Title: Camera Raw 101

Author: Jon Canfield

ISBN: 0817432299

Publisher: Amphoto

Edition: Paperback

www.amphotobooks.com



While the quality and flexibility Raw provides over shooting in JPEG is undeniable, understanding how to get the best from a Raw file in Raw conversion software can seem a daunting proposition.



Camera Raw 101 aims to dispel complexity of Raw conversion, and show you how to get the best from your images.



Focusing on Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) – the software supplied with Photoshop and Elements – the book runs through the various tabs and sliders, and how they affect the image. The trouble is that many of the tutorials use vastly outdated versions of the software. ACR has evolved quite a bit over the years, with new controls and terminologies appearing with each version. It can make for a confusing read if you’re using a version brought in the last three to four years, with controls either not referred to or older terminologies explained that no longer feature in current versions. The waters are muddied even further with screengrabs from newer versions used alongside older examples.  



The Adjustment Brush, first seen in CS4, and an incredibly powerful tool for the Raw shooter, is hardly mentioned, while both the Split-toning and HSL/Grayscale tabs (great for quality mono conversion) are ignored.



There’s some useful information in there, but it needs to be updated significantly to be worthwhile for most readers