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(Page 2 of 3) Graphical User InterfaceI myself am very used to Adobe Camera Raw interface, as I’ve been using it ever since I got my digital camera. So in this part my review would be inevitably biased. I will try my best though not to be. As you see most of the Adobe Camera Raw window is taken by the image preview. All the tools, buttons, and option menus are arranged around it. The title bar at the very top contains the file name and some shootings information.
The panel below has a number of transformation tools (such as Crop, Rotate, or Straiten) along with WB and Color Sampler pickers and Zoom. Those can be used at any stage of adjustment and should be at hand all the time. All of these tools can be called by hotkeys that show in prompts. Adobe Camera Raw Zoom works in increments ranging from 6% to 400% and can be controlled in a number of ways: by outlining a region you want to zoom in while the Zoom knob is pressed, by moving a slider below the image, or by choosing a value from a drop down menu. The same menu appears on pressing the right mouse button when Zoom is chosen. The upper panel contains also Preview, Shadows and Highlights checkboxes so that you can change their status at any time. The Highlights and Shadows have separate checkboxes and can be controlled separately. | | | Highlights and shadows are marked |
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The toggle of Preview checkbox allows the comparison of the original image with the edited one. Pity you cannot see both of them side by side though.Although all these buttons, checkboxes, and numbers are set in the same panel, they are logically arranged into three groups: image transformation buttons are found above the left corner of the preview, checkboxes – above the right, and RGB numbers are shown above the Histogram and tools tabs. The bottom panel below the preview (the one that is hidden in the screen shot above) contains workflow settings options.
As you see, you can set color space, bit depth, the size, and resolution of the resulted image. These are usually the same for all images processed at the time and once set can be hidden to free space for the image preview. Now, to the Tools tab. It takes considerable space on the right of the Adobe Camera Raw window. The tools are arranged on four tabs with the Histogram and RGB values above and saving options below. The Histogram is visible all the time regardless of the active Tool. The RGB values are those of the area of pixels below the pointer:  .The arrangement of tools into separate tabs is convenient in a number of ways: it saves space for the image, it does not overburden the eye with all the options and tools at once, but at the same time there’s no need to open every tool through the menu. Moreover, it gives your workflow some method and order. The White Balance and Exposure group is at its place on the first tab. These are a must for a raw converter of course. The WB can be set by clicking a white/grey spot, choosing a preset or by changing a number in the box. The default and auto settings are not bad (presuming your color spaces are correct). The Brightness-Contrast-Saturation trio is in the same tab together with a Shadows slider that appeared in the latest edition. It works similar to Black Point in Levels, that is, sets the level for shadows clipping. Three out of four sliders (Saturation is off here) have an “Auto’ checkbox that can be checked or unchecked by default (whichever you choose in Preferences menu). In the Sharpness/Noise block (Detail tab) Adobe Camera Raw is minimalist. You get your sharpness (set to 25 by default) with grey scale (luminance) and color noise reduction and nothing else. I’ve already mentioned Lens, Curve and Calibrate tabs. The four buttons below the Tools tabs are needed in the final stage when the adjustments are performed. You can convert and Save the image and remain in the plugin (to try other adjustments with the same image or starting with the other one in the case of processing several files at a time). You can also Open a copy of the image with the new settings in Photoshop for further editing and save it from there. The Cancel button takes you out of the Plugin without any convertions performed. And pressing of Done closes the Adobe Camera Raw dialog box and stores file settings either in the camera raw database file or as a sidecar XMP file (whicever you’ve specified in Preferences). Next time you open the file then it will heve the same settings it had upon pressing Done button. To some it all I’d say the interface is very considered and economical. The preview takes maximum space; all the buttons and controls are arranged around so that you move from one to another in a clockwise direction as you proceed with your editing. The set of tabs makes all the tools easy to access. The options that should be set for many images at once can be hidden with one click. All these things make the workflow smooth and easy.
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