Adobe Camera Raw Observations

Noel_Carboni · #1 06-01-2007, 04:12 PM

Just experimenting today with Adobe's newest Camera Raw release (4.1). I happened to compare the results I got with a raw image opened through Camera Raw using my craftiest choice of parameters to the small JPEG extracted the raw file (i.e., produced by the in-camera processing).

It's pretty clear from this image that there are significant advantages to using the raw converter to recover highlights. However, you can see from these images that Adobe takes a pretty different approach to rendering color in those nearly overexposed areas than what is done by the camera. Adobe tends to desaturate to white, while Canon's highlights in this image run toward yellow.

Having witnessed the sunset in person, it seems to me the sunlit portions were more like the Canon version, color-wise, but more like the Camera Raw conversion luminance-wise (i.e., detail in the highlights).

-Noel

Johan_Elzenga · #2 06-01-2007, 04:35 PM

H'm. If I'm not mistaken, the CameraRAW conversion is on the right... May I say that I think that is by far the worst image of the two? I've never seen a sunset where the color goes from red to white, without any yellow. The left one is much better, except that the saturation of the sky is more attractive in the right one, but that should be easy to fix.

Noel_Carboni · #3 06-01-2007, 05:02 PM

My feelings exactly. By the way, jacking the color temperature slider way to the left still didn't make the highlights yellowish.

-Noel

DierkHaasis · #4 06-01-2007, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johan_Elzenga

I've never seen a sunset where the color goes from red to white, without any yellow.

I remember one or two horror movies with almost exactly the same sunset; the greenish water fits, too.

Johan_Elzenga · #5 06-01-2007, 06:32 PM

Almost a year ago, I gave Adobe a sunset RAW image where Apple Aperture was vastly superior to Lightroom. Same issue: no yellow in the sunset in Lightroom. It's disappointing to see that it took them so long, only to achieve nothing. I'll check that same image again in Camera RAW 4.1, but I'm pretty sure I won't like what I'll see...