Unsharp Mask on RAW Files

When you open RAW files in Adobe Camera Raw, make exposure, etc.,

changes, and click on "OK," you are left with a file to which your

changes have been applied, but which still has a RAW file extension

(for instance, "cr2" in recent Canon models). Can you apply

Photoshop Unsharp Mask or other sharpening tools to the cr2 file

before converting to TIFF, JPEG, etc.? For those files which only

require some exposure tweaking and sharpening, I would like my last

step to be conversion to JPEG for printing, with no sharpening or

other editing after that point. Is this workable? Thanks.

When it's opened (after conversion in the RAW case) any image is simply a bitmap in memory. The conversion happens when saving, so yes, you can do anything to it. Just that PS still shows it a "cr2" is irrelevant.

Yes, AFAIK.

 

You can do anything to the file that PS has (less changes if you work in 8 bit though), without saving as a TIFF or JPEG.

 

It's only when you go to save for the first time, that you save to the format of your choice.

To make sure you don't overwrite the raw file, do a "SaveAs" immediately as a .TIFF, .PSD,

.jpeg etc. after converting and then do your USM or sharpening routines on that file.

Chris,

 

It's not clear to me what you are trying to achieve, but AFAIK

 

1. The 'adjustments' in a RAW file (e.g. white balance, camera sharpeing) are really settings that are kept separate from the data samples and can be applied or not when the file is opened.

 

2. If you 'save' or 'save as' a RAW file from PS then you probably won't be able to save layers or masks or other things that are not suitable to be kept in the adjustment setting area of the RAW file.

 

3. Sharpening is usually held until the destination of the image is known, since the differences between output devices and uses will impact what level of sharpening is used. A version of the image BEFORE sharpening has been applied is usually recommended as the archive copy.

 

So in your workflow, read and convert the RAW file, clean it up and make any adjustments, save in TIFF or PSD format to preserve adjstments, downsize if necessary, change from 16 to 8 bits, decide on output, apply sharpening tailored to output device, and then save as a JPEG.

 

If you later decide to use this image on a different output device, you would open the TIFF or PSD version, re-apply sharpening as needed and create a new file.

Can PhotoShop write a RAW file? I thought it could only read them.

For clarification, here's my (flawed?) thinking and workflow which led to my question.

 

Last night I was working with RAW files, converting them to 8-bit JPEG for printing on a Frontier, applying my various sharpening actions, and then doing a final save. At some point I noticed I could crop the file while still in cr2 format, and save the cropped version to JPEG thereafter, without altering the original RAW file. Then I (inadvertently, to be honest) applied a lab sharpening action to a cr2 file I was working on. It appeared that PSCS chugged along and applied the desired sharpening to the cr2 file.

 

This got me thinking: multiple saves of a JPEG are a bad thing because each save causes additional data loss; the conversion from cr2 to JPEG is one save; saving my sharpening on the JPEG is a second save. For those files where I can complete all my desired adjustments and cropping in ACR, why not apply sharpening there, too, and avoid the second JPEG save? As suggested, I could convert to TIFF and apply my sharpening there before saving as JPEG, but that might be an unnecessary intermediate step.

 

To my knowledge, the original RAW file is not overwritten by anything I have described. So, (1) Can I apply sharpening (other than ACR sharpening) to my cr2 files? (2) If so, is that sharpening technique inferior to applying the same sharpening to a TIFF or JPEG?

 

Thanks, everyone.

" each save causes additional data loss" - No. Each open/save causes additional data loss. If you re-save the image without closing and re-opening it, it is not degraded further than a single save. Think about it - the loss occurs when the Photoshop image is closed, throwing away the perfect image, and the slightly degraded JPEG is opened in its place. The image in memory does not degrade with each save - rather, when you close it and open a JPEG, the image in memory will be the degraded image from the JPEG.

Chris, you appear to misunderstand how computers work. Lemme try to explain.

 

You have a .CR2 file on your hard drive -- the raw file. The file is a collection of information stored on the hard disk.

 

When you open that .CR2 file in Photoshop, Photoshop *makes a copy* of the information in the file. Technically speaking, it loads the file into memory.

 

At this point you have two different things: One, your .CR2 file on the hard drive which is still there and nothing happened to it. Two, the image information from that file which is now in Photoshop in whatever format Photoshop uses for internal representaion.

 

Note that the image-in-Photoshop is not a raw file any more. The Photoshop's title bar will still be showing the name of the .CR2 file, but you should interpret this as just the name of the file from where the image came from. The contents of that raw file on disk and the contents of the image buffer in Photoshop are now quite different.

 

Until and unless you save the image-in-Photoshop nothing will change on disk.

 

Again, the image-in-Photoshop is not a raw file. You can do anything to it that the Photoshop is capable of doing. Then, when you save it, you will create another file on disk in whatever format you'd save as -- be it TIFF, JPG or something else.

 

It's perfectly possible to open a raw .CR2 file, work with it for a while (crop, curves, resize, sharpen, etc.) and then just save a small downsampled image as a JPG -- I do it all the time for quickie pictures that go only to the web...

So I can do my sharpening to the in-Photoshop image designated cr2. Assuming the only thing left to do to a cr2 image is to sharpen it, is there any reason in terms of the quality of the image for printing purposes why one would want to save as JPEG or TIFF before sharpening, rather than sharpening before saving as JPEG or TIFF?

 

Thanks again for your help.

Photoshop doesn't have the capability to save a file with the extension .cr2...

 

I save my processed raw files as .psd. That will save all the layers and masks. When I'm through printing and viewing the .psd, I delete it.

 

I keep only the small RAW file (3 copies, on 3 hard drives, one of which is an external drive that is only powered up for batch saves).

1. "So I can do my sharpening to the in-Photoshop image designated cr2".

 

Sure. The designation "cr2" means that the file from which you created the bitmap currently being processed by PS was a RAW file. You can do the sharpening while the desigination of the source file still reads "cr2", but if you try to 'save' the bitmap, you will have to choose a non-RAW file type.

 

2. "Assuming the only thing left to do to a cr2 image is to sharpen it, is there any reason in terms of the quality of the image for printing purposes why one would want to save as JPEG or TIFF before sharpening, rather than sharpening before saving as JPEG or TIFF?"

 

No particular reason to save first, although almost everyone who has had a computer lock up, had the power fail, or is known to make mistakes (especially when tired) will save his work frequently as he is going along. If it were me, I would have saved the file 2 or 3 times before I got to the end of my adjustments. But, if all you have done is opened the file, changed the mode from 16 to 8 bits and then you are ready to print, you can just sharpen and then save as a JPEG ready for printing.