+ 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

[dcrebelxt]

I'm using a Canon 350d.

No, haven't used the script because I don't have CS2 or CS3. I'm an Elements and Lightroom user.

While I'm glad to see some hardworking people have come up with a solution for many of us, I argue that it would be awfully nice if there were a way to avoid the shifts in the first place. I know some responsibility first lays on camera manufacturers to more fully document their RAW formats... but lacking that, I'd like to see Adobe be proactive in making progress to rectify this if at all possible.

[John MacLean]

Okay next questions. What display do you have, and how are you calibrating it?

Don't know if you read this, but it may be of interest: http://lightroom-news.com/2007/03/28/camera-calibration-panel-tips/

[dcrebelxt]

I'm using a viewsonic CRT calibrated using spyder2express. Used on both an XP and a Vista machine, as well as on my laptop's screen with XP.

The red-orange shift is seen on calibrated and uncalibrated systems, and also seen in the .jpg when exporting from LR (using srgb color space as the output, and viewing in both color-managed and non-colormanged apps, on both calibrated and uncalibrated systems.)

The shift is not present in Canon's software (likely due to the proprietary data embedded in the RAW?)

A number of other RAW converters do not show this color-shift... but of course, they don't have the tools that I like in ACR, either. :)

[_susa_Mac_]

I went from Photoshop CS to Photoshop CS3 and in this version's Camera Raw program, I am agog that I can no longer cycle through my (50+) separate Presets. I spend a lot of time, often, creating a great adjustment for a photo and find it helpful if I can save all the settings in a Preset should it come in handy later with another photo, if for no other reason but to serve as a better starting point from which I may then tweak. In the past, all I had to do each time I opened a Raw file into ACR was select my first Preset in the list, and then click on my arrow key to move on to the next successive Preset and see one after another as they apply their settings to my photo. It saved a great deal of time. Now, I have to click the flyout menu, select one Preset, and the list disappears after each selection so I have to repeat the steps to see the second Preset, etc. What normally took me 30-40 seconds now takes several minutes. I'd love this function back!! Please!!

[Thomas Knoll]

susa Mac: Any reason you are not using the preset tab?

[_Russell_Proulx_]

I would like a way to save custom crops in ACR.

I have a client who needs event images cropped to 1056px x 594px to use in Intranet presentations displayed on large monitors in their hallways.

I use 10.56 x 5.94 in the custom crop in ACR to do this. But whenever I crop an image to another size (ones that might go in their newsletter) I lose the custom setting and have to re-enter again and again to 10.56 x 5.94.

I typically process a few hundred 'candidates' from their events (2-3 per month) and the image dimensions never change. It would be useful to have a way to add this custom crop value to the choices in the pull-down list?

Thanks

Russell

[_David_Thompson_1]

I would like this to be supported by more local universities. I know it's not a feature request, but it doesn't seem to be so wide spread.

[01af]

Feature request: Please add a navigator window.

Problem: When the preview window is set to a large magnification, like 100 % or higher, then navigating across the image is awkward because the only way to move around in the image is the hand tool---there are no scroll bars as they would use up too much precious real estate on the screen. In particular when trying to find the optimal settings for the chromatic aberration correction, moving quickly from center to left border to right border and then back again at high magnification is important.

Proposed solution: Similar to the Histogram/Info/Navigator panel in Photoshop, there should be another tab behind Camera Raw's histogram display, containing a navigator control (i. e. thumbnail preview window with a red frame indicating the main preview window's visible part of the image). Sharing the real estate with the histogram window, the additional window would not compete with the other controls for screen area and still would be quickly accessible.

-- Olaf

[_Mike_Ornellas_]

We need to have non linear color assignment like ACR in Photoshop.

[JimHess-8IPblY]

Olaf,

Re: improved navigation, I assume you are aware that by pressing and holding the spacebar your cursor changes to the hand tool regardless of what tool is currently selected. I think it makes navigation at any magnification quite simple.

[Peter_DL]

Combining RAW + JPEG
An ACR feature request

The merits of Raw are well documented and have been broadly discussed. Compared to JPGs from in-camera conversion, Raw data can easily bear up to approx. 1-stop more of dynamic range. Raw processing allows to recover these highlights e.g. via the Exposure slider in ACR. Also, Raw features a better correction and ex post adjustment of White-balance via Temperature and Tint controls.
Further, Raw data can be processed and released into a large gamut such as ProPhoto RGB (pRGB), thus preserving a major part of scene-referred color saturation. Many of such saturated colors are already within the reach of todays printer; others may require particular attention to avoid posterization.
Image details and sharpening are another aspect. In-camera sharpening is not known to be particularly advanced and therefore prone to amplify noise or to cause artifacts if overdone.

Now referring to JPGs from in-camera conversion, and in consideration of all limitations including tiny sRGB gamut, we have to admit that their look can be surprisingly good if not even preferred. Speaking for myself only and some experience with Canon gear, impression is that image rendition and color appearance with JPGs have much improved in the course of technological progress Same may apply to other brands.
Many user seem to feel the same and often enough a generic Raw converter such as DPP is preferred to access said look, even at the cost of workflow speed and convenience vs ACR. Its sometimes claimed that any of such look can be mimicked in ACR, however, Id like to disagree with this. Even simple in-camera settings such as Contrast or Saturation are apparently following complex and different definitions than commonly known, and also single hues are shifted away from colorimetric accuracy to whatever camera engineers have identified as pleasing.
Further, it can be assumed that in-camera conversions feature a perceptual gamut compression, so theres less channel clipping with saturated colors compared to a straight Raw -> pRGB (RelCol)> sRGB pathway.

Coming to the point:
Many of todays cameras allow to capture Raw + JPG simultaneously.
ACR since version 4.x (iirc) allows to process Raw or JPG.

Wouldnt it be possible to combine and blend both images at the level of linear-gamma ProPhoto RGB (1.0 pRGB) which ACR was reported to use as an intermediate working space ?

All controls which are applied before or during the conversion Raw -> 1.0 pRGB would still act on this transform only. While the JPG is converted to same 1.0 pRGB at 16 bpc, all controls which are applied after arrival in 1.0 pRGB would act on a blend of both images. This is of course just meant as rough description, hoping that Adobe engineers would get the gist while being much more familiar with ACR mechanics.

Basically Ive tried what I suggest by doing such blends in Photoshop, then going back to ACR again. Results seem to confirm the idea and intention in principle i.e. to enhance JPGs by insertion of Raw data information, or the other way round, to enhance the ACR processing chain by inserting a touch of JPG look as conceived by camera manufacturers.

Finally it should be mentioned that the idea is not really new (see Link and White Paper), but maybe todays RAW + JPEG combo could offer an up to date implementation with ACR.
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/cameras/erit/erit.jhtml

Peter

--

[_N__Name_]

I'd still love a simple levels control, like in Photoshop - with Luminance and RGB histograms that don't change when you move the sliders. Exposure/black point/brightness doesn't cut it at all. The other thing is color - for the moment I'm using DPP because ACR hue shifts EVERYTHING.

[Hudechrome-sd9sPI]

I would like to have the System Tray (Windows) available when RAW is on screen. At the moment, RAW takes over the entire screen, which at first seemed reasonable, as we get the largest image possible, but when I am trying out a suggestion from these pages, I want to be able to go back and forth, Info to RAW.

[John_Cornicello_Photo]

Have you tried taking it out of full-screen mode? Click on the icon next to the Preview checkbox.

[Hudechrome-sd9sPI]

Yep, that works. Thanks!

I still would like to see that tray at full screen. Photoshop shows it. If I don't want it, I can disable it.

[_JohnPurdy_]

Please add additional color profile options for use in ACR. It would be great if ACR could access all the profiles in the system just like photoshop, instead of the 4 that are predefined. I prefer a visually linear tone curve (as opposed to a gamma tone curve) in my working space profile and it would be great if I could use that in ACR instead of converting to it later.

[Yammer]

Please can I have automatic chromatic aberration correction?

I guess that if it can be done by eye it can be done by software too.

[Dinarius]

Unless I'm mistaken, it is not possible to save Retouch Tool selections in Save Settings.

It would be grate if that were possible.

At the moment, when I move between folders of images, I have to copy across an image from a previously edited folder in order to apply the Retouch Tool selections.

Simply being able apply saved settings would be great.

Thanks.

D.

[Dinarius]

In the bottom left hand corner of the Bridge window there is a scroll wheel/% indicator telling you the progress status of whatever it is you are making Bridge do to a folder of images.

No such indicator is present in the Adobe Camera Raw window.

Thus, if you open an entire folder of images in ACR in order to batch apply some change to them, you have to scroll down through the images to see if the little yellow triangle has disappeared from all of them, in order to know that the task is complete. A wee bit annoying.

A progress indicator would be great.

D.

[_Fremdkörper_]

Create the possibility to customize CR workspace for monitor portrait mode(pivot), so the tools can be put in a horizontal colum instead of a space wasting vertical colum now, thats only used for 1/4!
Anyway, it is amazing that such an important modern app. is still working with such an client unfriendly poor amateuristic interface.

[Naughty_Nigel]

I use ACR 4.1.1 extensively for sorting and rating images.

Why are the corresponding *.xmp files not always deleted when I delete the camera raw file?

I now have thousands of these files cluttering up the server.

It would be handy if Adobe could provide a simple utility to find and (optionally) delete orphaned XMP files.

[Naughty_Nigel]

Thinking on.....

I would also like to be able to open Nikon scanner files (NEF) in ACR. I can open them in Windoze preview, but not in Photoshop.

[MadManChan2000]

Nigel ... CR is designed to process camera raw files (hence the name "Camera Raw"). Scanner files, useful as they may be, fall outside the scope of CR.