Step 1: Open Your Image in Camera Raw Using Adobe Bridge.

1. *If you are editing a JPEG, duplicate the background, go to Filter, Camera Raw Filter and continue from there.

2. Using the White Balance tool, look for a grey area in the photo (read tip) and click.

Tip: Look at the RGB values beneath your histogram, ensure that they are all within 10 digits of each other.

This automatically corrects the overall tone of the photo.

3. Open the Tone Curve bar and select the Point tab, slightly drag the curve in desired directions (be very light

handed with this step, a little goes a long way).

For this image: Input = 192 and my Output = 207.

4. Open the Detail bar and add Luminance, valued 8-15, depending on the amount of noise in your photo. This also

softens the portrait.

5. Next, open the Lens Correction bar and navigate to the Profile tab. Enable lens profile correction. Open the

Color tab and click Remove Chromatic Aberration.

6. Now, open the Effects tab and Dehaze the image if the overall brightness and/or haziness is too much. (If you

have not upgraded to CamRaw 9 you can skip this step).

Step 2: Straighten

7. Now find the Straighten tool in your main toolbox. Double click it and click on any other tool to apply effect.

8. Navigate to the Spot Removal tool, zoom in on your image and start clearing up any spots, marks, etc. (If the

marching-ant circles distracts you, simply click the “show overlay” block.

9. Open the Graduated Filter tab. Ensure that at least one slider (I use exposure ‘-‘ ) is set to less than, or more

than, 0. Now you can drag the filters from the outsides of the photo, into the subject (hold shift for easy control).

Once you have done this you can adjust each slider separately to reach the desired effect. (Do not worry if this

also effects the subject, we’ll clean that up soon.)

10. Select the filter you want to adjust (clean up subject), and select “Brush”. Now adjust size as needed and clean

up your subject, be careful not to go out of boundaries as it can create a halo-effect on your subject (if you do,

just paint it back again).

Now, simply open the image and keep an eye out for Part 2: Basic Retouching and Enhancing.

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