New in Adobe Camera RAW 17: “Adobe Adaptive” profiles, non-destructive Denoise, and generative expand
Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) v17 just added some very interesting new AI features:
- NEW: “Adobe Adaptive” profiles.
- NEW: “Generative Expand“
- Updated: AI Denoise, Raw Details, and Super Resolution can all be applied non-destructively on even more RAW files (details below).
These features have the ability to get great results more easily and significantly simplify your workflow. Let’s dive into each of them.
What is the new “Adobe Adaptive” profile and how do I use it?
The various profiles we’ve had in the past (Adobe Standard, Adobe Color, etc) are fixed starting points. The new AI-based “Adobe Adaptive” is meant to provide a better starting point by analyzing the image to generate a custom profile. It’s effect is somewhat like adjusting the sliders for increased shadows and decreased highlights. It compresses the tonal range. The greatest benefit seems to in large areas of shadows (common in landscape) or small areas of nearly blown highlights (such as city lights).
In ACR, just click the profile dropdown and select “Adobe Adaptive (beta)“. That’s really it. You’ll immediately see changes and likely some very impressive results. Any existing sliders or local edits will remain as they were. That’s often fine, but you’ll probably want to make some further tweaks to get the most out of it.
Aside from the profile itself, there is an “amount” slider available when in the adaptive profile. If you drag the amount slider down to 0%, you’ll get the same result as the “Adobe Standard” profile. This lets you easily back off from the AI if it is too much. Often times that is the case (the default can look a bit like the results from older tone mapping software where shadows are too light). Conversely, you can increase the amount up to 200% to really lean into the effect it has on the image.
For more info, see Adobe’s post on adaptive profiles.
When should you choose Adobe Adaptive?
Without more experience, it’s hard to predict the best uses for such a complex new may be. This will likely appeal to a lot of novice users who are unclear how to get the kind of incredible results which are typically the norm when shooting with a smart phone. If you’ve struggled to get the best results out of your fancy camera, you’ll probably love this new feature.
My experience so far suggests that a wide range of images may benefit even skilled editors. I have seen some great improvements in things like nearly blown highlights which benefit greatly from the new Adaptive profile. It appears to be safe to use on a wide range of images (including those which have already been edited or use HDR). The quality of results will probably surprise many advanced users.
When should you avoid Adobe Adaptive?
As incredible as this new feature is, there are some scenarios where you may wish to skip the adaptive profile or exercise caution:
- First, keep in mind this is a beta. There may well be bugs and performance may change over time (ie, re-editing later might produce a different result).
- You will not be able to use this feature when working with the Camera RAW filter. At this time, you can only use the adaptive profile when opening RAW images or editing RAW Smart Objects.
- There is likely a long learning curve to optimize results. Some types of images or workflows may be optimal with the adaptive profile, while others may be better with the regular profiles.
- Do not use the adaptive profile in addition to the “auto” button. ACR will explicitly warn you against this, as the auto feature is not currently optimized to work with adaptive. There will likely be many requests for that, as it would be a very handy combination in the future for those seeking very quick and simple edits.
- Those who prefer to work in Lightroom should probably wait, as support is just in ACR for now. You can of course use RAW Smart Objects and view your edited TIF in LR, but you should do the entire edit in PS / ACR if you’re doing to use the adaptive profile.
- Be careful if you enable adaptive preset for images you have already edited, as your sliders may need some tweaking with the new profile. That said, I’ve seen some images which benefit nicely.
What is “generative expand” and how do I use it?
Photoshop’s cropping tool has had “generative expand” for a while. It allows you “outcrop” or expand the image area and use AI to create new pixels at the edge. This is great for things like adding more sky when exporting your image for social media. However, this is a destructive workflow. The new pixels will probably be useless if you change the original edit.
With ACR 17, generative expand can now be done directly in the RAW file. This has a couple of important advantages:
- Non-destructive. You can make any changes you wish to RAW settings and will not have to recreate the new pixels.
- Avoid cropping when making geometry corrections. For example, if you need to tilt or rotate the image to straighten some lines, you may now simply fill in the gaps in the corner rather than cropping out parts of your original image.
To use generative expand:
- enable the technology preview. In Photoshop, go to preferences / File Handling / Camera Raw Preferences / Technology Previews, and check the option there.
- Go to the crop tab (near the top right). This now includes geometry adjustments (aka “transform” in Lightroom).
- Expand the crop and / or make geometry adjustments as desired. If you are cropping, be sure to check “enable expand“.
- Click “generative expand“.
- Note that the results outside your filled area won’t be optimal, so if you need to further expand later, you will likely need to re-run generative expand.
This is a very exciting feature which targets an important need. However, it is definitely a technology preview and the results are sometimes not great. It seems to work best in areas with simple detail or texture, such as expanding the sky. So be sure to check your results for quality. While it isn’t perfect, it’s an exciting new feature and should continue to improve from a great starting point.
What are the benefits of the new “non-destructive” AI enhancements?
Adobe has generated a lot of buzz around several AI features for RAW images, including:
- AI Denoise, which offers incredible improvements on images at any ISO.
- “raw details“, which enhances detail within the native resolution of the image.
- “super resolution“, which doubles the linear resolution of the image (ie 4x the total pixel count).
What’s new is that you no longer need to generate a new image, and a much wider range of RAW files is supported. You simply enable the feature in ACR and your existing RAW image will be enhanced. This has some important benefits:
- Less file clutter, as you aren’t generating a new DNG and no longer need to consider whether you should retain the original RAW (just in case).
- You can upgrade existing edits. For example, if you used RAW Smart Objects for your work, you can simply turn on AI Denoise the improve the final result without having to redo the edit.
- You can work with many more RAW source files, including: HDR and panorama DNG files, Apple ProRAW DNG, Samsung Galaxy Expert Raw DNG, etc.
- Nearly any RAW file should now work (other than exotic sensors such as Fovean).
- Not currently supported: raster images (such as TIF or any use of ACR as a filter) and Lightroom.
To use this feature, you must enable the technology preview (as as above, go to PS preferences / File Handling / Camera Raw Preferences / Technology Previews).
Conclusions:
The vision for these tools is amazing, and I hope to see ongoing improvement to address a few opportunities (which is to be expected for any “tech preview”).
The overall picture in ACR v17.0 is:
- Non-destructive denoise / raw details: Amazing and great to use now. It works like before, but is just much easier and supports more RAW files.
- Adaptive profile: Very helpful for some images. Great for enhancing shadow detail, as well as taming some bright highlights. (Be sure to adjust the “amount” slider to optimize results).
- The generative expand is on the right track. It can be useful for some social media edits, but needs work to be useful for high quality work such as large prints.
Collectively, these show great vision to bring useful AI capabilities into RAW editing, where they can provide the most benefit by allowing you to work in a fully non-destructive manner. This is a great update, and it will be just as exciting to see these capabilities expand and mature over time.