A file that and been exposed to the right will have a histogram bordering on, but not overlapping the right hand edge. This means that when the file goes into the RAW converter it may not look the way you want the final output to appear. This is where using the RAW conversion software intelligently comes in.

I will be looking at using Adobe’s Camera RAW software because that is what I am most familiar with. However, I am sure that what I am saying can be applied to other RAW converters.

First of all we need to set the White Balance, if it hasn’t been set in camera. Then we need to adjust the Dynamic Range. This is done with the ‘Exposure’ and ‘Shadows’ sliders. In many cases we want the dynamic range to include a true white and a true black.

Before we go any further let’s look at what these sliders really do:

The Exposure slider fixes the white point for the image. If we have used the Expose to the Right technique correctly (rare in practice) it will need no adjustment to give a true white. In reality you will probably need to make some adjustment. Don’t forget that holding down the ALT key (Windows) while using the exposure slider will show you which areas of the image are blown. Also, using a positive exposure adjustment might make noise more apparent in the image, but if we have used this technique correctly, any positive adjustment will be minimal.

One thing to note at this point. You may have used positive exposure compensation to obtain your image, let’s say +1. If you what to ensure that the highlights are not blown but you still want a true white, you won’t want to set -1 on the Exposure slider in ACR.

The Shadows slider fixes the black point for the image and it can be used in the same way as the Exposure slider with the ALT key to show which areas of the image are blocked up. On most images the Shadows slider will need to be adjusted.

All that remains is to adjust the other sliders - Brightness, Contrast and Saturation - to taste and the conversion process is finished. When these have been adjusted it is as well to check the Exposure and Shadows sliders again with the ALT key (Windows).

Copyright © Greg Wright 2006 - All rights reserved