If you're working with RAW images, then you have an extra set of sharpening and noise-reduction controls at your disposal. Because the Sharpening Fodder image is a RAW file, the Adjustments HUD shows an extra controls group called RAW Fine Tuning. These controls provide an additional set of sliders for tweaking the appearance of your RAW files. Note If you have selected a RAW file and you don't see these sliders, it may be because the selected image has been set to use the Aperture 1.0 RAW converter, rather than the Aperture 1.1 RAW converter. The pop-up menu in the upper right corner of the RAW Fine Tuning controls group indicates which converter is being used. If the RAW Fine Tuning sliders are not appearing, choose 1.1 from the pop-up menu. If you don't see the RAW Fine Tuning controls group at all, it's because you have not selected a RAW file. Aperture will automatically detect the type of camera that was used to shoot the image and will show the camera's name in the Camera field. Apple has profiled all cameras supported by Aperture and created RAW-conversion parameters for each camera. The Settings pop-up menu defaults to Apple, indicating that the Apple-defined RAW-conversion parameters are being used. We'll explore the Boost slider in a later exercise. For now, we're going to focus on the other Fine Tuning sliders, which handle sharpening and noise reduction.
As with all sharpening and noise-reduction tools, you'll usually perform a balancing act with these sliders, as you try to sharpen your image without making the noise more visible. On some RAW images, you'll probably find that you can achieve all of the sharpening and noise reduction that you need with the Fine Tuning sliders. On others, you might need to also apply the normal sharpening and noise-reduction adjustments. Adjusting BoostNow let's look at another adjustment control in the RAW Fine Tuning controls group: Boost. As mentioned earlier, Aperture includes a set of camera profiles for all supported cameras. These profiles give Aperture specific details about each camera's imaging characteristics, and are used to determine what color and contrast adjustments should be automatically applied to the RAW file. The Boost slider lets you control the degree to which this default adjustment is applied to your image. By default, the Boost slider is set at full strength: your image appears with the full level of correction. As you drag the slider to the left, the correction is reduced. The Boost slider is handy for times when you feel your images are a little too contrasty or a little too saturated.
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