I understand that RAW support is very... interesting... for a variety of reasons. In particular, with Nikon View, +1EV gives a noise profile similar to one stop higher ISO - however, other adjustments, such as ACR or the other major converters can do, also affect the noise profile. With Nikon View, as I only adjust EV, I simply created a group of about 40 profiles to use based on each ISO and each EV adjustment in 1/3rd steps.
With ACR 3.1, I suspect this won't work so well at such time as I apply custom adjustments to each image.
On many images, of course, Auto Profile isn't a practical option due to the level of detail in the image. In a few days, when my copy of CS2 arrives, I would expect that my workflow will be to use ACR to convert the image with some amount of adjustments, save the adjustments, and convert a calibration target taken at the same ISO setting with those same adjustments, build a one-off profile from that calibration target, use Neatimage on the actual image, and delete the one-off profile. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Given that Neatimage [Pro+] already integrates with Photoshop to an extent, would it be possible to do the following in concert with ACR:
A) Instead of auto-selecting a profile, auto-select a calibration target (same match logic as used for profiles now, based on EXIF - probably a low risk, relatively simple change)
B) On already ACR converted images (whether the original, requiring a DNG, or whatever makes it simpler for you), use the auto-selected target as the basis for the "On The Fly Profile", call up ACR to convert with the settings used on the original, and then run noise reduction based on the new profile. Cache the profile, save it with the image, free the memory and forget it, whatever - that's nice to haves more than "need" to have. This is the basis of a multi-step batch workflow: ACR all images, NeatImage in batch, edit all images.
C) Alternately, and better, set up a way such that when ACR is converting the image, Neatimage is called to do essentially the actions above (auto-select target, convert target with current ACR settings, reduce noise). This is the basis of a individiual image workflow: ACR/Neatimage, edit, next image.
I expect one or the other, and possibly both, methods are essentially impractical, but I looked through the past year's suggestions, and wanted to offer these as alternates to the "Support RAW directly" approach, and let you decide what to do.
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Bought NeatImage Pro, loved it.
NeatImage Pro+ came out, bought it, love it still.
ACR integration - RAW calib target autoselect/convert
Thank you for the suggestion.
Well, yes, it would be nice to have PS, ACR and NI work together as you suggest, in particular as you describe in points B and C. However, you are also right that it may be difficult to reliably implement that functionality as it requires very close cooperation of PS and that is not always readily available, especially in situations like this.
We will look into feasibility of such scenarios in relation to the latest versions of PS and ACR. Also, there may be other ways to achieve the same result so we will consider them all to see what is the best way to make the integration tighter.
Thank you once again for your suggestion. I appreciate such a constructive feedback.
Kind regards,
Vlad
Well, yes, it would be nice to have PS, ACR and NI work together as you suggest, in particular as you describe in points B and C. However, you are also right that it may be difficult to reliably implement that functionality as it requires very close cooperation of PS and that is not always readily available, especially in situations like this.
We will look into feasibility of such scenarios in relation to the latest versions of PS and ACR. Also, there may be other ways to achieve the same result so we will consider them all to see what is the best way to make the integration tighter.
Thank you once again for your suggestion. I appreciate such a constructive feedback.
Kind regards,
Vlad
