The Photoshop Darkroom 2: Notes for Sample Files

As I note on page 205 of The Photoshop Darkroom 2, I’d prefer that you try the techniques that I explain on your own photos. However, I know that some folks like to follow the steps shown using the exact images in a case study.

If you are one of these people, I have made low resolution versions of my images used in step-by-step case studies and examples available for download.

1. Legal stuff. These low resolution image files are watermarked and are licensed to you solely for your use in conjunction with learning the techniques I explain in The Photoshop Darkroom 2. I maintain full copyright in these images and you are not authorized to use them for any other purpose whatsoever.

2. Organization. When you download and unpack the archive of low resolution image files, to help you find the image you need each file or folder name references the page(s) in The Photoshop Darkroom that provides the case study using the image in question. (When multiple files are used in an example, they have been placed in a folder that refers to the page range of the example.)

3. File Types. There are two kinds of files included in the download archive: PSD files and TIF files. TIF files are saved with the same settings as the original RAW files “As Shot.” You can open these files in Adobe Lightroom (just open them in Lighroom) or Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) and work with them just as you would the original RAW files. See Working with TIF Files in ACR below for more details.

The PSD (Photoshop) files in the archive represent examples and case studies where the RAW conversion has already taken place. Just open these files normally in Photoshop. For example, the three files used in the marble composite example shone on pages 136-145 are saved as a low resolution PSD files. I’ve already done the conversion to PSD for you, since the point of this case study is compositing images that have already been processed in Photoshop.

Working with TIF Files in ACR

TIF files have been saved with the same settings and characteristics as the original RAW files set to “As Shot.” You can use these files to practice RAW conversion, multi-RAW processing and hand HDR.

To open one of these files in Adobe Camera RAW (ACR), load them in Adobe Bridge. Then choose File > Open in Camera RAW.

In Photoshop CS5 and ACR 6 you can open TIF files in ACR without going through Bridge. To do this, check the Automatically open all supported TIFFs option in ACR preferences as shown in the figure below. If you have a version of Photoshop prior to CS4, you should open these TIF files as RAW files using Adobe Bridge (they won’t open independently).

To open the Camera Raw Preferences dialog, click the third button from the right in the main ACR window.

Note that the ACR controls for the TIF files opened in this way will not show the same scale as a RAW file opened for the first time (and therefore may not exactly match screen captures shown in the book). While the numerical values shown in the sliders differ, the impact of moving each slider to the left or to the right is exactly the same as if the file had been RAW.