+ Camera Raw Feature Requests +

[Ian Lyons]

UPDATE:

We're interested in what changes you would like see in our products. Do you have an idea for a feature that would help your workflow? Is there a small change that could be made to make your life a little easier? Let us know!  Share an Idea, Ask a Question or Report a Problem and get feedback from the Product Development Team and other passionate users on the Photoshop Family product Feedback Site on Photoshop.com.

In future it would helpful if you could use this thread as a means to add

"Features" that you would like to see in future releases of Adobe Camera Raw.

Please do NOT create additional new Topics and try not to duplicate requests by other users. Also, be thorough in your description of the feature and why you think Adobe should consider it.

Oh, and if you find it necessary to comment on someone's feature request/suggestion, try not to get into a shouting match. The penalty for doing so is...

b If you're asking that a particular camera is supported in a future release or just taking the opportunity to carp that yours isn't then please do so in another thread!

IanLyons

Forum Host

[Jeff Schewe]

Frits Fratsen wrote:

Furthermore I was wondering whether the ACR/Lightroom/PS developers are paying attention to the interesting ZERO noise developments over there on the Luminous Landscape Discussion Forum.

And thank you to Jeff Schewe for the truly amazing Real World Camera Raw book.

Rest assured that the Camera Raw engineers never rest when it comes to image quality...if you've seen the initial Lightroom 3 beta and the substantial improvements on demosiacing and color noise reduction, you can be assured that the Luminance Noise Reduction in ACR 6/LR 3 will be equal to the task...

I know these guys and really, they never rest–Eric Chan (MadManChan here at LuLa) in particular is unrelenting!!!

BTW, thanks for the kind words about Real World Camera Raw...I try to keep Bruce's vision alive.

[silvex]

So will LR ACR6 features be incorporated into ACR6 of CS4 ? We need the rule of thirds grid!

[Jeff Schewe]

Well..ACR 6 and LR 3 will be able to equally process out the same rendering...the usability however is subject to modification (no, I don't think ACR will have "Rule of Thirds").

[silvex]

Any reason why it is not incorporated ? Would it be hard to do so ?

[Jeff Schewe]

Define "hard".

...what isn't obvious with Camera Raw 6 (the "next version) is that really, really substantial work had to go into ACR 6 simply to switch from Carbon to Cocoa APIs on Mac...so while it wouldn't be really "hard" to incorporate a LOT of usability from Lightroom into Camera Raw, the question becomes, what is "mission critical"?

When the next version ships, we'll see...

[silvex]

I used "hard" in the programing sense. Will it require a complete re-write of ACR6 ? will require major changes in CS4/5? Will it impact the budget of the CS4/5 development. So in a different context. Allow me to ask this: Why is the rule of thirds feature exist in LR's ACR and not CS3/4 ACR ?

[Jeff Schewe]

silvex wrote:

Allow me to ask this: Why is the rule of thirds feature exist in LR's ACR and not CS3/4 ACR ?

Because Lightroom is an application and Camera Raw is a plug-in (with certain SDK limitations and issues such as being hosted by an application)

Also to be precise, Camera Raw is NOT inside of Lightroom–the Camera Raw processing pipeline is. And while the processing will match (render version dependent) the usability is different...Lightroom doesn't have a point curve editor and Camera Raw doesn't have cropping overlays.

Just because something is in one doesn't mean there will ever be a 1:1 UI or usability relationship with the other. Just processing...

[Guest]

Hi~

I am curious to know if the new CR plug-in will work w/ smaller, non-professional cameras, particularly the Canon PowerShot IS20X. I had a PS IS3 (6MP) but gave it to my daughter as her's died.

I am considering buying a new 20X, and Camera RAW would be an infinite PLUS! I shot images w/ the other camera in bright daylight where skin tones were blown out beyond belief.

I've asked Canon USA for a verdict on this (I have other larger Canons, but the S20 is magic because it zooms from Macro to the equivalent of 560mm f5.7 on a film camera. It currently lists for $350 at B&H PV NYC) but have not heard back from them in over two months.

Thanks,

AB

[ssprengel]

You can adjust JPGs in Camera RAW, and you can adjust some point-and-shoot RAWs in Camera RAW.

The Camera RAW readme lists all the cameras that ACR supports the RAW format of:

http://www.adobe.com/special/photoshop/camera_raw/Camera_Raw_5.6_ReadMe.pdf

What camera are you thinking of getting? Do you mean a PowerShot SX20IS? From what I read, this camera does not do RAW format and RAWs from a small-sensor point-and-shoot are very, very noisy.

http://dpinterface.com/camera-reviews/canon-powershot-sx20-review/

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_sx20is.asp

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=144&modelid=19208#ModelTechSpecsAct

[Guest]

I read that too...

But the SX20IS has a large CMOS chip, plus 12 MP files, so I'm hoping the larger chip and files will overcome Canon's disconnect when selling the camera without Camera RAW.

They offered it in small P&S cameras 4 years ago. How much could a $5 upgrade cost Canon?

Tks,

AB

[ssprengel]

Maybe you are thinking of a different camera, but the SX20IS has 43 megapixels per square centimeter, the same as the other 12MP pocket-sized PowerShots, so it does not have a large sensor compared to these other point-and-shoots.

The S90 and G11 only have 23 MP/cm2 and I've seen their RAWs in Lightroom and Camera RAW and they are very noisy. A 43MP/cm2 is going to be much worse and the reason Canon doesn't produce RAWs from it. The S90 and G11 do not have long zoom's though.

By comparison, the 18MP T2i DSLR announced 3 weeks ago, with an APS-C-sized sensor has only 5.4MP/cm2 and has a reasonable amount of noise.

The MP/cm2 values are summarized on the DPReview Canon-camera page:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/

[Guest]

Maybe I could shoot a test before I buy one.

I love shots made near twilight, but my Canon D40 is really terrific at those times. I am getting to the point of trying not to carry too much weight on a shoot. I have schlepped tons of equipment through airports, w/ and w/o an assistant, in the Canada and US.

I have a few years to go...

Thanks,

AB

[Tai_Lao]

Jeff Schewe wrote:

…Lightroom doesn't have a point curve editor…

Whoa!  That's an eye opener!   

…and I thought the lack of soft proofing was its most glaring shortcoming. 

[Tai_Lao]

silvex wrote:

So will LR ACR6 features be incorporated into ACR6 of CS4 ?

Not holding my breath.  Following the practice of major releases in the past, presumably ACR 6.x will NOT run on CS4 at all, only in CS5. 

[Jeff Schewe]

Tai Lao wrote:

Not holding my breath.  Following the practice of major releases in the past, presumably ACR 6.x will NOT run on CS4 at all, only in CS5. 

Correct in terms of features and functionality but the odds are real good there WILL be a final Camera Raw 5.x version to incorporate new cameras–and the ability to render–even if you can't control the feature settings, those settings set in Lightroom 3 GM (final GM release).

Recall that Camera Raw 4.6 for Photoshop CS3 actually came out AFTER Camera Raw 5.0 was released for Photoshop CS4 (ACR 4.6 equaled ACR 5.1 if I'm not mistaken)...

[Yammer]

CS3/ACR4 users were fortunate to get the improved Camera Profiles system in its finished state in the final release. This was a great leap forward in colour fidelity, which could have easily been left to version 5, and it's kudos to Adobe that it wasn't.

[Tai_Lao]

Jeff Schewe wrote:

Tai Lao wrote:

Not holding my breath.  Following the practice of major releases in the past, presumably ACR 6.x will NOT run on CS4 at all, only in CS5. 

Correct in terms of features and functionality but the odds are real good there WILL be a final Camera Raw 5.x version to incorporate new cameras–and the ability to render–even if you can't control the feature settings, those settings set in Lightroom 3 GM (final GM release).

Thank you for confirming that, Mr. Schewe.

My question now would be: are you working on yet a new edition of your (and Mr. Fraser's) Camera Raw CSx book?  That must be an exhausting task to undertake every eighteen months. 

[Jeff Schewe]

Tai Lao wrote:

My question now would be: are you working on yet a new edition of your (and Mr. Fraser's) Camera Raw CSx book?  That must be an exhausting task to undertake every eighteen months. 

Yep...and yep...but it's fun to write about all the new stuff (some of which I have a slight impact on).

:~)

[Marco N.]

Sometimes I deal with tiff files in ACR. I will very happy if camera calibration tab reports the name of the ICC profile and not only an "embedded name", even if the image is without ICC profile (probably ACR assign sRGB profile but I have not investigated)

Ciao

Marco

[dan3430]

I am currently using ACR 5.6...

I use the adjustment brush feature A LOT. I'll process nearly 25000 raw images this summer, and use the adjustment brush on a decent amount of them.

It would save me tons of time if I had the ability to have favorite settings, or user settings tabs where I could save several preset setups.

For example... I often lighten eye socket shadows. which is an exposure of +.4 and I like brush size 3. I also am often darkening skys... big brush, -1 exposure + clarity. ... I often add my own version of vigneting with the exposure brush... medium brush -.8 exposure.

If I could have a little tabs or buttons on the adjustment brush screen where I could assign several presets it would save me tons of time moving the little sliders back and forth multiple times for each photo. Also, there should be a reset button that moves all the sliders back to 0.

Also, while I'm at it, I've asked for rule of third markings for the crop tool before (as have others). It's a simple and great idea

I spend more then 750 hours a year in ACR... please make my life easier

[Yammer]

The new process in V6 seems to slow down preview updates, when operating sliders, especially with non-zero luminance. And updates seem to be slower, the more zoomed-out the preview is.

Would it be possible to have another check box to disable preview of PV2010, so as to make slider adjustments smoother and more responsive?

[dan3430]

A blur tool built into ACR would be great!

[MadManChan2000]

A blur tool built into ACR would be great!

There is a blur tool in Camera Raw 6 for CS5. You can use local sharpening with a minus (i.e., negative) value. Set Sharpness to -100 to see what I mean.

Eric

[souki83]

The ability to resize the image to any size in Workflow Options (as opposed to the fixed size we currently have). I know you can achieve this via the crop tool, but I think it'd be more intuitive if it was built-in right into Workflow Options. I'd then be able to perform simple resize+save_as_jpeg+output_sharpening right in Camera Raw without having to rely on Image Processor and PS and Actions. Maybe in ACR 6.2 or 6.3 or 6.4?... I'm patient.

Thanks.

[davescm]

The new lens corrections in ACR6.1 are superb but I would like the ability to turn on a grid when using the manual tab to make perspective corrections (as used in lens corrections in Photoshop).

Dave