Photoshop free tutorial - Adobe Camera RAW - using the HSL/Grayscale tab

Adobe Camera RAW - using the HSL/Grayscale Tab - Page 3
By Dan Moughamian, © 2008

Web Reproduction Rights Granted to geofflawrence.com

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Convert to Grayscale

The Convert to Grayscale button allows you to create Black & White images from color image files, tweak their appearance using the same HSL-style slider concept, and then open them in Photoshop as 8 or 16-bit Grayscale images. That is, they will open in Grayscale color mode, not RGB color mode.

(This will work fine if you wish to save and print your files in grayscale immediately after editing in ACR, or if you are providing them to a publication or print service which prefers Grayscale photos.)

When you click the Convert to Grayscale button, the H, S and L tabs disappear temporarily and are replaced by a single set of sliders and two additional 'hot link' style buttons.

The Auto button will allow ACR to take its 'best guess' at what this image should look like in B&W, while the Default button again resets all of your Grayscale slider values back to zero. Below you see the same image, with Grayscale slider values that I applied to create contrast between the land, clouds and sea.

Saving & Loading ACR Settings

To round up this discussion, we'll talk about saving your work in terms ACR can understand. One of the most useful capabilities of ACR is the ability to save entire sets of slider corrections (across all panels), and re-use them later on images that have similar characteristics. This can be a significant time-saver!

To save our current ACR settings, we click on the the fly-out menu at the right edge of the Panel “title bar”, and then choose “Save Settings”, following the usual system dialogs from there. “Load Settings” works in a similar manner....

In future tutorials we will discuss more advanced concepts within Adobe Camera Raw such as determining the best bit depth and color space for your Raw output files, as well as items like Lens Corrections and Camera Calibration. We also welcome your requests, so if you'd like to see a particular advanced Photoshop topic in an upcoming article, stop by the forums and let us know!

Written & Submitted by Dan Moughamian

Dan Moughamian is a professional photographer, instructor and the co-author of Real World Compositing with Adobe Photoshop CS4(Peachpit, Adobe Press). You can read more about his work at Colortrails.com.

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Photoshop Tutorial	Description	Level
Size	Scaling your files.
Contrast	Balancing those pixels.
Colour	Dealing with colour casts.
Levels	A short video showing how to use the levels adjustment to control contrast.
Processing RAW Files	An introduction to Adobe Camera Raw.
Processing RAW Files using HSL	Advanced use of ACR.
Sharpening	Using the unsharp mask.
Using the Quick Mask	Masking parts of your picture to edit certain areas.
Adjustment Layer Masks	How to build accurate layer masks.
Straightening Horizons	A must for landscape and building photographers.
Replacing Boring Skies	Using layers in Photoshop.
Videos on Compositing	Video tutorials on using layers.
Using the Channel Mixer	How to make a better job of changing images from colour to black & white.
Using Curves on Adjustment Layers	laying with contrast and tones to give a more dramatic effect.
High Dynamic Range	How to shoot and process HDR pictures with Photomatix Pro software.

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