Adobe Camera Raw 18.6 brings Glow, Trim and a new Metadata panel
Adobe has released Camera Raw 18.6, with a few useful additions for photographers. The most interesting is probably Glow, which brings three different ways of adding a soft, luminous quality to an image without having to leave Camera Raw. Glow is divided into three types: Diffusion, Bloom and Halation. They produce subtly different results, but all work by affecting the brighter areas of an image and spreading that light into the surrounding tones. Diffusion gives a softer, more diffused appearance, while Bloom produces a stronger glow around bright areas. Halation is the more obviously film-inspired option, intended to reproduce the coloured glow that can occur around highlights in film photography. There are settings for Range, Spread and Warmth, giving rather more control than simply applying a generic “glow” effect. Glow can also be used with masks, so it doesn’t have to be applied indiscriminately to the whole photograph.
For photographers who have spent years achieving similar effects through Photoshop plug-ins or various layers and blending techniques, and a certain well-known range of lens filters, having these controls directly in Camera Raw is likely to be the most significant part of the update.
A more useful approach to cropping
Camera Raw 18.6 also introduces Trim, found alongside the crop controls. It is not another obscure crop option. Trim provides a way of adjusting the visible image area while retaining a view of the surrounding image as you work. The area outside the proposed crop is dimmed, making it easier to see exactly what you are removing before committing to the crop. It is a small addition, but one that should prove useful when making precise adjustments to composition.
Camera information at a glance
The third addition is a new Metadata Info Panel. It provides a convenient read-only view of information associated with the image, including details such as the camera, dimensions, file format, capture date and copyright information. It’s another small but useful addition, particularly when working through a collection of images and wanting to check the original file information without having to go looking for it elsewhere.
More lens profiles
Adobe has also added support for a number of additional lenses in Camera Raw 18.6, including the REEFLEX G-Series Anamorphic 1.33x, REEFLEX G-Series Fisheye 200° and Tamron 12-20mm F2.8 A084 E.
Of the new features, though, Glow is the one that caught my attention. Diffusion, Bloom and Halation aren’t particularly new ideas in photography, but putting them together in Camera Raw and allowing them to be masked and adjusted with some control makes them considerably more accessible.
Camera Raw 18.6 is available now through Adobe Creative Cloud.
