The RAW file format is the uncompressed data file captured by a digital camera's electronic sensor. When your camera saves an image in RAW format, settings like white balance, sharpening, contrast and saturation are not applied to the image but are saved instead in a separate header. Because RAW files remain virtually untouched by in-camera processing, they are essentially the digital equivalent to exposed but undeveloped film.
This makes RAW an increasingly popular format with amateur and professional digital photographers, because it affords greater flexibility and control during the editing process-if you know how to work with RAW files.
Most digital camera manufacturers supply their own software for converting RAW data, as do some third party vendors. Increasingly, however, the RAW converter of choice is a plug-in included in the latest version of Adobe Photoshop, the most popular and widely-used digital image editing tool in the world. Adobe Photoshop CS2 is emerging as the best place to edit RAW images, and the best way to master this new format is with Photoshop CS2 RAW.
An important book dedicated to working with RAW in Photoshop, this comprehensive guide features a unique design that helps readers grasp the subject through visual instruction and prompts. The entire RAW process is explored, from shooting to using the Adobe plug-in converter and new Bridge navigation software. The primary focus of Photoshop RAW is, as the title suggests, Photoshop editing technique: automating RAW workflow, correcting exposures, extending exposure range, manipulating grayscale and working with the new DNG (Digital Negative) open standard that Adobe supports.
Presented by photographer Mikkel Aaland, a pioneer of digital photography and author of eight books, including O'Reilly's Photoshop for the Web and the award-winning Shooting Digital, Photoshop CS2 RAW investigates and instructs in an accessible visual style. Required reading for professionals and dedicated photo hobbyists alike.
Mikkel Aaland is a photographer, writer, web producer, and the author of six books, including Sweat (1978), County Fair Portraits (1981), Digital Photography (1992), Still Images in Multimedia (1996), Photoshop for the Web (1998), and The Sword of Heaven (1999). He has contributed both text and/or photography to Wired, Digital Creativity, Pre, American Photo, Newsweek, Graphis, Publish, and MacWeek, as well as several European publications. His photography has been exhibited in major institutions around the world, including the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the former Lenin Museum in Prague. He is the recipient of the National Art Directors award for photography. Aaland is also the co-founder of Tor Productions, a multimedia company founded in 1989 and based in San Francisco, specializing in the use of the still image in new media. He has lectured and taught on that subject at Stanford University, Drexel University, and University of California at Berkeley, as well as at computer graphics conferences around the country.
