Pixelmator Pro Adds Support For IPhone Portrait Mode Depth Masks
Ingelore Clason
Gentlemen Coders LLC, the creator of RAW Power for macOS and iOS, has released RAW Power 3.0. The latest version introduces more integration with native macOS and iOS Photos applications and delivers an improved workflow.
RAW Power 3 is the first, and currently only, third-party application to include full support for Apple Photos libraries on macOS and iOS. With this integration, photographers can rate and edit their images on their Mac or iOS devices with full iCloud synchronization.
Pixelmator Pro adds support for iPhone Portrait Mode depth masks
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The software was developed by Nik Bhatt, a former Apple engineer. While at Apple, Bhatt led the iPhone and Aperture teams. Of RAW Power 3, Bhatt says, "RAW Power has gained a strong following among serious photographers for its unique control over Apple's RAW engine, combined with its robust and easy-to-use editing tools."
From its first release, RAW Power has been designed to build upon the existing Apple Photos native application and add additional functionality and editing capabilities. RAW Power allows the user to keep their files organized at the system level while also performing more advanced edits to their photos. By leveraging Apple Photos, users can also avoid committing to a proprietary photo library or subscription-based software.
Considering the Mac version of RAW Power 3.0, the software works directly with your Photos library while adding additional editing and organizational tools. You can browse and create albums and folders, which are then instantly applied to the system's photo library and changes are synced over iCloud when using iCloud Photos. RAW Power 3 specifically adds rating and flagging functionality to the software, something not available in Apple Photos. In the case of a flag, this will instantly appear on the image file in the Finder as well.
Additionally, RAW Power 3 includes a new section for recently viewed items. There's a threshold for what counts as "viewed," meaning that only images you spent more than a few seconds looking at will be included. To make it easier to view and work on multiple images or albums at once, RAW Power 3 includes tabs.
RAW Power 3 introduces a variety of new image adjustments, including: Auto Enhance with Face Balancing, Auto White Balance, LUTs with film simulations, Levels and a Channel Mixer. With the new adjustment tools, the total now available to users is 15. With so many adjustments now built into the software, RAW Power 3 includes a refreshed editing interface and new workflow functionality. Users can reorder and select the default adjustments, to ensure that adjustments they use less frequently do not clog up their workspace.
RAW Power 3 also adds LUTs. The software ships with 20 of them, including Bhatt's own film simulation LUTS. Users can add their own LUTs as well. When using LUTs, users can adjust the strength of the effect using an intensity slider. With respect to existing image adjustments, there have also been tweaks. For example, there are now hot pixel indicators in the software.
Considering the new Auto Enhance image adjustment, this works by analyzing the image on a variety of criteria before applying varying levels of different RAW Power adjustments. Auto Enhance can adjust highlights and shadows, change the exposure, adjust white balance and more.
RAW Power 3 for iOS includes many of the same improvements as RAW Power 3 for macOS, including the new image editing tools, including LUT integration. RAW Power 3 for iOS also includes the ability to reorder and organize your workspace, which is even more important when working on the smaller display of an iPhone or iPad.
With the latest version of RAW Power, users can now manage their images either in the native Photos application or in the iOS Files app. You can switch seamlessly between Photos and Files, although some iOS limitations result in edits, ratings, flags and filters not syncing over iCloud when working in Files.
The same new rating workflow from the Mac version carries over to iOS, representing a first for iCloud photographers on iOS. By utilizing ratings and flags, you can easily sort and filter your image library to quickly find specific images.
For users of Apple's Portrait mode on their iOS devices, RAW Power 3 can access the depth data in the image file and allow users to create depth maps for selective edits. You can access and edit using the depth data on both iOS and Mac versions of RAW Power.
RAW Power 3 for macOS and iOS is available today from the App Store. For existing owners of RAW Power 2, the update is free on both platforms. For new users, RAW Power 3 for macOS is $39.99 and RAW Power 3 for iOS is $9.99. RAW Power 3 for macOS runs on macOS Catalina and Mojave. On iOS, RAW Power 3 runs on iOS 12 and iOS 13, although the app does not support iPhone 5s, 6 or 6 Plus or iPad mini 3 or earlier.
er, "By leveraging Apple Photos, users can also avoid committing to a proprietary photo library or subscription-based software." Photos uses a proprietary photo library. When you use Photos, you commit to a proprietary photo library.
@Nik Bhatt - Nice upgrade - thanks. This program uses my existing Apple Photos library without me having to export all of the originals to another folder. Amazing programming effort! - No one else seems to have figured this out.
Wish List : Gradient selection tool.
@Nik Bhatt, I must start by thanking you for this app! It's great to have a lightweight, cheap, cross-device alternative to Lightroom. A few things that could improve to make it a killer:
- Navigation to previous/next picture while editing, swiping left/right, and swipe from top to bottom to go back to All photos. Even though the thumbnail navigation is not so bad. This is a feature that Lightroom really got right.
- Selection editing, with the regular gradient and brush selection tools, again just like Lightroom.
- Depth Map editing like focos app. It would be even greater if it would work with any format. At the moment there is some bug that I can't ever see the Depth Effect adjustment, even on original portrait pictures from iOS 13.4
- Last, a personal preference: I don't like the fonts and icons, I would prefer the iOS UI much better.
V3 is a huge improvement. The LUTs are great, particularly the Fuji film simulations. The user experience is vastly improved too, in terms of software controls. The app is a lot more responsive. I would never use this with Photos. When I do use Raw Power, it's for fast RAW processing and focusing. I primarily use LR, but it's grown very complex and I'm increasingly relying on other apps to work more efficiently, mostly Affinity. I'll definitely be using RP more than in the past.
Many apps will allow you to customize elements of the interface. For Photography apps if possible I like to set a 18% grey background. The reason for this is that it will allow you to better judge your black and whites without being influenced by a black or white background.
Yep...that is one tiny little thing the software designer let us change in their dark world and is also possible in Aperture. I set it to 100% white so I can better see what it will look like on paper.
But I have a problem with the rest of the depressing interface design. A lot of people like the dark version. But why can't we have a choice?
I assume your question "why is it called Lightroom" was in jest. If not, the explanation is simple - it indicates that you do not need to turn out the lights to do your processing, unlike film which is processed in darkrooms ?
entoman: never found a way in the Mac version of Lightroom to change parts of the interface. Only the background for the main image window and the top identity plate can be changed.
So how do you change other parts of the interface?
So yes..only the background tint for the image can be changed. Not the rest of the user interface. I am looking at an image with a little white, grey or black border in the middle of a large dark muddy pool of grey where all the controls are. When I switch to the Aperture interface it feels like the lights go on. It actually makes me feel happy.
@Nik - how does it handle XMP for items like rating, keywords and other library type functions? Does it write the data back into standard fields within the images for those file formats that can handle it?
@Edward Artiste - the editing, rating, and filtering functionality is the same whether you use Photos or the file system. The big difference is that there is no cloud synching when using the file system browser.
@Nik - thx for the response... but to me, this is a MAJOR fault and a reason not to use the software. You are confining users to a single product and all their work i stuck in that system... you might want to roadmap that sooner rather than later as I doubt many serious photographers will be thrilled with the closed loop for their metadata.
Sorry you are not happy with the decoding of your RAW. Apple's RAW engine is capable of working with the full range of the image not just 8-bits. A good way to lift the shadows in an image like the one you describe is to use the Black Point slider in RAW Processing. You can also confirm its ability to work with greater than 8 bit data by dragging the exposure slider down on an overexposed image.
Respectfully: The test that biggerountry describes doing with this new version of Raw Power suggests there are severe limits to what Raw Power 3 can do with 14 bit raw files--at least on an iOS device, and that ACR (version number assumed to 11 something), which biggercountry calls "Lightroom", appears to be much more capable with 14 bit files.
I can assure you that it's working on the RAW data and not a JPEG. That said, I would be happy to try to figure out why it's not working for you. If you don't mind, please email [email protected] and I can work through it with you. Thanks.
@HowaboutRAW: Thank you for your reply. There are indeed some differences between Apple's RAW decoding on iOS and Mac. As I am an external developer, I do not have deep insight into those differences, but I would not call them severe limits. Apple RAW can certainly work with high bit depth images - I have used it with overexposed 14-bit Nikon D810 images in the past. I always try to be open-minded, so I suggested to biggercountry that we try to troubleshoot this to determine what is going on.
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