CS5 Printing and General Question...

[Sally]

I have recently upgraded to CS5, but am having a few problems understanding some of it. Firstly I shoot in Raw and when I upload and edit the images, there is no 'undo' button. So, if I do something I don't like then I'm stuck with it. Also, I don't understand what paths are and the purpose of Layers, it's all really beyond me. I want to be able to get the best out of CS5, but at the moment, only really use the Raw basic editing and Curves, Levels etc.

Also, if I want to print off an A4/A3 image, should it be a certain size to get the best quality and if so, how do I make sure it's the right size on CS5?

Sorry for all the questions.....I do have more specific ones, but will ask them in a separate post to save annoying you all at once!

[Alex1994]

I think you need a big book to work through. Alternatively, F1 will bring up the help menu ;-)

[Adey Baker]

A big book is definitely worth searching for, but with reference to 'undo' - or lack of it - in Raw, just go back and 'undo' whatever you don't like in each separate section by setting the various sliders back to where you started.

I haven't got the latest version but I would imagine that it's similar in layout to previous versions, so:

The Raw image opens in a separate window with its own controls, so start by setting the colour space, 8/16 Bit & ppi by clicking on the link under the image. Keep the 'size' at the camera's full resolution at this stage.

The image you see is derived from the JPEG embedded in the Raw data and is just a starting point so you have to alter it to your requirements by using the slider controls on the settings to the right of the image - by making a mental note of the original setting you can 'undo' to your heart's content by re-setting the slider if you don't like the effect you've created.

Under the histogram and exposure info is a line of icons and clicking on each of these brings up the appropriate settings sliders - the first three icons are the most useful for the exposure/colour/noise, etc and the first, 'Basic' (the 'default' setting and accessed via the 'aperture' icon at any other stage) is probably the most important to start with.

There are no absolute rights and wrongs of how you process the image - everyone will have their own preferences, so you'll have to experiment with each setting to start with to see what works best for you. For instance, the exposure slider can be used in conjunction with the 'Blacks' and 'Brightness' settings to get the right balance between correct exposure and 'burnt-out' highlights or 'blocked-in' shadows. On my version, clicking on the little triangles at the top of each end of the histogram brings up a highlight/shadow warning in the image where over-exposed areas are shown as red and under-exposed as blue.

The second icon, 'Tone Curves,' allows you to do similar functions via a 'curve' if you so wish (no, neither do I!), plus there's a set of sliders for altering the highlights/shadows, etc.

The third icon, 'Details,' brings up sliders for noise and sharpening and I generally set everything over to the left and see to these later in the normal Photoshop window.

Of the others, 'Lens Correction' allows you to attend to vignetting and any colour-fringing problems, though I'd suggest zooming-up the image to check edge details as you move the sliders around.

At any stage you can click on the little arrow at the right-hand end of the section immediately under the icons and from the drop-down box select 'Camera Raw default settings' and it will undo everything you've altered so you can start all over again - after I've 'saved' my image (as a 16 bit PSD file) I usually click on the 'cancel' button which closes the Raw window and will not save any of the alterations I've made, thus it will open up on the default settings next time.

For re-sizing an image for printing at a given size, just go to 'Image,' 'Image Size' and from the drop-down box make sure that 'Constrain Proportions' is ticked and 'Resample Image' is not ticked and then enter one of the sizes (either width or height) into the appropriate box and it will automatically set both the other dimension and the number of pixels per inch/cm - I don't think there is any pressing need to alter the pixels per inch unless the printer specifically requires a certain setting. If you greatly enlarged a small image then you may need to add some pixels to bring the resolution up in which case you'll now need to 'tick' that constrain proportions box and enter a higher pixel number and then select 'Bicubic smoother' from the drop-down box at the bottom.

That should be enough for now! I'm sure everyone else will have their own tips and ideas for you to try out

[Susan Green]

There in no "undo", but there is a "reset" (hold "alt" key and arrow on "cancel" buttton changes it into "reset" button and click) which returns to starting version of the image. Or just open it and everything offered there you can do straight in Photoshop itself. Good luck.

Susan

[Gidders]

To understand raw processing I can strongly recommend Real World Camera Raw

and for PS either Martin Evening or Scott Kelby

[yelvertoft]

Originally Posted by Gidders

and for PS either Martin Evening or Scott Kelby

I found the Martin Evening tome very hard going and switched to the Scott Kelby book. Once I'd got the hang of things I quickly found Scott Kelby to be very limiting - he tells you (exactly) what to do for some very specific situations, but not why you are doing it. That's fine if what he's describing is exactly what you want to do.

I then went back to the Martin Evening book. Heavy, heavy going, but in the end, it's worth it. You really do learn a lot from the book.