Imagine a portrait that should not only look good, but also look like a movie poster, with strong colors, hard contrasts, and a graphic feel. This is exactly the goal of the raw development in this tutorial. You will learn how to turn an unedited shot in Camera Raw into a color-rich image in the style of the series Riverdale, slider by slider.
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Key Takeaways
Work with a duplicate as a Smart Object. The original file remains untouched, and you can retrace your development at any time.
Vibrance is your tool for color, not Saturation. Vibrance mainly boosts weak colors and looks more natural in the process. Saturation raises all colors evenly and can quickly look unattractive.
Highlights and Shadows determine the graphic look. If you lower the highlights and selectively brighten the shadows, the character of the image changes dramatically.
The HSL sliders are the key to strong colors. With Hue, Saturation, and Luminance, you can shift individual color ranges in a targeted way, which is what really defines the look.
Step 1: Preparing in the Duplicate
Before you start editing, open the raw file in Photoshop and leave it unchanged at first. This is important because it lets you see how the camera originally recorded the image. Then you create a duplicate that you develop in Camera Raw. The original layer is kept as a reference.
To do this, right-click the layer and choose "New Smart Object via Copy". Name the new layer, for example "RAW developed", so that you can immediately tell later which layer contains what.
Step 2: Opening Camera Raw
To edit the Smart Object in Camera Raw, simply double-click the Smart Object icon in the Layers panel. Camera Raw then opens directly with your duplicate. It is best to work through the sliders from top to bottom. That way you see how each change affects the following values, and you don't lose track.
Balancing Color Temperature and Tint
Start with the color temperature. First drag the slider to the left and watch how the image becomes bluer. For this image, a middle ground makes sense, around 4200 to 4300 Kelvin. Then set the tint to about plus 6. The value initially looks magenta-heavy, but fits the mood of the image well. Pay attention to the skin tones. They should not look greenish or unnatural, but retain a warm, strong tone.
Adjusting Exposure and Contrast
The image was already well exposed, so a subtle adjustment is enough. Increase the exposure only minimally, by about 0.15. You leave the Contrast slider untouched at this stage, since you will control the graphic look later via highlights and shadows.
Highlights and Shadows for the Graphic Effect
This is where the character of the image is decided. Drag the highlights to the left until the image becomes noticeably more graphic. For this image you end up at around minus 80. The area around the figure becomes very dark, which is intended for the poster effect. The shadows, on the other hand, you raise subtly, to a value between 30 and 40. This preserves detail in the shadows without making the image look muddy.
Fine-Tuning Whites and Blacks
To regain brightness information in the face, drag the Whites slider to the right, to about 13. With the Blacks slider, you go in the opposite direction and reduce the value slightly. Keep an eye on the face, because that is where it is decided whether the detail remains pleasing.
Enhancing Clarity and Contrast
The Clarity slider enhances edges and micro-contrast. The image may look flat at first afterwards, but when you raise the clarity, the contrasts also increase significantly. A value of about 10 is enough for this subject. If you go higher, the effect quickly becomes too harsh. Therefore, keep comparing with the before state.
Step 3: Vibrance Instead of Saturation
The most important step for the colorful look is balancing vibrance and saturation. The difference is crucial: Vibrance specifically boosts the weak colors in the image and largely leaves the already strong tones alone. Saturation, on the other hand, raises all colors evenly, and this quickly creates unnatural transitions.
For comparison, you can drag both sliders to 100 once. Both images then gain extreme amounts of color, just in very different ways. As a rule, you only work subtly with vibrance, with values around 10 or 15. With this subject, however, there is a lot of color information in the image that you want to bring out. That's why you push the vibrance strongly to about 60.
Use the before-and-after view at the bottom of the window to check how much color information you have gained. Look specifically at the blue in the face or the magenta in the leather skirt. The comparison shows whether the adjustment was worthwhile.
Step 4: Tone Curve for Brightness
The tone curve is excellent for quick corrections in the brightness range. In this subject, the highlights have been somewhat lost, so you bring them back. Pay attention to the face and raise the highlights by about 40. Then check the lighter tones again. If the image looks too dark overall, you adjust the brightness once more and at the same time slightly reduce the shadows.
Step 5: Sharpening with Moderation
For fine sharpness, set the radius to about 0.5 and increase the amount to around 60. The sharpening thus remains subtle and emphasizes mainly fine structures without amplifying noise.
Step 6: Shaping the Colors in HSL Mode
In HSL mode, you control hue, saturation, and luminance for individual color ranges. The luminance section is especially interesting. Feel free to experiment extensively here, because sometimes surprisingly good colors emerge that you wouldn't have expected.
Luminance of the Individual Colors
Start with red. In this subject, the face contains a lot of red, which you can correct by lightening it slightly by about 15. Orange represents the skin tones and may also become lighter so that the face looks well lit. With the blue tones, it turns out that darkening them in the face looks terrible. In the background, on the other hand, you can brighten blue strongly, by about 50, to bring more light into the image. You push the purple tones up similarly, but a bit more restrained, to about 45, so that the image doesn't tip into the unnatural.
Saturation for a Crisp Result
Since the subject contains a lot of red, you boost it to about 25 so that it glows more intensely. You already tackled blue and purple earlier, so you increase the saturation here as well. Blue may look clearly vivid, and so may purple. You raise magenta to about 50. Make sure the result doesn't become garish but stays controlled.
Hue as the Final Fine-Tuning
Finally, you adjust the hue of the magenta and purple tones. Shift magenta slightly toward red so that the image looks warmer and more vivid. You can shift the purple tones slightly toward blue. With blue, proceed carefully, because it quickly becomes too dark. You'd rather achieve a cyan blue that looks fresher and more luminous.
Step 7: Check the result in comparison
Once you are satisfied with all the sliders, confirm with OK. You will then land back in Photoshop, where you can compare the results directly. The bottom layer shows the original Raw file as it came out of the camera, and the top layer shows the developed version. This comparison in particular makes clear the overall effect the individual steps have.
Summary ??? Developing colorful movie poster looks in Camera Raw
You have seen how to work with a Smart Object duplicate and move step by step through Camera Raw. Temperature and tint set the basic mood. Highlights and shadows shape the graphic look, and clarity provides contrast. Vibrance makes the colors glow, while the HSL sliders adjust each color range specifically. If you follow this order and use each slider with a good eye, you will achieve a bold poster look that still remains harmonious.
FAQ
Why should I create a duplicate as a Smart Object?The original file remains unchanged, and you can trace at any time which development steps you have taken.
What is the difference between vibrance and saturation?Vibrance mainly boosts the weak colors in the image, while saturation raises all colors evenly and quickly looks unnatural as a result.
Why should I lower the highlights for this look?Lowering the highlights creates a graphic character, because light and dark areas are separated more clearly from each other.
Can I change the luminance in HSL mode without worry?You can experiment with luminance, but you should be careful with skin tones, because darkening in the face quickly looks unattractive.
How much sharpening is suitable for this subject?A radius of about 0.5 with an amount of around 60 creates fine sharpness without overdoing the image.
