A huge step in the right direction and acknowledgement of the still ground-breaking impact of digital photography in the design world.. No longer are you as a digital photographer or you as a designer provided with a fresh-out-of-the-camera file required to go to another application to bring in your image. Corel has long been the Swiss Army Knife of file formats and adding RAW to the mix continues this fine tradion. Welcome to X4
That is another step in the right direction. The camera and the tagalong RAW format proliferation is a never ending tide against which to swim. There is much work yet to do…
<Rikk Flohr> wrote in message news:11845@coreldraw.com... That is another step in the right direction. The camera and the tagalong RAW format proliferation is a never ending tide against which to swim. There is much work yet to do… How true but Corel's finally in the game....Batter' up Ted Rikk FlohrFleeting Glimpse Imageswww.fleetingglimpse.comVisit my on-line print store! Click Here http://community.coreldraw.com/forums/p/3310/11845.aspx#11845
How true but Corel's finally in the game....Batter' up
Ted
Edward Thurston said:How true but Corel's finally in the game
I for one would like to see eyedropper tools and color information displayed so we can gray balance straight from our RAW conversion. Those additional features would make RAW conversions sing as it is now all RAW convertes lack true professional features. For now we have a start, as long as Corel continues to have service releases for RAW the expand camera support.
I fully agree with you David! My push for getting a info palette with color markers, which will work with all tools, will be ongoing.
I tried many different RAW converters and I applaud Corels effort to add RAW support into PP in my opinion Corel needs to either go all the way and do it correctly or partner with a 3rd party vendor who will. If you can't gray balance in the RAW converter during the conversion process you're guessing at color and unfortunately no RAW converter has this feature at this time.
This may be why Corel added the RAW Lab as it is just so there is some support PP until some RAW converter provider does it right and they can then partner with them.
David,
you said "...as it is now all RAW convertes lack true professional features." I am really curious which RAW processing programmes you have tried. There are quite a number of programmes that are totally professional and lack nothing in terms of preparing a RAW for final adjustments in a standard photo editor. Usually, the only final adjustments are manipulations rather than colour correction, or converting from RGB to CMYK. Many RAW programmes allow a reasonable choice of output profiles include Wide gamut RGB, ProPhotoRGB, etc.
Most RAW software has a dedicated white balance tool (you can click on any shade of grey, it does not have to be white) and they have a continuous RGB readout as you move your cursor over the image. Most have levels and curves and have a multitude of other features. Lightroom and PS, and DXO have a multitude of other colur adjustment sliders that can fine tune one colour without affecting other colours. Canon has a Picture Style Editor that gives similar functionality and lets you select 100 different points and adjust them to taste. This particluar editor provides a before and after readout of all selected values.
I cannot figure out what you feel is lacking?
Best regards,
Hi again, David,
can you tell me a little more about your meaning of correct grey balance? What is the difference between your meaning of grey balance and the white balance tool found in most RAW software (which can sample any shade of grey, not just white)?
Another question, out of curiosity: what would you do if you were given an image that was taken in sunset lighting? The image would have most likely have been taken in that lighting for deliberate effect; it is very flattering and gives lovely warm skintones. Would you neutralise a known white object, and in effect completely destroy the whole purpose of shooting in sunset light? i.e. make it look like it was taken earlier in the day? I have often wondered about how people go about processing that type of image. I, personally, adjust my images to retain the warmth I intended at the time of shooting, and mainly only make adjustments to enhance contrast, or to retrieve lost details in less than perfectly exposed images.
I asked that question because I once shot a bikini model in sunset light at a place called Red Rock, for her business cards. We went out of our way to choose the location and time of day for the colour/angle of light we wanted in her shot. It was a rush job and we had to take the film to a one-hour lab, and I chose one that usually gave excellent prints. Their machine was fairly automated, and consequently the warmth was all but removed from the image. I told the lab operator my client would not accept these images and he let me have them free of charge anyway. The machine would not give him enough control to leave the warmth in the image.
Gray balance was pioneered by Lino Hell and Kodak and is now part of the GRACOL specification, it maintains that all color standards are correct when a balance gray can be maintained across the gamut. In laymen terms it means to a standard equal values of RGB across the gamut. This allows us to insert a Gretag or other color checker into an image and gray balance (color correct) the image by reading the gray patches of the color checker and adjusting the points on the curve to be of equal RGB parts. When done with precision this will color correct any image.
I have tried RAW Shooter and it pro version, Photoshops and Corels RAW converter, I own a pro version of Bibble, I have worked with Adobes Light Room on a clients work station and anyone I can get my hands on. As all RAW converters convert from three linearized gray data streams they display in a chosen RGB color space. During the conversion process one has to be able to read the gray swatches in the display color space, correct the curve for gray balance. None I've worked with can do this, they say they can white balance, so what! White balance is simply equal values of RGB at one point in the gamut. What about the rest of the image?
I have not tried the Canon but it sounds like it may be the best so far as long as it can select the read out from the specified area of the image and not just areas of the curve. It must be like PS and Corels eye dropper tool in the tone curve.
I address this in my Corel Color Management book which will be released 1/31/2008.