October 12, 2008

Clarify Tool in Adobe Camera Raw is now more useful!

Has anyone else noticed this little enhancement? The Clarify slider in Adobe Camera Raw, which previously ranged from 0 to 100 now has negative settings. You can set it from -100 to +100. Now, I have been using it often to give images that sometimes needed punch, especially when there is a lot of detail that you want to stand out...but now you can use it to soften the detail as well.



For some images this is exactly what is needed. See this example. Sharp detail is desired in this blossom (as yet unidentified flower) but the background and leaves suffered from "too much detail." I processed this raw file twice, once for the blossom and once for the background/leaves. The left has a clarify setting in the +30-50 range. The right side has a severe negative setting except for the blossom. A mask brought the blossom into sharp focus. Let me know what you think.

Click the image for a larger view.