Maintain RAW / Log layer data

[macdabby]

When you open a camera raw file, it contains lots of data - I think this is in log format or something like that. You can do all sorts of adjustments to the exposure, brightness, etc. If you "develop" these images, you are now limited to pixel data on a scale of 24 linear bits, and a lot of data is now lost.

 

Imagine this - you can open a raw file and the layer is created with the raw data. The raw data stays in that layer, maybe like a smart or placed layer. You can then add an adjustment layer to this layer, that contains all of the controls that are available in the raw/develop view.

 

Why?

 

Picture this - once the image is imported, you can do a lot of corrections to it. But after this is all done, you decide you either cropped the image too far, or blew out a few points of the image by overexposing in the raw controls. If the raw data were still in the layer itself, you could go back and readjust at any time.

 

But wait there's more!

 

Let's say you take a single image. You can't do HDR - maybe you don't want the exaggerated contrast, or the subject was moving so you can't align 3 versions of the image. But say the photo itself has just enough range that you could adjust the brightness to get the highlights, and also in the other direction to get some more details out of the shadows. You could make 3 copies of the layer, make your adjustments, create masks, and they would all line up - even if you have cropped the image. If you made your import adjustments wrong, you could still go back and edit the original exposure and you still have ALL of the raw data there.

 

To compare, in a lot of high end node based video systems, video can be imported in log format. The original data is never changed, and all "develop" settings are applied within nodes in the editing system. This enables the editor to be extremely flexible in color correction, etc. even masking multiple layers of the same raw footage together with different adjustments.

 

If you could do this, you would freaking rock! Esp since i'm sure you're secretly working on video functionality to compete with photoshop :D

 

PS This app is so awesome and I can't tell you how happy I am to get away from the slow, buggy, unstable photoshop that i had to use because there were no other options!