Reveal detail in Raws

Dan Mold shows you how to squeeze extra detail from your Raw files

- Dan Mold

THE MISSION

Extract extra detail from your Raws

Time needed

15 minutes

Skill level

Intermediate

Kit needed

Photoshop Elements

Raw files are called that because they’re literally the ‘raw’ unprocessed data straight from the camera sensor. They’re much larger than compressed JPEGs, so you have extra wiggle room when editing your photos back at your computer.

However, it’s not easy to have access to the wide range of tones that a single Raw file contains. So I’m going to show you a neat trick that you can do to extract different exposure values from your Raw file and merge them together in Photoshop Elements – revealing a much wider gamut of tones than would usually be possible from the single Raw file. This is handy for creating an HDR style image from a single picture where it’s not possible to set up on a tripod and take a bracket of shots. This stained glass still life scene has loads of tricky highlight and shadow areas and as such is perfect for showing you this nifty ‘split Raw’ technique.