, and “RAW discarded”, and sort my images accordingly, by adding check marks to the files I want to keep.
I might delete images which just don’t make it, but generally I put the non-keepers in the “discarded” folder, in case I need to go back.
Selecting and sorting the photos can be done during the editing process, since it is as much effort correcting exposure and white balance on 4 images as it is for 20 images.
I have used BreezeBrowser here to tag images I want to keep, but I’ve found the slideshow feature of Adobe Camera Raw to be exceptionally fast with this.
Rotate images, if needed. This can be done with any of the programs, so I use whichever program I am editing the raw files in, whether DPP, Capture One, or Adobe Camera Raw. Nikon Browser is also good for this.
I then edit the raw files for White Balance and Exposure.
For efficiency, it is essential to adjust entire sequences or groups of images together.
It is usually better to start with the white balance first, since adjusting the white balance can often affect the exposure if you look at the various channels. If an image appears very warm, and shows over-exposure in the red channel, then correcting the white balance could very well stop the exposure warnings in your editing program.
Do a rough WB with WB Tool (eye-dropper), and then fine-tune with sliders. There are tools like the WhiBal card that will help WB correction in post-production, but mostly I click on white shirt collars and such to bring my images close to correct WB.
(Of course, your monitor has to be calibrated!)
Also, adjust contrast and brightness as part of exposure correction.
Over-exposure warnings will help in judging exposure.
With Canon’s DPP this is a breeze since you can highlight multiple images and drag the exposure slider, or change the WB by selecting another WB or adjusting the colour wheel. Because the thumbnail in DPP isn't an accurate reflection of the image once it is adjusted, your images need to be pretty good in terms of WB and exposure. But as a good guide to your final image, this way of editing is hard to beat in terms of speed for a rough edit.
You can then open up any image in the editor window for an accurate adjustment. You can then copy and paste the overall adjustments to any of the other images. This is where DPP is limited in comparison to Capture One Pro - with Capture One you can select which adjustments you want to copy over. With DPP you can only copy overall adjustments. Hopefully future versions of DPP will consider this.
When adjusting under-exposed images, an S-curve to contrast may hide shadow noise.
Sharpening is left as part of the conversion to JPG, since resizing might be involved in generating proofs or images for web galleries. Either way it is better to have less sharpening in initial workflow.
Noise Reduction is dependent on camera make and model, and chosen iso.
Convert some images to black-and-white or sepia.
DPP is especially great for this, and it offers various filters which will help brighten the skin tones, akin to how you would've used an orange or red filter with b&w film to brighten skin tones.
I might also crop some of the raw files to improve composition.
Capture One and Adobe Camera Raw both have brilliantly fast ways of applying crops to multiple images. So if you routinely crop large numbers of images to 4x5 or 8x10, then a raw workflow will save you considerable effort.
Copying the crop to multiple raw files is faster than doing the same for the jpgs in Photoshop. You can also custom crop in ACR for web sized images.
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