rawformat

The best ACR technique

Active poster Karneyli at the Digital Photoshop Review forums posted a very detailed account of how to process RAW files in Adobe Camera Raw:

Here is my Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) processing technique in full detail with images for each step. I'm putting this up, because I believe it is the best way to process RAW files in ACR (you'll probably agree with me after seeing it in action).

Steps are outlined pretty clearly, but it does presume some knowledge, for example the step "go to the Curve tab and adjust the Curve" may not be that helpful if you don't know how to do that already.

Process RAW like it's nothing

I'm giving the Rawformat MVP award to Josh Wand, for managing to make it into three out of the past four entries.

On his blog a few days ago, Josh posted about how he set about solving the problem of time. That is, his work requires him to process hundreds of 22-megapixel RAW files, and he found that sooner or later the time spent simply waiting for images to process was adding up.

Being the tech wizard he apparently is, his solution was (I think I'm reading this right) to basically use Xgrid to spread the workload over other computers throughout the network on which his machine is connected.

The method is a bit complicated, and he apparently hasn't actually posted his secret:

If there's enough interest, I'll post the code I use for the applescript droplets and the shell scripts that make it all work...

...But the basics of the method can be found on his blog. In the end, he claims that the system can process "100 22-megapixel Leaf raw files in under 6 minutes (with 4 agents in the grid)!"

Universal applications (followup)

Josh Wand, who knows a lot more about coding than I do, answered my previous question as to why Adobe can't just pop their Windows version of Photoshop over to Intel Macs:

Architecturally, trying to translate between MFC and Carbon is like trying to genetically engineer an apple to taste like a coconut.

To say nothing of SSE vs Altivec?

Plus they have to move their whole project management, toolchain, and build systems from CodeWarrior to XCode, which, for a multi-hundred-thousand (million?) line monstrosity that is 9 versions worth of evolution of photoshop, is no piece of cake.

Of course, I don't know what MFC, Carbon, SSE, or Altivec are either--but the bit about moving zillions of lines of code to a different...dialect?...of code makes sense.

Regardless, I hope Adobe gets an Intel-Mac-workable edition of Photoshop out the door without waiting too long. Since Photoshop is kind of a "killer ap" for Macs in many cases, it will probably affect apple sales as well.

dcRAW for OS X?

I've been aware of dcRAW (dc for Dave Coffin I assume) as a RAW file decoding tool for linux for some time, but I just ran across a reference today for dcRAW-X, which is the same tool made available for Mac OS-X.

I don't use a Mac, so I don't know how well it works, but the dcRAW utility seems to be popular as a whole, so this can't be a bad thing.

Universal applications

It occurred to me that an additional sillyness to Adobe's refusal to make Photoshop a universal app before their next major release is that Photoshop already has a Windows build.

I don't know enough about programming to say anything with much assurance, but I feel like the new intel processors wouldn't need anything too different from what's already in their current Windows version of Photoshop.

Why don't they just port that?

Lightroom beta 2 released

Adobe has released Lightroom beta 2 for the general public to play with.  The official site can be found here, and it includes  overview videos if you're new to the program or the concept.

According to the Photoshop Blog, the readme lists the following new features in beta 2:

• Lightroom now supports cropping and straightening of photos
• Ability to add music to slideshows
• Now available as a Universal Binary for compatibility with Intelbased Apple hardware
• Page Setup information is now saved with templates, including page size, orientation, and target printer
• White balance support for the Nikon D2X, D2Hs and D50 cameras
• Ability to create hierarchical keyword sets
• XMP Import and Export capabilities (consult Known Issues list for details)
• Edit in Photoshop enhancements for layered TIFF files
• Improved metadata handling

They also noted that although Lightroom is restricted to Mac only right now, a Windows version will later be available.

Encrypted: RAW

I was reading over some of the older (well, 2005) essays on RAW formatting, encryption, and the quest towards unlocking RAW files for ease of use going forward, and in a way it's depressing to see how little progress towards an open or universal format has been made.

The way I see it, there's really a very simple breakdown in the discussion (and yes, there are those who think that fighting for unencrypted or standard formats is a waste of time):  either one feels that there will always be at least one small utility to decrypt any given file, or one believes that certain filetypes will become hopelessly lost.

On the surface, of course, the issue seems silly to begin with - camera manufacturers don't have any obvious reasons besides greed to protect their file formats. However, I ran across a comment in Engadget that suggests a valid-sounding reason, although admittedly I don't know enough about electronics to say whether or not this is nonsense:

Actually, the reason that you see a lot of camera manufacturers keeping access to the RAW data encrypted has to do with hardware and not software. RAW data off of a CMOS chip tells you a lot about how the chip works, and if you've made some novel discoveries regarding imaging and sensors you might want to protect that. You might also want to sell your product and not wait for a patent. So hence encryption; although you might argue that this will have little or no effect on people trying to reverse engineer your CMOS, every little bit helps.

Which, although it doesn't make me happy as a consumer, at least makes sense from a technology business standpoint.

But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't worry about the increasing diversity and difficulty in tracking and converting RAW formats. I'm fairly confident that there are conversion apps out there for every kind of RAW file, but these 3rd-party tools are not often easy to find, install, or use.

So the real solution, it seems to me, is not necessarily to create a single file format (since that would encroach on the camera-maker's ability to code and protect their digital R&D - although anyone who is willing to adopt a standard format should probably do so), but to make sure that the major RAW converter applications keep a live (and legal) working database of RAW file encryptions.

If a RAW standard is not going to happen, which somehow seems increasingly unlikely to me, then it becomes important to allow single, major applications to unencrypt and convert as many RAW formats as possible. Otherwise, some formats could and probably will get lost.

More photoshop publications

Really this is all Photoshop and not really ACR, but the Photoshop Blog posted a few free samples from the new book "Hacking Photoshop CS2."

• Creating and Saving Selection Masks
• Editing and Modyfing Selection Masks
• Selection Mask Quick Hacks

Head on over if those look interesting.

Adobe White Papers

I may have pointed to something like this before, but I didn't know that Adobe actually kept a directory of "white papers and primers" available online in .pdf format.

Adobe:

From the Digital Negative (DNG) specification to industry-leading Adobe® Photoshop® CS software, Adobe offers essential tools for digital imaging. Explore these papers and primers — written by some of the biggest names in the industry — to learn more about the new world of digital photography.

The directiory can be found here, and it includes a whole series on RAW workflow by Jeff Shewe, an export who also did a good video piece called "From Raw to Ready: Managing and Preparing Digital Captures" on the Avondale's "Secrets of the Photoshop Masters 2 DVD."

Oh, Adobe

According to a recent announcement from Adobe, they're planning to give major ground to their competitors over the next 14 months just for fun.

No really, they're not making Photoshop universal.

MacNN reports:

Adobe today said it would not deliver native Intel versions of currently shipping professional products and that customers would have to wait until future major releases--which could be more than one year away--for native Intel Mac support. While noting an upcoming release of a native Intel Mac beta of Lightroom, its newly introduced professional applications for photographers, Adobe refused to provide additional release dates on the native Intel versions of its applications.

In other words, people who work with Photoshop on the newer Intel based Macs will have to run it under Apple's Rosetta emulation system. However, we're reminded that:

During his keynote at Macworld Expo San Francisco, Jobs showed Photoshop running smoothly under Apple's emulation environment called Rosetta, but noted while Photoshop was usable for a few tasks, the performance would not be adequate for professionals.

So, essentially, Adobe isn't going to address the performance issues looking forward with the new generation of Macs for what is likely to be at least a year. While this might make sense for a company caught by surprise with the move to Intel chips, Adobe has had plenty of fair warning and developer tools to get working on such an important transition.

Those who should know at the OSx86 Project are also very critical of Adobe.