Camera RAW 101: Better Photos with Photoshop, Elements, and Lightroom [Amazon] by Jon Canfield

Hot off the presses this book came out today!

In Camera RAW 101, digital photography and software expert Jon Canfield explains everything you need to know to make the most of RAW captures using the newest versions of Photoshop, Elements, and Lightroom. You’ll find out how to get the most detail from your RAW files-whether it’s correcting shadows and highlights, fixing white balance, or getting rid of noise. You’ll learn how to convert RAW images using both basic and advanced techniques, as well as how to download and organize the images, and put the finishing touches on them after conversion.

Special thanks to Amphoto Books and Watson-Guptill Publications for providing an advanced copy of this book for review.

About the Author

A consultant for Canon, HP, and Pantone, Jon Canfield helped develop digital imaging software for Microsoft. He is the author of Photo Finish: The Digital Photographer’s Guide to Printing, Showing, and Selling Images [Amazon], Print Like a Pro: A Digital Photographer’s Guide [Amazon], and The Digital SLR Guide: Beyond Point-and-Shoot Digital Photography [Amazon]. He writes the “Output Options” column for Shutterbug Magazine, is a frequent contributor to PC Photo, Outdoor Photographer, and Digital Photo Pro, and teaches classes on Photoshop, Elements, and Camera Raw at the Perfect Picture School of Photography.

Concept

The aim of this book on RAW capture and post processing is to take you from A to Z in using RAW capture in your digital camera. The challenge in writing a book on such a technical subject matter often lies in creatively and expertly using “plain English” to help the budding amateur photographer grasp the concepts in the book.

In those elements I believe that Jon does a relatively good job.

Illustrations

Our author uses numerous screen-grabs as well as before-and-after images to help illustrate the instructions and descriptions throughout the book. This is pretty much a given in a photographic post processing or work-flow book. The images used as samples are good but that’s not really the emphasis so that aspect should pretty much be ignored. The author needs to use photographs that vary in color tone, underexposer, overexposure, etc…

The screen grabs could have used some added graphics like arrows and circles to highlight the changes made and which sliders were used. There were times when I had to spend more time than necessary to discern what was different between the illustrations.

The Best

Jon Canfield does a good job of using plain English mixed with technical terminology throughout the book. Some of the example images used in the book were so technically “off” when shot that you’re actually a little amazed by the final results. That being said, Jon does make note that shooting in RAW affords added flexibility and is not a license to shoot badly and fix later. I like those sort of side-notes.

Conclusion

The simple truth is that there are many photographers out there with the capability to shoot RAW but are still shooting JPEG. It’s mostly because of the fear that shooting in RAW format will increase their already hectic workflow. Then there’s the photographers that just don’t really get how much of a difference in flexibility and capability that shooting in RAW can have on the outcome of a digital photograph. If you fall into either of these camps then this book may be just the ticket you need to getting the most out of your images.

No, it’s not for everyone. You’re really not going to learn much if you already have a solid RAW work-flow, although there were a couple tricks and tips I did pick up that I either didn’t know or had forgotten about.

This isn’t about how experienced you are as a photographer either, it’s about how knowledgeable you are about your work-flow. That’s what’s important. The better and faster you are at getting your images from your camera to final output the more time you’ll spend behind the lens instead of in front of a computer monitor.

While you can get much of this information around the Internet I’ve always found it much handier to have a book that will take you step by step and to have access to as a reference when it comes to software.

I think our author does a fine job of explaining and showing the capabilities found in Adobe Elements, Photoshop, and Lightroom as RAW work-flow software programs. A pretty good book to get if you aren’t already shooting in RAW.

I give it a 3 1/2 out of 5.