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USING PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 8
Camera raw files
Last updated 7/26/2011
To undo your manual adjustments and make the adjustments automatically, select Auto. To restore all options to their
initial settings, press Option and click Reset.
Note: By default, Auto is always selected. To change this default, deselect one or more Auto options, click the triangle to
the right of the Settings menu, and choose Save New Camera Raw Defaults.
8 Do one of the following:
• To open a copy of the camera raw image file (with the camera raw settings applied) in Photoshop Elements, click
Open. You can edit the image and save it in a Photoshop Elements-supported format. The original camera raw file
remains unaltered.
• To save the adjustments to a DNG file, click Save Image. (See “Save changes to camera raw images” on page 75.)
• To cancel the adjustments and close the dialog box, click Cancel.
Note: The Digital Negative (DNG) format is Adobe’s proposed standard format for camera raw files. DNG files are useful
for archiving camera raw images because they contain the raw camera sensor data and data specifying how the image
should look. Camera raw image settings can be stored in DNG files instead of in sidecar XMP files or the camera raw
database.
Adjust sharpness in camera raw files
The Sharpness slider adjusts the image sharpness to provide the edge definition you want. The Sharpness adjustment
is a variation of the Photoshop Unsharp Mask filter, which locates pixels that differ from surrounding pixels based on
the threshold you specify and increases the pixels’ contrast by the amount you specify. When opening a camera raw
file, the Camera Raw plug-in calculates the threshold to use based on the camera model, ISO, and exposure
compensation. You can choose whether sharpening is applied to all images or just to previews.
1 Zoom the preview image to at least 100%.
2 Click the Details tab.
3 Move the Sharpness slider to the right to increase sharpening and to the left to decrease it. A value of zero turns off
sharpening. In general, set the Sharpness slider to a lower value for cleaner images.
If you don’t plan to edit the image extensively in Photoshop Elements, use the camera raw Sharpness slider. If you do
plan to edit the image extensively in Photoshop Elements, turn off camera raw sharpening. Then use the sharpening
filters in Photoshop Elements as the last step after all other editing and resizing is complete.
Reducing noise in camera raw images
The Detail tab in the Camera Raw dialog box contains controls for reducing image noise—the extraneous visible
artifacts that degrade image quality. Image noise includes luminance (grayscale) noise, which makes an image look
grainy, and chroma (color) noise, which is usually visible as colored artifacts in the image. Photos taken at high ISO
speeds or with less sophisticated digital cameras can have noticeable noise.
Moving the Luminance Smoothing slider to the right reduces grayscale noise, and moving the Color Noise Reduction
slider to the right reduces chroma noise.
When making Luminance Smoothing or Color Noise Reduction adjustments, it’s a good idea to preview images at
100% for a better view.
