ACR 4.1 headsup

[Steve Cat]

The new acr 4.1 plugin includes a new slider called clarity and new sliders for sharpening. Its my understanding that this does not work for PS 2, but it does work for PS 3, and better yet for Elements 5.0 ! This plugin allow even finer control over jpegs than before and more manipulation in 16 bit mode

[genevh]

I have a question to pose. How many actually do their sharpening with the ACR plugin, or do you wait until you are done editing your pictures before applying it? Most of what I've read says to do sharpening as one of the last steps in editing.

Just curious.....:)

[Chuck S.]

I have a question to pose. How many actually do their sharpening with the ACR plugin, or do you wait until you are done editing your pictures before applying it? Most of what I've read says to do sharpening as one of the last steps in editing.

Just curious.....:)

Gene, I've largely ignored the sharpening control in ACR. Both Unsharp Mask and Smart Sharpen provide more control, and I agree that sharpening belongs at or near the end of the workflow.

[Steve Cat]

Because it uses jpegs, tiffs, you can always import them at the end or during any step for that matter.

[Steve Cat]

Sorry for the double post but FWIW people using PS 3 say this plugin has such good sharpening that third party sharpeners may not be needed. again and I have no idea if this is true but it is said that editing in 16bit mode is better than editing in 8 bit mode even if you are editing a jpeg. I dunno to me the recovery, vibrance and now clarity are worth the price of admission, haven't really fooled with the sharpening, but I am aware of what Will Rodgers said I think, You can't always believe what your read in the papers, (forums?)

[genevh]

We may get a lively one going here! :)

I like the new ACR plugin for the recover slider. I shoot RAW and find myself nearly always having to adjust the exposure and the recover slider is great for eliminating the blowouts of the highlights that I sometimes get. I have found that the Clarity slider is a bit of a help also.

The sharpen tools that Chuck mentioned are in PSE and are not 2nd party. The only 2nd party app I use is Neat Image (http://www.neatimage.com/) for noise reduction. That, btw, is one of the first things I do when I am done with the ACR plugin. I figure there is no benefit in manipulating noise pixels in my editing process.

Sharpening is my next to last step, with the final crop being the last thing I do.

Just my nickel's worth (inflation, ya know!)....

[Juergen D]

I see that that the fully enable version of ACR 4.1 has 4 sliders for controlling sharpening (amount, radius, detail and masking), while the 'reduced feature' version for Elements has only one (amount).
Chuck, ACR 4.1 with Elements 5 has all four sliders.

Juergen

[Byron Gale]

Chuck,

The four controls you mention are fully available in my installation of ACR 4.1 under PSE5...

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1xeCIm9k5pdPLeJPWC0MLMPCrYEE0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1xeCIm9k5pdPLeJPWC0MLMPCrYEE0)

I guess this feature was not reduced!

Byron

[Chuck S.]

Ah....I think my problem is that I didn't download 4.1 because I thought it was just an update of the supported cameras list! I'm going to remove my errant post - thanks Juergen and Byron!

:o

(Previous post deleted)

[jlwilm]

I shoot RAW most of the time but have been expermenting with jpeg and the new 4.0 RAW converter. All I use is the Basic tab and have set the Detail tab to 0,0,0 (Sharpening, Luminance and Color) - and saved the default so Elements won't mess with it.

I have decided to go back to RAW all the time so it is less of an issue re jpeg. ALL of the books I looked at say sharpen is the last process before cropping and printing.

[ATR]

SteveCat, jlwilm, and abbreviate users here:

PS2, PS3, Elements 5, etc.

The Read-Me for Camera Raw Windows 4.1 says that this update cannot be used with Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0. Further, Version 3.6 continues to be the latest available Camera Raw update for Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0.

When you say this new update works with PS3, do you mean Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0? Or, does this really work with Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 in spite of what the Read Me says.

Thanks for the clarification.

ATR

[jlwilm]

I am using PSE4 & PSE5

[NickLewis]

Since a few people mentioned the new sharpening features of ACR4.1, I thought I'd toss references to this article (http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/12189.html), and another article (http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/20357.html) into the fray.

I came across them recently. They are by the late, great, Bruce Fraser, advocating a multi-pass workflow approach to sharpening. ACR4.1 would be an obvious candiate for use in his capture sharpening phase.

You can find more references and discussion by Googling "bruce fraser sharpening workflow" or similar.

Nick

[Codebreaker]

The general consensus used to be that Sharping in ACR was pretty much ineffective when compared with using USM in Photoshop. In ACR the sharpening control was just a single slider whereas in USM you have Amount, Radius and Threshold which allows for more control.

It was always my preference to do the sharpening in Photoshop but I was always conscious of this extra step in processing my RAW images...i.e I couldn't just stick with a RAW image - always having to create a TIF or PSD.

I bought Lightroom because the workflow it allows better suits my needs compared with Elements but its initial Sharpening and Noise control were a little dissappointing. At the moment with Elements using the new ACR4.1 it's Sharpening capabilities are ahead of Lightroom but that's only temporary as Lightroom is due an upgrade any time now to include the new RAW processoring capability and then some!!

Colin

[Chuck S.]

Colin, re Lightroom upgrade.....certainly hope it's free!

[JulieM]

Colin, re Lightroom upgrade.....certainly hope it's free!

Chuck: I noted on Scott Kelby's blog that the Lightroom upgrade is a free one. I'm assuming that he would be a pretty reliable source. :)

http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2007/archives/211

(See Scott's answer in response to a reader's comment on May 22.)

[Chuck S.]

Thank you, Julie!

[Codebreaker]

Even Tom Hogarty is reported as saying the LR upgrade is free.

Colin

[JulieM]

Colin (or others using Lightroom): By any chance did you use the trial version of Lightroom before you purchased it? I expect to receive my purchased copy in the next few days and am wondering if it is possible to retain the library/collections I've already got in the trial. Do you happen to have any advice? :):):)

[Codebreaker]

Julie....

I did use the beta version (not the released trial) and you could use the library you built with that in the released version although advice seemed to be start again. Since it was only beta I wasn't using it for real and did start again.

With the trial version you will have no problem since when you purchase it, you just enter the serial number and away you go....no reloading to do.

Colin

[JulieM]

Thanks for your reply, Colin. I was hoping I'd be able to continue by entering the serial number from the disk and appreciate you confirming that. That being the case, I rather wish I weren't paying US$20 for shipping the boxed version. Oh well! By the way, I enjoyed looking at your gallery. You have some spectacular images there. I especially like the interior of the lighthouse...

[Codebreaker]

Julie....

I prefer boxed versions because you can sell them on easier, if and when you upgrade.

Since you posted this on an Elements forum, I should warn you that the Import from Elements Organiser function in Lightroom is a little 'hit and miss'. Elements Organiser Tags may get lost and the hierarchy may not be kept.

Also if you've performed a 'Write Tag Info to File' command, Elements changes the DATETIME field to the date you issued the command. Lightroom uses this field for it's Sort Order and hence the sequence of images gets a little screwy.

For instance if you have an image you took in 2005 and did the Write Tag command in 2007, Lightroom thinks it was created in 2007. Organiser still thinks its 2005.

Have Fun!

Colin

[JulieM]

Thanks, Colin. I don't use Organizer at all, so I should be okay. I think I may start from scratch with Lightroom because I haven't been very thoughtful in importing those images I've done so far. I'll go back to Scott Kelby's book and make sure I understand keywords and file naming etc... so that it will really work for me.