+ Camera Raw Feature Requests +

Since this is a Feature Request Thread, here is one: It would be useful if the available adjustments for the Adjustment Brush included a Vibrance slider. Some of the other missing adjustments from the Basic pane would be nice, too, but Vibrance would be most useful to me. Note that I am running ACR 5.3 Beta.

Reed

Actually you can cut out a lot of the requirement for HDR by "painting" in corrections for Exposure/Brightness/Contrast/Color Correction etc,.directly into the image in ACR 5.2 by using the local Adjustment Brush or the Graduated Filter.

VERY nice additions to the program!

I have been investigating Snapshots and Presets within ACR 5.3 Beta. All my NEFs are converted to DNGs prior to processing in ACR, so I don't need to deal with sidecar files. I found that Presets remain within ACR, such that any preset can be applied to ANY subsequently opened DNG. The settings saved in Snapshots remain with that image through subsequent opening and closing of that image. The Snapshot settings can be seen in the XMP data for the file.

Of even greater interest, I discovered that, when in Bridge, I can select an image and either right click on it, scroll down to Develop Settings and the Fly-out shows all the usual options PLUS all the presets that have been applied to ANY image. Similarly, accessing Develop Settings via the Edit menu provides the same functionality.

This allows one to view the images with the various Presets applied, and then by double clicking on the image in Bridge, to open the image in ACR with that set of presets already applied. Of course, once the image is open in ACR, it can be edited in the usual manner.

There seems to be no getting around the fact that to create a pseudo HDR image from a single RAW file, the file needs to be opened and saved twice in PS, once for the highlight Snapshot and once for the shadows Snapshot. The two files would be then processed in an approporiate manner.

Reed

Snapshots are yet another way in which LR and ACR do things differently. They both need to treat/describe/handle/label files in a consistent manner.
If Snapshots were the same as LR versions and vice versa, then that would be cool.
What would make snapshots more functional is if the thumbnail showed that there were versions present and also if you could reload the snapshot, like with layer comps in PS. Or for idication in ACR - have the Snapshot tab have 3 states not the normal two - no snapshots, open [with or without snapshots] and snapshots present.
Going OT here - Layers Comps suffer from the same thing, there is no indication that layer comps are used in a file [when open]. So when returning to a file a while later, unless you look in the LC panel, you have no idea if there are any.

Have you guys looked at Snapshots in ACR? You can save various different sets of developing settings in a single raw file.

Following on from Pixel Trickster's post regarding virtual copies.
Lots of good points in the post and is very similar to what I've been thinking of lately. I find it frustrating in Bridge to duplicate files to do alternate RAW adjustments and even worse I cannot access my virtual copies outside of the LR datasbase. Particularly annoying when LR cannot access upgraded databases and all my versions are now lost!
Seeing as a virtual copy is simply a duplicate set of instructions, there is no reason why that is not in the XMP file along with primary adjustments. This means if imported into anotehr LR catalogue the variations area now there as well. Versions are as important as the original file at times.

Now Bridge being a File Browser and not a database makes showing duplicate files a bit trickier as a File Browser only shows what is actually there. But if ACR were to be integrated properly into Bridge as a panel, which it should have been all along, then maybe whilst in the ACR panel one could then view the alternate versions. Obviously whilst browsing normally you cannot see the versions but if a no. corresponding to the total variations were on the thumbnail, maybe like the develop symbol then that would help you spot files with multiple versions.

Issue 1:

Camera Raw 5.2 provides a workflow option to "Open [Raw Files] in Photoshop as Smart Objects." The resulting default file name includes the phrase, "as Smart Object-1".

Except as discussed below, I always open Raw files as Smart Objects, so the added phrase provides no useful information, but only makes the default file name excessively long. As a result, I waste time deleting the phrase from the name before saving the file.

Suggestion 1: Provide an option to open raw files as Smart Objects while retaining only the original file name as the Photoshop default.

Issue 2:

The "Open Copy" command in Camera Raw 5.2 ignores the workflow option to "Open [Raw Files] in Photoshop as Smart Objects", and does not save any new development settings for the copies.

Whether I'm working on originals or copies, I want the files to open in Photoshop as Smart Objects.

When extending the dynamic range of an image, for example, I want to open files in Camera Raw with the original development settings, then save the modified development data for the copies in separate xmp files.

Suggestion 2: Enable Camera Raw to (a) open copies of raw files in Photoshop as Smart Objects, and (b) simultaneously save copies of the raw files and corresponding xmp files in the same folders that hold the original raw files.

Virtual Copies with Camera Raw:

Lightroom 2 can save virtual copies of a raw image as metadata in the Lightroom 2 database, with each copy having different image settings. Camera Raw should have a similar feature for saving virtual copies of a raw image with different image settings in the Camera Raw database, a DNG file, or one or more XMP files.

Raw files with different image settings have many uses, including extending an images dynamic range, creating a black and white or tinted version, split toning, etc.

Currently, outside of Lightroom 2, the only way to save multiple versions of a raw file or a derivative DNG file is to copy the raw/DNG file with a new name, and then use that new file to create a new version. Those duplicate image files waste a lot of hard drive space and unnecessarily add to the ever-growing digital data overload, when all that is needed to describe the new version is the original raw/DNG file and a relatively small amount of new metadata.

A better alternative would be to have Camera Raw store and apply multiple, named sets of image settings that are tagged to a single raw/DNG file. That could be done in any number of ways, including locating the image settings in folders in the Camera Raw database, in the images DNG file, or in a single XMP file, or in multiple XMP files tagged to a single image.

Any such system should give users the option to name, browse, rename, and modify each set of image settings for the raw/DNG file, to independently open each version of the raw/DNG file in Camera Raw, and to open all versions of the raw/DNG file simultaneously in Camera Raw so they can be processed as a group, as currently can be done for multiple images.

Bridge and Lightroom 2 should treat these Camera Raw virtual copies as independent images, viewable either separately or, at the option of the user, as an image stack.

The possibility of a temporary disabling of all adjustments with shortcut .It would accelerate adjustment brush.

Thank You.