Do you keep Adobe RAW defaults or set them to 0 ?

[oleg_lempert2]

I shoot RAW. My camera settings for Brightness, Contrast and Saturation are all zeros. When I open file in Adobe

Camera RAW of my Photoshop CS3 the settings for Brightness, Contrast and Saturation are set to some initial

values. I intend to proceed with my editing in PS. Should I set these value to zeros in RAW converter or should I

leave them alone? Thanks

[ronald_moravec1]

Personel preference. I changed all the defaults to zero as I prefer to work from there. If you raise the exposure .5 on every pic, why not leave it at .5 and work from there? Same with the other sliders.

 

There is a setting panel where you can make adjustments common to the type of pics you make which you then save, name, and can recall at a later time. Multiple presets can be done that way.

 

It is also possible to open multiple images in raw, click all and synchronize at the upper left. This is handy if many have to be changed all the same way and you get a dialog box which can be used to select of the changes to the main pic you wish to carry over to the others. Do this from Bridge using command+r or alt + r on a windows pc and the updates will run in the background while you do something else.

[colin_mattson1]

Here's the deal with Adobe Camera Raw's defaults: they're not zero, because zero looks like crap. They're largely pre-set

to default values for your camera to approximate what in-camera zero settings look like. You do not want to zero them

out. (And 0 is not a no-compensation value for some of them, either.)

 

Most of the adjustments will also yield better results at the conversion stage than afterward, as well, so if you need to

fine-tune the brightness, go for it. ACR usually starts out a little low on the saturation, and I usually kick it up to around 5

or 10 to get a good baseline to start with.

 

The only settings I zero out are sharpening and the two noise reduction options, because I find ACR does a better job

mangling the image with them than doing anything useful.

[oleg_lempert2]

OK. Then could you please clarify this for me:

Canon 30D Picture Style "LANDSCAPE" applies +7 sharpening factor. If I shoot RAW, is this sharpening applied to the photo? If yes why everyone is saying "when shoot RAW no camera settings applied"? Thanks for clarification

[ellis_vener_photography]

You can make different presets for different types of photos or effects.

[sattler123]

Your in-camera sharpening is not being applied in ACR - ACR uses its own defaults!

[patricklavoie]

The latest version of ACR have a pretty good sharpen plugin..funny enough, its base on the Photo Kit sharpener..i hope that people who dont like it, dont like either PK sharpener, because if you like the latest..well theres something wrong in your judgment : )

 

I dont personnaly use PK Sharp or ACR for my sharpen as i prefer Smart Sharpen...

 

That said, you can set your ACR to 0 and save that as a camera default, and from there, create some preset for your camera and applied it on a needed basis. I have a basic ACR setting that use a bit of everything and i refine it later in need.

[oleg_lempert2]

I always use some form of post-processing. But the only things I adjust in RAW converter (if needed) is Exposure. On rare occasion I can use Fill Light. Most of my post-processing is done in Photoshop using Levels and Curves, as well as Saturation and Sharpening. I apply Creative Sharpening to accentuate specific features in an image. It is followed by Output Sharpening with High Pass filter.

You can see the initial Sharpening step - Capture Sharpening - is missing. What am trying to do is to replace it with ACR default sharpening (25).

[patricklavoie]

Oleg, why dont you use the tools in ACR to get the best brigthness and contrast, instead of doing it later in Ps? since you have acces to all the real info and data there, it seem kind of odd to do it later in Ps? I agree that for the saturation and sharpen i prefer like you to do it later in post (even if i already done some saturation to my raw).

 

I would suggest to use the smart sharpen instead of the high pass. I use the high pass technique for years, until 2-3 years ago i discover the smart sharpen and realize that my file where in fact artificially more sharp with the high pass..when i compare 2 of my file it was day and nigth..give it a try. I must add that i dont do any sharpening in ACR or Lr2, as i prefer to do it in Ps, capture and creative.

[Tim_Lookingbill]

From a photo restoration (not retouch) background take it from me, you want the setting that gets you as close as possible to

what you saw through the lens. Doing it any other way either with defaults or by starting from scratch to some "0" setting will

play tricks on your eyes in ways that sneak up and bite you in the rear trying to get the image to look what YOU think looks

correct.

 

All areas involving human perception and how the eye wants to visually correct what it sees are greatly influenced by fiddling

around with white balance (color temperature setting) which is the worst, then contrast a close second which has a big affect

on perception of saturation and sharpness.

 

If you find your image is flat and dull looking on a consistent basis with captures of different exposures and color temps using

the default settings, then change them and save the setting as default, but you need to base these new settings on an image

of a scene that spans gamut, contrast and dynamics the camera's sensor can provide. It's like calibrating to the ultimate

scene. I've tried the calibration scripts available on the web using the Gretag color chart and find ACR's default settings for MY

CAMERA, a Pentax K100D, are better for most scenes with others only requiring minor tweaks to hue, saturation and contrast.

 

You're going to get into deciding whether you want an accurate to scene appearance which ACR defaults are pretty good at

this for my camera but can look somewhat ugly to most folks or copy the look from the jpeg or camera manufacturer's supplied

raw converter preview and go from there. The newer versions of ACR supply better default profiles for the Canokons that

mimic their jpeg renderings.

 

And the reason my Pentax looks pretty good using ACR defaults is that Pentax plays more nicely with Adobe by supplying

extra color data that allows ACR programming engineers to come up with better matrix based color defaults that other camera

manufacturers refuse to supply. I found this information hanging out at the Adobe Camera Raw forum.

[roger_smith4]

Personally, I don't like the default ACR conversions so I start with zeroed settings. I have a few presets I use from there (as well as the "auto" feature") but for challenging images do it all manually and then copy and paste settings to similar files.

[ted_springer]

If you are going to be doing some custom camera calibration (for different color profiles), I'd suggest zeroing them out. But

otherwise, it really doesn't matter.

[oleg_lempert2]

There're many approaches to post-processing and every photographer developed his / her own approach. I always shoot RAW. As I stated in previous post, the only things I change in RAW converter: Exposure, White Balance. Very seldom I use Fill Light and Recovery. I never touch Brightness,Contrast,Saturation,Vibrance, etc in RAW converter. Photoshop employs such sophisticated tools as Levels, Curves, Selective Saturation and Selective Colors. As for sharpening, this is my approach: I use both Smart Sharpen and High Pass. I have automatic scripts for 3 types of sharpening: 1) Capture, 2) Creative, 3) Output. Steps 1 and 2 use Smart Sharpen. Step 3 uses High Pass.

****

1) Capture

Up till now I used Capture sharpening to restore sharpening lost due to digitation. It is gental sharpening, hardly visible without knowing it is done. I intend to bypass this step in the future and keep RAW converter sharpening default (25). When I did Capture step I always put it to zero. Capture sharpening is done at the beginning of processing flow.

****

2) Creative

I use this plug-in to remove haze and to brush-in selective sharpening in image areas that can benefit most from it.

****

3) Output

This step is done in the very end, after final resizing.

All scripts work in non-destructive manner, creating layers and allow adjustments to layer opacity, etc via Blend If control