Adobe Camera Raw 6.1 arrives; automatic lens correction finally here!

Filed under: Photo, Adobe, Imaging Tips

If you use your digital camera for anything other than family or touristy snaps, you've probably run into the raw image format. If you haven't heard of raw, think of it as a bigger, high-quality JPEG file. Unlike JPEG, raw files contain a lot more data, enabling you to manipulate your photos a lot more easily. With JPEGs a lot of data is lost -- if you shoot raw photos, you have more choice over how your final photo looks!

The problem is, every camera manufacturer has a slightly different file format. Canon has CR2, Nikon NRW, Sony SR2, but ultimately they're all a modified TIFF format, believe it or not. It's because of these similarities that Adobe can produce a tool like Camera Raw. I've always been a bit surprised that Adobe actually manipulates these proprietary raw file formats better than own-brand implementations like Canon's Digital Photo Professional (which is a bit shit). Still, the consumer wins as always!

Anyway, Adobe has just released Camera Raw 6.1 beta. Historically these betas are very close to the actual production-ready release, so it should be fine for everyday use. In the screencast above I play with the new lens correction profiles -- and as you can see, they're really rather good.

Incidentally -- and I missed this in the screencast -- if your lens isn't supported in the new Camera Raw beta, you can grab the Lens Profile Creator, print some checkerboard, take some photos... and make your own profile!!

Adobe Camera Raw 6.1 arrives; automatic lens correction finally here! originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 14 May 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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