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Workflow In A CS3 World by Bill Guy

If there is one thing that comes up in discussions with other photographers more often than not, it is workflow. Not so much what to do to one image, but a group of images that may need some work done before proofing or printing. For those with Photoshop CS 2 or earlier, I would talk about actions and batching to do groups of images so you can save time with repeated adjustments. With the release of CS 3 (and Lightroom), Adobe has heard the frustrated cries of photographers and made the RAW converter more versatile so it can become a major tool for workflow on a number of images.

This workflow will work for both CS 3 Bridge and Lightroom users because both can use the ACR or RAW processing for not only RAW images but Tiff and Jpegs. Plus, all of these edits or corrections are going to be nondestructive so that not a single pixel will be changed or damaged and you can always go back to the original image. These edits are being recorded as a sidecar program so the settings are being carried over for work in Photoshop or straight printing.

If this sounds appealing to you, here is how you can save many hours in front of the computer "fixing” groups of images that may need the same corrections like exposure or white balance with a few extra tips for even more tweaking of the images to save time. The first step is to look at the group and figure out what might need to fixed.

Let’s take for example a group of images done at a wedding where the white balance and exposure was off. These are easy to see in Bridge (or Lightroom) and from here we make a selection of all these images by selecting the first image and then holding down the shift key and clicking on the last one. If you shot these as RAW files then you just need to click on one of the group to bring up the ACR but let’s say you shot it in jpegs. Then you just have to right click on group and in the pop up menu is Open in Camera Raw which will take you to the ACR. Here you will see all the selections in a film strip on the left hand side and one image open in the preview window. At the top of film strip are two buttons but only one is clickable. That is Select All button which you will want to click and will select all the images. Then the Synchronize button becomes clickable for you to click on. A new menu pops up which has all the functions that can be carried over. I normally just click OK with all the boxes checked but that is up to you if you may just want a couple of things done.

Now when you make an adjustment it will be carried over to all the images so you can correct the white balance and/or exposure quickly. With CS 3/Lightroom and the updated ACR, Adobe also added a couple of sliders, which really has improved the RAW experience. These are Recovery which lets you make an adjustment in exposure and then if the higher tones have been blown out brings them back. They also added Clarity and Vibrance which is like Contrast and Saturation on Steroids. Clarity allows you to bring in contrast in a more subtle way and Vibrance will pump up the colors while leaving skin tones looking more normal.

But let’s say that after you did all this there was one image in the group that needed more attention. You can double click on it from the film strip and do a single adjustment on it. When you are done you can open all of them in Photoshop or just click the Done button and your settings will be attached to images. At this point you can even print them out from Bridge or run your favorite batch setting for proofs or a contact sheet.

If you are a little unsure as to how to make adjustments in ACR, the easy way is to just start at the top and work your way down the sliders. The first is the most common correction of White Balance (with the rarely used Tint under it, more often than not just a White Balance is all that is needed). After that is Exposure and then Recovery for the higher tones that may have been lost from bumping up exposure. As a side note if you are shooting Jpeg, recovery of higher tones will be limited since the format does have a more narrow range of tones to pull from.

Next is Fill light (a midtone correction) and Blacks which pumps up the shadows. Two sliders I really don’t use anymore are the Brightness and Contrast since Clarity and Vibrance work so much better. With that said I really don’t use the Saturation slider much unless I am doing landscapes where I want that Fuji Film look.

The ACR has also improved it’s Curves function and Sharpening so you can add a nice S curve for a more film look and even put in a bit of sharpening.

So there you are. An improved workflow idea to get you away from the computer so you can spend more time with your loved ones. Hopefully these loved ones are not your cameras but real humans.

Good luck and have fun.

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