Future raw processing refinements?

I really like Acorn. The only thing is, with raw files with high dynamic range, I think the current raw processing module doesn’t have enough latitude. It would be great to have some kind of slider for highlights like ACR/Lightroom and most raw processors out there. At the moment, if I reduce exposure to protect the highlights and lift them with curves later, I get more noise and posterization in the shadows. It would be also be nice to have more control over noise reduction and sharpening. When zooming in at 100% I can see gritty artifacts. But basically, I would prefer to do most of the image processing in the raw module and only minor touch-ups later in the editor. The color I get with my raw files looks great though. My other wish would be ability to assign a custom camera ICC or DCP profile during raw conversion for more versatility/looks.

Thanks for the feedback, I’ll see what I can do in a future release.

With the posterization in the shadows- can you tell me what the bit depth you’re editing your photos in? if it’s 8 and you make it 16 in the raw import window, does that make things better?

-gus

16-bit looks better, though I still get artifacts at the pixel level. I get better results if I use 32-bit, lower exposure to save highlights, export it for Photoshop and tone map it to 16-bit with the “Photorealism Low Contrast” preset. It pretty much solves the issue for me.

Admittedly, I am using Acorn not as a complete editor but as the first step in my raw processing workflow because I like the overall look and color I get :slight_smile:

More control over noise reduction would still be nice, as would some kind of icc/dcp profile support, but I understand that it’s a difficult request if Acorn is using Apple Raw. I am still happy to use the software as-is.