Transferring Adjustment Layers

In Chapter 10, I describe how an adjustment layer keeps changes separate from the original image. In addition to making it easy to edit or remove changes from an image, an adjustment layer gives you another advantage over a traditional dialog box: You can easily move the adjustment layer to another image. If you made a correction that should work well on other images you have, all you have to do is drag that adjustment layer to the other document window (Figure 11.1). The layer becomes part of the other document, and the adjustment layer's changes apply instantly.

Figure 11.1. Both images are originally color images, but I added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to the first image to give it a sepia tone by enabling the Colorize checkbox. To apply the same tone to the second image, I dragged the first image's adjustment layer from the Layers palette to the second image's document window.

Even when two images look identical, double-check the results after you copy one adjustment layer to another. Slight differences between the original images may require a minor change to the settings in the adjustment layer.

The most direct way to create an adjustment layer is not from the menus, but by clicking the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button in the Layers palette and choosing the type of adjustment you want to add.

Some dialog boxes don't have adjustment layers, but they do contain Save and Load buttons. The Save button exports dialog box settings to a file, and the Load button imports dialog box settings from a file. I talk about these buttons in more detail in "Loading and Saving Settings" in Chapter 4.

What's Raw Format All About?

Shooting digital photos in raw format is increasingly popular for people who want to get the highest possible quality out of their images. Working with raw files is the digital equivalent of processing your own film you get more involved in the technical details of image processing to wring every last bit of quality out of your images.

Although raw files require more disk space than JPEG files, many feel that the increased quality of the data in raw files is worth the larger file size. The size of raw files also becomes less of an issue as the capacity of image storage cards continues to grow and their cost continues to drop.

Because raw files are raw, they must be converted to a format that can be used for final output, such as Photoshop, TIFF, or JPEG. It's similar to how a film negative isn't usable until you make a positive version. Similar to negative film, there's no single right way to interpret raw data you can adjust the conversion so that the converted file is technically and aesthetically the way you want it. Adobe Camera Raw software exists to perform the conversion and provides controls so that you can convert raw files in a way that works best for your output.

It's worth noting that there isn't one raw format. Because "raw" in this context means the data that comes straight off the camera sensor, every camera has its own raw format. Right now, software like Adobe Camera Raw must be updated every time a new camera comes out. The Digital Negative (DNG) format standardizes raw camera data into a universal format so that your software only has to support DNG, instead of having to support every camera out there. DNG is supported by an increasing number of software programs. If you want to convert your raw files to DNG, you can download the free Adobe DNG Converter, available from: www.adobe.com/dng/