rawformat

Bruce Fraser on Camera Raw 2.2

Again from Imaging Revue (subscription) Bruce Fraser had responded to inquiries about what specifically was new and improved:

"In addition to new camera support, ACR 2.2 has numerous tweaks for specific cameras that showed problems with 2.1, but there are also two big global differences that apply to all cameras.

1.) Extreme contrast and brightness tweaks no longer induce clipping. With ACR 2.1, it was possible to adjust Exposure or Shadows just shy of clipping, then induce clipping with Brightness or Contrast. Thomas limited the slope on the Brightness and Contrast curves for 2.2 so that that won't happen anymore.

So now, Exposure and Shadows are true clipping controls (saturation will also induce clipping if you push it far enough, but only in a single channel), and Brightness and Contrast won't clip.

2.) Massive improvements to the extended highlight recovery logic. The Exposure slider travel is now -4 to +4. Most cameras won't let you recover 4 stops, but the Canons seem to let you recover up to around 2 stops pretty reliably.

There are a ton of camera-specific tweaks (too many vendors still bury the white balance tag in a private field, necessitating guesswork, for example) but those two apply across the board." --------------------------------------------------
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Camera Raw 2.2 Released

Andrew Rodney just forwarded me this info from a thread at the excellent Imaging Revue (subscription) community and content site. We HIGHLY recommend to all serious digital photo pros we know that they subscribe.

Mac version of 2.2 here, PC version here.

The following new cameras are now supported:
Canon: PowerShot Pro1, EOS-1D MARK II
Kodak: DCS Pro 14nx, DCS Pro SLR/n
Konica Minolta: DiMAGE A2
Nikon: D70, Coolpix 8700
Olympus: C-8080 Wide Zoom
Sigma: SD9, SD10

"Dr. Brown's Image Processor"

i3 Forum attendee, and Photoshop guru Russell Brown has posted "Dr. Brown's Image Processor"-- a very handy JavaScript utility that allows Photoshop Camera Raw operations to be batched onto a folder of images (or a set of images in the File Browser.) Many other automated operations are possible also, like performing color space changes to multiple JPEGs in one operation.

The quicktime tutorial he has created is not only an excellent overview of his utility, but also includes a plethora of handy tips and techniques for using the File Browser and Camera Raw as well.

Batch operations in Camera Raw 2

Running batch operations in Camera Raw is now easy. This article describes the process to automatically run a set of edits made on one image on an entire group of files.

Review of Camera Raw 2.1

Luminous Landscape has a review of Camera Raw 2.1 here. They discuss why and how to upgrade, along with an interesting discussion of how 2.1 can be used to assist in camera calibration. Apparently the Calibrate tab contains features previously available in expensive dedicated utilities. Some good coverage of the (few) advantages that RAW software from camera manufacturers provides over Photoshop's Camera Raw. Still, workflow considerations give Adobe's software the overall edge.

Mailing list for Canon's RAW (CRW) format

There is a mailing list for the discussion of and exchange of information about the Canon proprietary RAW format (CRW). Other formats, Canon and otherwise, also get an occasional airing.

Schewe primer on Camera Raw

Chicago photographer Jeff Schewe was one of the principals behind the creation of Adobe's Camera Raw, and remains an influential force driving its progress. Although slightly out of date (it focuses on Photoshop 7), this PEI article PDF is an excellent overview of the history of Camera Raw, why you should use it, and how to navigate its core feature set.

Comparison of RAW converters

Compares the Capture One DSLR 1.2, BreezeBrowser 2.7, Canon's File Viewer Utility and Adobe's Camera Raw Applications for Photoshop 7, and CS

Interesting online discussion

Regarding the creation of a RAW standard between several of the attendees at i3, including a brief comment from Thomas Knoll, author of the Photoshop RAW import feature.

Great Online RAW Tutorial

The companion site to Katrin Eismann's and Sean Duggan's excellent Real World Digital Photography has posted one of the best online step-by-step guides for processing a RAW image in Photoshop CS.