Adobe Camera Raw 8.6 (Release Candidate) available

Together with the availability of the new Nikon D810 camera, Adobe has released a release candidate for its Camera Raw (and DNG convertor) software. So if you are the lucky owner of a brand new D810 camera (or any of the other newly added cameras and lenses), you can start enjoying the full benefits of ACR.
Please note that as a release candidate, this is not yet the final version of the software and things may change/get added to the final release.

Downloads available from adobe labs:

• Adobe Camera Raw 8.6RC for Photoshop CS6
• Adobe Camera Raw 8.6RC for Photoshop CC and Photoshop CC 2014
• DNG Converter 8.6RC

Changes in Camera Raw 8.6RC

• Improve performance when batch processing images (via the Save button in Camera Raw) and when converting images to DNG (via DNG Converter). This performance improvement is only available on 64-bit systems. (CC and CC 2014-only)

New Camera Support

• Nikon D810
• Panasonic LUMIX AG-GH4
• Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ1000

Added Camera Matching colour profiles

• Sony DSC-RX100 III
• Sony A7S (ILCE-7S)
• Sony Alpha SLT-A77 II (ILCA-77M2)

New Lens Profile Support

Lens Name	Lens Mount
Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM	Canon
Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM	Canon
Nikon 1 NIKKOR VR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6	Nikon
Schneider Kreuznach LS 40-80mm f/4.0-5.6	Phase One A/S
Sony 28mm f/2.8	Sony Alpha
Sony 100mm F2.8 Macro	Sony Alpha
Sony DT 16-105mm f/3.5-5.6	Sony Alpha
Sony DT 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3	Sony Alpha
Sony 70-200mm f/2.8G	Sony Alpha
Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM	Sony Alpha
Zeiss Touit 2.8/50M	Sony Alpha

Bug fixes

• Fix crash on launch in some cases on Hi DPI (Retina) systems.
• Fix crash when opening some Sigma SD9 raw files.
• Fix issue with JPEG images saved by Camera Raw not readable in some external applications.
• Fix automatic lens profile selection for Leica M (Typ 240) when using most recent firmware version.
• Fix issue with some Hasselblad H5D-50c and H5D-60 3FR raw images appearing slightly too dark. Unfortunately, this fix may affect the appearance of existing images captured with this combination of settings. It is recommended that you (1) purge the Camera Raw cache via the Camera Raw Preferences dialog, and (2) review previously captured images for unexpected brightness changes.

Adobe updates Lightroom, Camera Raw (Photoshop CS6 and CC) and DNG Converter

Adobe has released version 5.4 of Lightroom and version 8.4 of Adobe Camera Raw (for Photoshop CS6 and CC) and the DNG Converter applications.

The new version of Camera Raw fixes a number of issues and adds support for additional cameras and lenses. With version 5.4 of Lightroom there is now also an iPad version available. This new Lightroom Mobile synchronises your images with the desktop version and offers some (albeit limited) editing capabilities. Great for showcasing your work on the road and to perform some quick edits. The files used by Lightroom Mobile are actually the new smart previews that were introduced with LR5, meaning that your edits actually do get propagated to your (raw) images on your desktop computer as well, even on raw files!

Please note that if you're still on Windows XP or Vista or Mac OS X 10.6, you're out of luck; the new versions of the software do not supported on those platforms any longer.
Also note that not all functionality of the new ACR is available in Photoshop CS6, for full functionality you'll need Photoshop CC. A subscription to the CC program is required for Lightoom Mobile.

Use the update mechanism as provided in Photoshop to update to the latest version of ACR.
DNG converter 8.4 can be downloaded from the Adobe website: Mac / Windows.
Lightroom 5.4 can be downloaded from the Adobe website as well: Mac / Windows.

Adobe releases Lightroom 5.3 and Camera Raw 8.3 (for Photoshop CS6 and CC)

Adobe has just released and update to their raw processing engine. Bringing some new functionality to both Lightroom and Photoshop (note that for Photoshop CS6, the enhancements are limited to new camera support, lens profile support, and bug fixes, you'll need Photoshop CC for the full range of enhancements). If you have an older version of Photoshop, you can make use of the DNG Converter which has been updated to 8.3 as well.

Notice that this will be the last release of ACR compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista or Mac OSX 10.6. For continued support, you will need to upgrade your OS.

Adobe releases Camera Raw & DNG converter 8.2

Adobe has released an update for both Adobe Camera Raw and the DNG converter.

Version 8.2 of Camera Raw (for Photoshop CS6 and CC) and the DNG convertor contain the following enhancements and bug fixes (from the release notes).

New Features in Camera Raw 8.2:

• The Histogram is now interactive. This enables the ability to click and drag on the Histogram to adjust the Blacks, Shadows, Exposure, Highlights, and Whites sliders.
• A Color Smoothness adjustment slider has been added to the Detail Panel. This helps to reduce low-frequency color mottling artifacts.
• Added new “rectangle mode” to white balance eyedropper tool. Click-and-drag with the eyedropper tool to define a rectangular pixel area.  Upon releasing mouse, Camera Raw will use all the pixels within the marked rectangle to set the global White Balance.
• Workflow presets are now available and can be selected by context-clicking the workflow link.
• Presets have been added to the Save dialog box.
• Auto Exposure has been improved to be more consistent across images and across different image sizes.
• Refinements to the Spot Healing Tool:
  • New Feather control
  • Auto find source method now works better for images with textured areas like rocks, bark, and foliage
  • Auto find source method now prefers source areas within the crop rectangle
• Refinements to the Local Adjustment Brush:
  • Move brush adjustments by clicking and dragging on brush adjustment pins
  • Right Click (PC) / Control-click (Mac) on a brush adjustment pin to bring up a context menu to duplicate or delete
  • Control+Alt+Drag (PC) / Command+Option+Drag (Mac) on a brush adjustment pin to clone (duplicate) that adjustment o Alt+Click (PC) / Option+Click (Mac) on a brush adjustment pin to delete the adjustment

New Camera Support in Camera Raw 8.2

• Canon EOS 70D
• Canon PowerShot G16
• Canon PowerShot S120*
• Casio Exilim EX-ZR800
• Fujifilm FinePix HS22EXR
• Fujifilm FinePix HS35EXR
• Fujifilm FinePix S205EXR
• Fujifilm X-M1
• Leica C (Typ 112)
• Olympus E-M1*
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ72
• Pentax Q7
• Pentax K-50
• Pentax K-500
• Sony DSC-RX100 II
• Sony A3000 (ILCE-3000)
• Sony NEX-5T

New Lens Profile Support in Camera Raw 8.2

Mount	Name
Sony	Sony E 35mm F1.8 OSS
Hasselblad	Hasselblad LF16mm F2.8
Hasselblad	Hasselblad LF18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
Hasselblad	Hasselblad LF18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS
GoPro	GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition
GoPro	GoPro Hero 3 Silver Edition
GoPro	GoPro Hero 3 White Edition
Leica	Leica TRI-ELMAR-M 16-18-21 mm f/4 ASPH.
Canon	SIGMA 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM A013
Canon, Nikon, Sigma	SIGMA 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM S013
Nikon	SIGMA 30mm F1.4 DC HSM A013
Olympus, Sony	SIGMA 60mm F2.8 DN A013
Pentax, Sony	SIGMA 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC MACRO OS HSM C013
Pentax, Sony	SIGMA 35mm F1.4 DG HSM A012
Nikon	Nikon 1 NIKKOR 32mm f/1.2
Sony	Sony DSC-RX1R

Bugs Corrected in Camera Raw 8.2

• JPEG decoding produced a red color cast.
• Bridge always recomputed cropped image thumbnails when lens profile corrections are enabled rather than when necessary.
• Feathering for healing brush operations were not the same strength as feathering for circular spot removals.
• When selecting and adjusting multiple images, the Crop adjustment was not applied to the most selected image.
• Local adjustment brush pin were not redrawing properly after moving from one location to another.
• When using Camera Raw as a Filter in Photoshop CC, pressing the “Cancel” button on a Smart Object would rest the Smart Object to default settings.
• There was no visual for the Heads-Up Display when control-dragging to resize a healing brush.  This only occurred when the “Show Overlay” option is turned off.

Installation instructions

You install the Camera Raw 8.2 update using the Update Mechanism found in Photoshop CC and Photoshop CS6.

DNG converter 8.2 can be downloaded from the adobe website: Windows | Mac

Camera Raw 8.1 and DNG Converter 8.1

Together with the new Lightroom 5, Adobe today also released updates for Camera Raw and the DNG converter.

Camera Raw 8.1 provides support for HiDPI capable displays (e.g., Mac Retina displays), additional camera and lens support as well as fixes for bugs that were introduced in previous versions of Camera Raw. Camera Raw 8.1 is available for Adobe Photoshop CS6 (and CC).

If you have a previous version of Photoshop, you can make use of DNG Converter 8.1 to add raw file support for the new cameras.

Bugs Corrected in Camera Raw 8.1

• Occasionally the Fill Light adjustment introduced artifacts. This only occurred when processing an image using the PV2010 process version.
• When using the Red Eye removal tool, setting red eye darken to 100% would lighten the adjustment instead of darkening it.
• Reduced the default amount of sharpening applied to images taken with the Fuji X100s camera.

New Camera Support in the Camera Raw 8.1

• Hasselblad H5D-60
• Olympus PEN E-P5
• Olympus PEN E-PL6
• Phase One IQ260^*
• Ricoh GR
• Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G6
• Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LF1

^*denotes preliminary support

New Lens Profile Support in the Camera Raw 8.1

Lens Name	Lens Mount
Canon PowerShot G1 X	Canon
Canon PowerShot G15	Canon
Hasselblad HCD 4.8/24	Hasselblad
Nikon Coolpix A	Nikon
Nikon Coolpix P330	Nikon
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 80-400 mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR	Nikon
HD Pentax-D FA645 Macro 90mm F2.8ED AW SR	Pentax
HD Pentax-DA 560mm F5.6ED AW	Pentax
Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC HSM A013	Canon, Sigma
Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM C013	Nikon
Sigma 19mm F2.8 DN A013	Olympus, Sony
Sigma 30mm F2.8 DN A013	Olympus, Sony
Zeiss Apo Sonna T* 2/135 ZE	Canon
Zeiss Apo Sonnar T* 2/135 ZF.2	Nikon
Zeiss Touit 1.8/32	Sony
Zeiss Touit 2.8/12	Sony

Download Links

• Camera Raw 8.1 – Use the update mechanism in Photoshop CS6
• DNG Converter 8.1 – Mac OS X & Windows

Photoshop CS6 updates 13.0.5 (Mac) and 13.0.1.2 (Win) released

Adobe just released Photoshop update version 13.0.5 (for Macintosh perpetual license customers) and 13.0.1.2 (for Windows perpetual license customers). The new releases correct a number of issues.

Notable bugs fixed (Mac & Win)

• When a transformed type layer’s point size is changed, the end result should be as if there was no transform (like CS5):
  • Photoshop CS6 bugs
  • Character panel not showing correct sizes
  • Photoshop CS6 strange text behaviour
• When moving a type layer with a free transform active, the size of the font changes to non-integer values:
  • Font style size problems

Notable Macintosh specific bugs fixed

• Clicking a Pop-up window in a Flash extension panel does not work and/or cause Photoshop to crash
• Info panel displays incorrect value for adjustment layers inside groups:
  • Terrible bug on the new version for osx 13.0.2
• Restore View>Print Size menu command and Zoom tool right-click context menu
  • Missing print size button after CS6 13.0.2 upgrade
• Legacy actions fail due to layer merge naming change:
  • Photoshop 13.0.3 update broke all my actions
• Black & White adjustment layer scrubby slider does not work if in a layer group
• Arrow keys stop working during text edit using the Type tool:
  • Arrow keys stop working in type tool text in photoshop CS6
• Custom icons for Flash extension panels are not displayed after changing the Interface color theme

Notable Windows specific bugs fixed

• Photoshop fails to launch on a limited user account system due to locked default scratch disk
  • Scratch file locked
• Pen tool input doesn’t draw correctly
• Improved Windows 8 tablet support

Adobe Photoshop CS6 13.0.3/13.1.1 updates

Today Adobe released an update for Photoshop CS6. Version 13.0.3 (Mac, non Creative Cloud subscription only) and version 13.1.1 (Mac and Windows, Creative Cloud subscriptions), resolve the following, quite serious, bugs:

• Certain PSD files fail to open when they have layer FX applied to layers
• The application crashes when opening certain EPS files
• On Retina machines, the application crashes when the Navigator panel is displayed in some workspaces

To get the update, simply choose Help|Updates from within Photoshop. This launches the Adobe Application Manager from where you can select and install the Adobe Photoshop CS6 update.

Note: It may take a while for the update to show everywhere. I did not yet see it, for instance. The update should definitely be showing up soon though.

Photoshop CS6 13.0.2/13.1, Lightroom 4.3, and Camera Raw 7.3 updates

Adobe has just released updates to their major photo editing software.

Lightroom 4.3/Camera Raw 7.3

The Lightroom 4.3 and Camera Raw 7.3 updates add support 20 for new cameras, including the Canon 6D and Nikon D5200.

Lightroom 4.3 also includes HiDPI (Mac Retina display) support for the Library and Develop Modules. It is a real pity that Camera Raw does not yet include this support though (hopefully the next update will cover this).

Here's the full list of new cameras supported in LR4.3/ACR7.3:

• Canon EOS 6D
• Canon PowerShot S110
• Canon PowerShot G15
• Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
• Casio Exilim EX-ZR1000
• Casio Exilim EX-FC300S
• Leica M-E
• Nikon 1 V2
• Nikon D5200
• Nikon D600
• Olympus PEN E-PL5
• Olympus PEN E-PM2
• Olympus STYLUS XZ-2 iHS
• Panasonic DMC-GH3
• Pentax K-5 II
• Pentax K-5 IIs
• Pentax Q10
• Sony DSC-RX1
• Sony NEX-VG30
• Sony NEX-VG900

Photoshop CS6 13.0.2 (Mac only)

Like Lightroom 4.3, this new 13.0.2 version of Adobe Photoshop enables support for new HiDPI displays on the Macintosh platform for “a dramatic improvement in image fidelity and resolution.”

Photoshop CS6 13.1.0 (Creative Cloud subscription only)

If you bought Photoshop CS6 through the Creative Cloud subscription (from $19.99/€24.59 per month) you get some new features added to this, showing the advantage of this subscription based service (though, personally I still find it quiet expensive).

The first Creative Cloud-only update of Photoshop offers a host of new and improved features:

• The Blur Gallery and Liquify are now usable on smart objects, greatly enhancing your “non-destructive editing” capabilities.
• Web design enhancements:
• CSS export from text and layer styles for faster and easier web design.
• Import of colour swatches from you HTML, CSS, or SVG files.
• Conditional actions – People making use of actions a lot will love the fact that you can now have conditional actions.
• Improvements to the crop tool, naming of merged layers, and the ability to see up to 100 of your recently opened files.

Note to Windows XP users: these features are not supported on Windows XP any longer (the same already holds true for some of the GPU-enabled features by the way).

Photoshop CS6 beta available

Today Adobe announced the availability of a public beta for the next version of their flagship image editing software, Photoshop. You can download the free Photoshop CS6 beta directly from adobe labs. The beta is available both for Windows (1.7GB zip file) and Mac (984MB disk image file).

Photoshop CS6 contains a host of new and improved features. A new version of Adobe Camera Raw (version 7), a new and improved look and interface (darker grey), much improved and expanded video editing capabilities (and you'll love this: these will be present in the standard edition too, not only in extended!), improvements to content-aware fill related tools, all new content-aware patch and move tools, etc.

The Photoshop CS6 beta is compatible with Mac OS 10.6.8 or later, and Windows XP SP3 or Windows 7 SP1. Update (24/03/2012): Windows Vista is indeed not officially supported!
Please note that the beta contains the full functionality of Photoshop CS6 Extended. While this allows you to play with the Extended-only features such as 3D image editing and quantitative image analysis, the final shipping Standard Edition will not contain these capabilities!

Some details on the more pronounced new features and improvements:

New look – Photoshop is now darker and follows the more “modern” look of e.g., Lightroom and Photoshop Elements. If you like you can still choose the the old look or even two other levels of grey.

Preset migration – Yes! Finally CS6 allows for the (automatic) migration of presets from previous versions of Photoshop.

Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine – Performance improvements by making (more) use the GPU (graphics processing unit). Speed improvements will leikely depend on your GPU's specifications, and some GPU-enabled features are not supported on Windows XP.

Adobe Camera Raw 7 – Incorporation of most (all) of the changes and improvements currently present in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4. Improved and redesigned tone controls, better shadow and highlight recovery, additional local editing brushes for white balance, noise reduction, and moiré removal (especially useful when you have a camera without an Anti Alias filter, e.g., the D800E).

Background save and auto recovery – (finally) you can save your large, multi-layered images in the background while continuing to work on another. New is also Photoshop's ability to save auto-recovery information while you work.

Video editing – Photoshop's video editing capabilities have not only been greatly enhanced and expanded, you'll also love the fact that now both the extended and the standard version of Photoshop incorporate them (previously video editing was only present in the more expensive extended edition).

Content Aware – CS5 gave us Content Aware fill, CS6 extends and improves this further and now also includes Content-Aware Patch and Move.

Blur Gallery – A tool for artificially creating lens blur, tilt-shift blur, and other blur effects.

Crop tool – The crop tool has been much improved, especially in the area of rotating and straightening.  

Graphic design – Several improvements in this area, including the ability to add dashed lines and gradient strokes.

3D – A number of new 3D editing features have been added to Photoshop CS6 Extended (only).

>60 “Just Do Its” – A number of smaller feature enhancements and other improvements (many of which originate from user requests).

Have a look at the Adobe Photoshop YouTube Channel for Russell Brown's 6 favourite new features or some of the other informative videos.