PS CS2 raw converter

[tommykjensen]

Just got CS2 yesterday am working through my Florida photos and noticed something peculiar about the converter.

The converter is in CS2 now much more flexiable and one of the new things are auto adjustment of exposure, shadow, brightness and contrast.

In the following example I noticed that when selecting auto on exposure the exposure is changed from default value 0 (zero) to -1. Then when I select auto on brightness this is changed from default value 50 to 83. Now isn't that strange? Exposure down, brightness up?

Here are 2 screenshots to illustrate this. (Yes I met Miss Monroe :D )

http://photo.klein-jensen.dk/public/pscs2raw1.jpg

http://photo.klein-jensen.dk/public/pscs2raw2.jpg

[robekert]

I have found that it is better to have all of the settings on auto and then tweak what you want to from there. The Auto setting get you into the ballpark with the image and the tweaking gets you to your chosen seat in the ballpark. I think CS2 is an outstanding update.
Rob

[J Rabin]

Tommy.
Not surprising at all. In fact, a common recommended use of PSCS ACR in Bruce Fraser's Real World Adobe Camera Raw book. Peachpit Press. The PSCS ACR Bible.
What you're doing is reducing Exposure to restore slightly over exposed lost highlight detail in one or two channels that have 255 value pixels, then rebalancing image by using Brightness ONLY on the midtones (where Brightness acts).

It's just like using curves, only better, because you're actually restoring blown highlight detail. ACR has the power of restoring lost highlight detail AND getting good midtones without any contrast masks, combining exposures, etc!

I end up doing this MANUALLY in PSCS (don't have CS2) on about 30% of all my high contrast outdoor candids. Having ability AUTOMATED in CS2 is enough to make me upgrade now. Wow. I imagine they consulted Bruce Fraser or vice versa on this "feature."

BTW, I see your FL images are ideal candidates. Outdoor, excessive high contrast, with one or two channels having over exposed lost highlight detail. Just as documented in Fraser's book!
Thanks for sharing this. I use it so much I'm ready to upgrade for automating it.
J

[tommykjensen]

Thanks for the information J :-)