Ethical / Natural grading and retouching services – Photoshop and Lightroom training – Imaging workflow design and advice
Adobe have today released two updates:
If you have Photoshop CS5 installed then close Bridge, open Photoshop and select the menu item: Help:Updates…
Part of my clientel are a number of garden photographers and as is known amongst this group that Canon cameras (unlike Nikon) tend to make green garden foliage a little too yellow.
Thankfully Adobe have released ACR 4.5 with better support for external camera profiles. If you have Photoshop CS3 and its fully up to date then download this beta profile I have made and put it in one of the following locations:
On Mac OS X:
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles
On Windows 2000 / XP:
C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication SupportAdobeCameraRawCameraProfiles
On Windows Vista:
C:ProgramDataAdobeCameraRawCameraProfiles
The profile gives more accurate garden greens for the UK.
Download the profile here
Once the profile is copied, restart Photoshop and open a raw image taken on a mkII. Select the camera icon on the raw converter tab, then from the NAME dropdown select the profile.
Let me have any comments.
Stephen
Having already described the hard headed business types at Adobe and their desire to be as popular as the convicted monopolist Microsoft with their lousy pricing policy, it would appear that the good guys at Adobe have come to their rescue and put something in Photoshop CS3 that makes the upgrade worthwhile.
Camera raw 4.1 includes some very useful new tools:
Hue/Saturation/luminance tab which allows these adjustments with full access to the raw data. This results in much smoother tones and colours than if you perform the same operations on the image in Photoshop. For people who like to get their colour ‘just so’ this is a real improvement.
Defringe control (in the lens corrections tab) This is a great way to get rid of the colour fringing caused by affordable lenses (cheap ones). Its a one step control that doesn’t need picture-picture tweaking like the chromatic aberration sliders (though I still recommend their use – especially on wide angle shots that show it the most.)
Clarity control, this improves the contrast in the mid tones and can work very well.
All in all I’m finding the images I’m getting from recent raw conversions to be quite a bit better than the conversions in the past. It means less work in Photoshop and that’s got to be a good thing for your sanity and workflow.
The other lesson is that new technology and software algorithms improve over time and that’s a compelling argument never to delete RAW files, even the marginal ones.
If you upgrade to CS3 you will need to download ACR 4. from here:
Im available for telephone/remote desktop and email support for training in the transition to CS3 for existing clients. New clients can email me in the first instance to arrange a workshop or onsite visit.
Stephen
Over at the (very slow) Adobe website there are lots of updates for Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw. To help speed you up I have listed the direct links here:
Camera raw version 3.5 for windows
Photoshop version CS2 9.0.2 update for windows
Camera raw version 3.5 for OSX
Photoshop version CS2 9.0.2 update for OSX
Meanwhile back at the ranch, Phase one; the cheeky little monkeys, have been burning the midnight oil to release 3.7.5 of their C1 software, this supports new cameras (including the Leica M8) and has some other general improvements. You can get it here
Worth keeping up with these updates, download, install and forget.
Version 3.3 of Adobe Camera Raw has been released with support for more cameras (including the Nikon d200). It also features improvments in other areas including display speed and image detail so I would ask everyone to spend the time getting the plug in and installing it.
You can read more about it here (also talks you through the install):