From the course: Photoshop 2024 Essential Training

Applying Camera Raw as a filter - Photoshop Tutorial

From the course: Photoshop 2024 Essential Training

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Applying Camera Raw as a filter

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- [Instructor] As a photographer, I typically have the luxury of working with my own raw files, but many designers aren't always so fortunate. Applying Camera Raw as a smart filter is an ideal way to make changes to a photograph non-destructively when it's not practical to return to the original file and make the changes there. In this image, we're going to use Camera Raw as a filter to give it a little bit softer of a feel. I'll use filter and convert for smart filters, and then I'll choose filter and Camera Raw filter. I want to change the profile, but because this is a JPEG image, I can't apply any of the raw profiles, but I can still apply all of the artistic ones. So I'll choose vintage and apply vintage four. Then I'll return to the main edit stack, and I'm going to increase the whites in order to brighten the image. I'm also going to decrease the blacks just to maintain some contrast. I'll increase the shadow areas, I'll decrease the highlights, and then I'll decrease the exposure just a little. Next, I want to move to masking, and I'm going to choose the linear gradient and drag down over this mountain area. In order to add a bit of haze, I'll use the dehaze slider and I'll move it over to the left to soften that up. Then I'll move the tint slider to the right in order to add a pink tint to that area. Now I can see some jpeg color artifacting in the dunes in the foreground, so I'll add a second linear gradient, and I'm going to click and drag up, and then just reposition that a bit higher in the image area. I'm going to desaturate that entire area to remove that jpeg artifacting, but it's also removed some of the color in the bush. So I'll choose subtract, select a brush, and then just paint over that area to reveal the green. Then to clean up the sand dune right here, I will switch to the healing tool and I'm going to use it in content aware remove mode, and then just paint over that area and Photoshop will fill that in. I'll also remove the tree back here and maybe these small little bushes there in the background. Excellent, when I'm happy with it, I will click OK in order to apply that and because I applied it as a smart filter, I can always go in and double click on the name of the filter and then, make additional changes non-destructively. So as you can see, making a few changes using Camera Raw can really help change the overall mood of the image, and although I prefer to make these kind of changes to the original file when that's not possible, Camera Raw as a filter can be a very powerful tool.

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