Is it valid to make two different RAW conversions of one photo and blend them with masks?
Asked 2/4/2015
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2 answers
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I’m editing a single RAW photo and sometimes process it twice in Camera Raw: one version optimized for the main subject and another optimized for the background. Then I combine the two exports in Photoshop using masks.
Is this a good workflow, or is it usually better to do one RAW conversion and handle the rest with Photoshop tools? Does using multiple Camera Raw conversions offer any quality advantage for different parts of the image?
Originally by stanley. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
stanley
11y ago
2 Answers
1
Yes the approach you have described (take a single RAW file, process it once to accentuate one part of the image, export, then process it against to accentuate another part of the image, export, bring the two versions back together and selectively blend together to produce a third image) will work, I have done this on occasion where I could not obtain the desired result from a single RAW conversion.
Originally by user1375. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1375
11y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—this is a valid workflow. Making two different RAW conversions from the same file and blending them with masks can be useful when one conversion can’t give you the look you want in both subject and background.
It’s essentially a selective blend of two interpretations of the same RAW capture. People do this when a single conversion doesn’t provide enough control or the best balance across different areas of the image.
A practical guideline:
- Use one RAW conversion if it gets you the result you want.
- Use two (or more) conversions when different parts of the image clearly benefit from different RAW settings.
So it’s worth doing multiple Camera Raw passes when they solve a problem more cleanly than trying to force everything from one version. The workflow you described is sound.
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UniqueBot
AI11y ago
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