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Past Article Calendar

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Lightrom 2.3 and ACR 5.3 final release

Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 and Camera Raw 5.3, available immediately for download at www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/. The Lightroom 2.3 and Camera Raw 5.3 updates, originally posted as release candidates for community testing on Jan. 23, provide raw file support for the newly-released Nikon D3X and Olympus E-30 cameras.

The Lightroom 2.3 update also provides support . . . → Read More: Lightrom 2.3 and ACR 5.3 final release

ACR 5.3 and Lightroom 2.3 pre-release

Support for the Nikon D3X is finally added in release-candidate (better than beta) versions of the two main Adobe raw file conversion utilities. There may also be improvements in A900 and other Sony raw file handling – it is worth acquiring the pre-release version to check this out. The downloads will be available on the . . . → Read More: ACR 5.3 and Lightroom 2.3 pre-release

Adobe ACR 5.2 – for CS4 only

As expected, Adobe has again ‘broken’ the continuity of support for users of earlier versions of their Photoshop CS and Elements programs; the new ACR release to handle the forthcoming EOS 5D Mark II (which Canon tell us is not likely to be on sale in the UK before January) will require an upgrade to . . . → Read More: Adobe ACR 5.2 – for CS4 only

Lightroom 2 tackles all Alpha RAWs

The latest release of Adobe Lightroom, v2, handles all Sony Alpha and earlier KM digital camera raw formats including the Alpha 700, 200, 300 and 350. It is also updated, along with the final release of Adobe Camera Raw 4.5, to handle Nikon D700. Because Canon appears to have left their filetype identical to the . . . → Read More: Lightroom 2 tackles all Alpha RAWs

Faking a polarizer using RAW

Here’s a question which came in to my email just now:

“Could I process a RAW file in Photoshop to achieve a similar effect as if I had used a Polaroid lens filter? Or would I be better just using the Polaroid filter?”

The answer is that you can never imitate the effect of polarizing . . . → Read More: Faking a polarizer using RAW

Adobe Camera Raw 4.4 supports A200, 300, 350

Adobe has released updates to Photoshop Lightroom and the Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in, both available immediately as free upgrades for existing users. The releases provide added raw file support for nine additional digital cameras, including the Sony Alpha 200 (already supported by 4.3.2 whether they knew it or not), Alpha 300 . . . → Read More: Adobe Camera Raw 4.4 supports A200, 300, 350

A700, 6400 ISO, seven raw processors

There’s a lot of controversy right now about whether or not the image structure of the Alpha 700 files at very high ISO – mainly 3200 and 6400 – is as clean as raw processed results from other comparable cameras like the Canon 40D (does not offer ISO 6400), the Olympus E-3 (does not offer . . . → Read More: A700, 6400 ISO, seven raw processors

Apple Aperture 2.0 processes A700 raw

Apple’s Aperture 2.0 is a tedious program to test, with all its creation of ‘projects’ and ‘libraries’, ‘albums’, ‘vaults’ and nonstandard GUI, and it isn’t fast in processing files or passing them to Photoshop (which it does in 16-bit form, just another step to reverse before saving as far as I’m concerned). However, it’s handling . . . → Read More: Apple Aperture 2.0 processes A700 raw

ACR 4.3.1 hasn’t solved A700 high ISO mush problems

After reading Andrea Nivini’s article in Italian Tutti Fotografi, December 2007, which launches an attack on Adobe’s Camera Raw plug-in and its handling of many camera types – but specifically, the Sony Alpha 700 – I decided to check out whether the December 5th release, ACR 4.3.1, fixed the problems.

. . . → Read More: ACR 4.3.1 hasn’t solved A700 high ISO mush problems