Did you know that 40% of Lightroom users convert their proprietary raw files to the open DNG standard upon import? That finding, plus other interesting news bits (e.g. Noritsu Koki enabling raw printing at retail via DNG) are covered in Lightroom PM Tom Hogarty’s recent blog post. Adobe hasn’t made a lot of noise about the format lately, but it’s great to see it gaining traction and helping to address some real-world problems.
Category Archives: DNG
Casio spitfire cranks out 1,200fps, does DNG
If the minigun-wielding Jesse the Body character from Predator bought a digital camera, he might well choose the Casio EX-F1. According to Macworld, "Casio will put on sale in March a digital still camera capable of shooting up to 60 full-resolution images in one second, and video at more than 1,000 per second to realize a super slow-motion effect." Engadget’s got some more details and video captured by the cam. Lightroom/Camera Raw PM Tom Hogarty notes that the EX-F1 uses the open DNG format to store its raw captures.
Speaking of DNG, author/photographer Ben Long has released his Convert Raw to DNG Automator Action, enabling easy conversion to DNG via AppleScript. Solid.
For more memory-crushing camera goodness, see previous.
Camera Raw updated to 4.3.1; LR to follow
Photoshop’s Camera Raw plug-in has been updated to version 4.3.1 (download for Mac, Win) to address two problems discovered following the release of v4.3 a couple of weeks ago:
- Compressed raw files from the Nikon D100 were read incorrectly in Camera Raw 4.3
- A possible artifact in Camera Raw 4.3 raw file support for the Olympus E-3 has been corrected
The same fixes plus a few others are slated for inclusion in Lightroom 1.3.1, due shortly. Tom Hogarty has posted additional details on the Lightroom Journal.
Camera Raw 4.2, Lightroom 1.2 now available
I’m pleased to report that Camera Raw 4.2 (download for Mac|Win) and Lightroom 1.2 (Mac|Win) are now available for download from Adobe.com, and via the Adobe Update Manager (choose Help->Updates within Photoshop or Lightroom).
These releases add support for a number of cameras (and yes, 40D shooters, you can stop stuffing the feature request form now ;-)):
Canon
|
Panasonic
|
Fuji
|
Pentax
|
Leaf
|
Phase One
|
Olympus
|
Sony
|
It’s possible to use these cameras in older versions of Photoshop by converting their proprietary formats to DNG using the new version of the free DNG Converter. In case you want the full details of what’s new & improved in these releases, read on for this post’s extended entry.
New open-source XMP library from Adobe
Good news for metadata-minded developers: Adobe has posted a new update (v4.1) of its XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform)
technology for manipulating
metadata. The source code has been released under
the same open source license as its previous versions. According to the press release, the update
…significantly extends Adobe’s past XMP offerings by providing new libraries for developers to read, write and update XMP in popular image, document and video file formats including JPEG, PSD, TIFF, AVI, WAV, MPEG, MP3, MOV, INDD, PS, EPS and PNG…
The XMP Core enables the parsing, manipulating and serializing of XMP data, and the XMP Files enables the reading, rewriting, and injecting serialized XMP into the multiple file formats. The XMP Files can be thought of as a "file I/O" component for reading and writing the metadata that is manipulated by the XMP Core component.
We’ve seen good uptake of XMP in the developer community (e.g. Apple calls it "industry standard"; Microsoft calls it "the foundation for our ‘truth is in the file’ goal"), and hopefully the new library will help the momentum continue. In particular XMP is supported in the DNG format, paving the way to standardized raw files that function as rich packages (embedding multiple sets of editing instructions & multiple rendered previews).
DNG notes: Compatibility, Color, Hasselblad
A reader named Trace pointed out a discussion happening on the Inside Aperture blog, where there’s been some confusion about the DNG format. Specifically, there’s been concern that if Adobe were to drop support for conveting from a particular format to DNG, those files would become incompatible with DNG-reading software. Not to worry:
- Right now photographers who want to use DNG mostly rely on Adobe software to do the conversion, but that’s not a requirement: the format is publicly documented, and Adobe provides open-source code for implementing DNG reading and writing (via the free DNG SDK).
- There’s no relationship between the DNG Converter being able to convert a file to DNG, and DNG-reading software’s ability to read DNGs from that camera. Even if Adobe were to stop supporting conversion from a particular format (something that seems unlikely, but which is possible), DNGs made from that format would remain perfectly readable by DNG-aware apps.
- It’s true that the DNG Converter does need to be updated for new proprietary raw file formats. That’s the benefit that Adobe is providing: the translation of an unknown to a defined standard. And beyond the conversion experience, ask any photographer using a Leica M8 or Pentax K10D how much they appreciate instant support from the moment their first raw file is captured.
- I’ve heard from certain camps that DNG is a bit of an empty promise, that these companies really have to do custom work for each camera & that they therefore can’t support DNGs made from cams they don’t support. If that’s the case, why are DNGs compatible with Camera Raw in Photoshop CS1, which was last updated some two years ago? It may be that a developer will want to do custom work for a camera, even if images from that camera are in DNG format, but doing so isn’t a requirement. [Update: See the comments on this story for more info on these points.]
At the end of the day, your photos are your photos, and you shouldn’t be beholden to Adobe or to any other company to read them. Ultimately Adobe would like to turn stewardship of the format over to a standards body, but we’ve wanted to let it build momentum first.
While I’ve got your ear on the subject of DNG, here’s a bit more that may be of interest:
- Lightroom and Camera Raw support the
Hasselblad H2D, but the H3D raw file is 3FR, not DNG. Why is that, and what does it mean? In short, before handing off data to raw conversion/workflow software, Hasselblad wants to do additional custom processing that isn’t practical to do in-camera. According to the Hasselblad site,"3FR files can be converted into Adobe’s raw image format DNG (‘Digital NeGative’), bringing this new technology standard to the professional photographer for the first time. In order to optimize the colors of the DNG file format, conversion from the 3FR must take place through FlexColor. The DNG file format enables raw, compressed image files to be opened directly in Adobe Photoshop. Hasselblad image files carry a full set of metadata, including capture conditions, keywords and copyright, facilitating workflow with image asset management solutions."
- Carl Weese wrote a piece called "There’s DNG—And Then There’s DNG," in which he mentions that his white balance settings changed after he updated to Camera Raw 3.7. Thomas Knoll notes that to get the previous appearance, it’s possible to choose that option in the Camera Calibration popup menu. (I don’t have any of these files on hand, so I haven’t tried this myself.)
Non-destructive JPEG: An oxymoron?
When cameras capable of shooting digital raw files started hitting the mainstream (roughly five years ago, give or take), one of the advantages of shooting raw was that editing had to be non-destructive. That is, because the pixel data hadn’t yet been converted into traditional RGB channel data, applications like Photoshop couldn’t poke at it directly. This in turn meant that conversion parameters had to be stored as sets of instructions, rather than as burned-in as pixel edits.
Photographers have now become familiar and comfortable with the idea of moving & storing the captured bits along with the "special sauce" used by their raw processing app of choice. The XMP files that are (optionally) parked next to images by Adobe Camera Raw & Lightroom make this particularly easy. The fact that the DNG format supports built-in metadata & rendered previews turns it into a kind of envelope (or "job jacket," to borrow Peter Krogh’s phrase)–a container that stores your negative, your processing instructions, and your rendered print. As editing tools get richer–for example, with Lightroom’s ability to store multiple settings per file–the benefits of this approach grow.
But what about non-raw files? Both Lightroom and Camera Raw now offer the ability to edit JPEG and TIFF files, so that no matter what format(s) your camera generates, you can use the same non-destructive tools. So now a photojournalist or sports shooter, say, could shoot JPEGs, apply edits in the field (soft crops, non-destructive dust busting, tonal corrections, etc.), and upload the original files plus their processing instructions.
This poses some tricky questions, however. Fundamentally, is it okay that Adobe is putting "special sauce" into the metadata of JPEGs, causing them to appear differently when viewed in the latest Adobe editing tools than in other apps? Is it okay to extend the JPEG standard? A few things to consider:
- Adding this metadata to JPEGs doesn’t damage the files in any way, or degrade other tools’ ability to read the pixels. The data is simply ignored by tools other than Lightroom/ACR/Photoshop/Bridge. Adobe tools are leveraging the flexibility that’s already in the format.
- Generating a copy of the image with the edits burned in (i.e. with the pixels changed) is a one-click task.
- Putting the metadata into the files makes it more easily portable than requiring a sidecar file.
- One alternative would be to bake Lightroom/ACR edits into JPEGs immediately, thereby negating the advantage of non-destructiveness. Another would be to force the JPEG to be converted to another format, making it clear that something had changed, but rendering those images unreadable by other tools. Forcing either approach, however, seemed like a bad idea.
So, there are pros and cons to any approach, but the one we’re pursuing makes it possible to enjoy the portability and non-destructiveness of raw editing using non-raw files. It’s done in a way that lets JPEGs be extended easily & without damage. If you’re concerned about using this approach, you can convert JPEG & TIFF files to DNG (an option I’ll address separately in a bit)–but that conversion isn’t forced on anyone.
My take is that the flexibility it opens up is more than worth the cost. What do you think?
Why Adobe doesn't touch proprietary raw files
Touching the bits of raw image formats that aren’t publicly documented well (or at all) seems like a bad idea, bound to end in tears. Microsoft is advising customers not to edit metadata using Vista, saying,
Microsoft has received reports of compatibility issues with Nikon NEF files after installing version 1.0 of Nikon’s raw codec posted in January. Tagging the raw files through Windows Vista or the Microsoft Photo Info tool after the codec is installed appears to cause these files to become unreadable in other applications, such as Adobe Photoshop. [Via]
I’m sure the problem will get sorted out soon enough, but it does illustrate why Camera Raw and Lightroom insist on using sidecar data files for raw formats other than DNG. It’s less convenient, but we’ve seen far too many conflicts arise from touching metadata in these other formats. DNG was designed with flexible internal storage of metadata in mind, and now Lightroom and Bridge offer conversion to DNG as part of their photo-import processes. (For what it’s worth, on my MacBook Pro, converting an 8MP CR2 file to DNG takes roughly 1-1.5 seconds–not a bad price for portability & reduced file size.)
Camera Raw 3.6 now available
We’ve released the final, shipping version of Camera Raw 3.6 (previously available in beta form) along with DNG Converter 3.6. You can grab it for Mac (the converter is Universal, by the way) or Windows. This release adds support for the following cameras:
- Canon EOS 400D / Rebel XTi
- Fuji FinePix S6000fd
- Fuji FinePix S9100/9600
- Leica D-LUX3
- Leica Digilux 3
- Leica V-LUX 1
- Nikon D80
- Olympus E400
- Olympus SP-510 UZ
- Panasonic DMC-LX2
- Pentax K100D
- Pentax K110D
- Samsung GX 1L
As always, please take a second to ensure that you install the plug-in into the correct spot:
Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Plug-ins/CS2/File Formats/…
Win: \Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Plug-ins\CS2\File Formats\…
The full list of 140+ supported cameras is on the Camera Raw product page.
Camera Raw 3.6 beta now available
As promised, the next rev to Adobe Camera Raw & the DNG Converter has been on an accelerated development schedule, and now beta releases of both have been posted for Mac (Universal) and Windows. New (preliminary) support in this release includes the following cameras:
- Canon EOS 400D / Rebel XTi
- Leica D-LUX3
- Leica Digilux 3
- Nikon D80
- Panasonic DMC-LX2
- Pentax K100D
These join the cameras just added in ACR 3.5: - Kodak EasyShare P712
- Nikon D2Xs
- Panasonic DMC-FZ50
- Panasonic DMC-L1
- Sony A100
As always, please take a second to ensure that you install the plug-in into the correct spot:
Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Plug-ins/CS2/File Formats/…
Win: \Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Plug-ins\CS2\File Formats\…
The full list of 140 or so supported cameras is on the Camera Raw product page.
Camera Raw 3.5 now available
Adobe Camera Raw 3.5 has been released for Mac and Windows. Newly supported cameras:
- Kodak EasyShare P712
- Nikon D2Xs
- Panasonic DMC-FZ50
- Panasonic DMC-L1
- Sony A100
A couple of notes:
- The DNG Converter is now available as a universal binary for Intel-based Macintosh hardware.
- The new camera support added to Adobe Camera Raw 3.5 is not officially available in Adobe Lightroom beta 3.
- The Nikon D80, Canon 400D/Rebel XTi., and other new cameras were introduced too recently to make the cut for this release, but we’re speeding up the development of ACR 3.6 to accommodate these new models.
As always, please take a second to ensure that you install the plug-in into the correct spot:
Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Plug-ins/CS2/File Formats/…
Win: \Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Plug-ins\CS2\File Formats\…
The full list of 130 or so supported cameras is on the Camera Raw product page.
DNG SDK now available
We’ve just posted the DNG SDK, a set of documentation and tools meant to help hardware manufacturers and software developers add support for the Digital Negative specification. From the download site:
The DNG SDK provides support for reading and writing DNG files as well as for converting DNG data into a format that is easily displayed or processed by imaging applications. This SDK can serve as a starting point for the addition of DNG support to existing applications that use and manipulate images or as an aid to the inclusion of DNG support within cameras.
Developers have been asking for this kind of support for some time, and we hope it’ll spur further adoption of an open, industry-standard raw image format. Every month some 20,000 photographers download the free DNG Converter from Adobe.com (Mac/Win), and broader native support across tools can only help this momentum.
[Update: PhotoshopNews has the press release, which notes that according to a recent InfoTrends study with 1,754 professional photographers, more than 18 percent of photographers use DNG as part of their imaging workflow.]
Tip: Make raw files' EXIF data searchable with DNG
My colleague Fergus Hammond made an interesting discovery while using Mac OS X’s Spotlight feature to hunt for EXIF data in his photos. It seems that Spotlight can’t find the EXIF in some raw formats, but dropping images onto the free DNG Converter makes their metadata readable by Spotlight (not to mention making the image data itself compatible with numerous DNG-aware applications).
I tried an experiment with a handful of Nikon NEF’s from a D2X, and sure enough, converting to DNG made their EXIF data visible to Spotlight; here’s a screenshot. Now, I should mention that I’m not an expert on Spotlight’s capabilities, but these results seem in line with a document on the Apple site that lists “GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, EXIF, DNG” as Spotlight’s supported image formats. On my system (OS 10.4.4) Spotlight can find EXIF data in some (but not all) CRW and CR2 files, so your mileage may vary.
In any case, converting the D2X NEFs to DNG cut the size of each from 19.3 to 11.1MB–a clear benefit in and of itself.
Camera Raw 3.3 now available (yes, with D200 support)
Adobe Camera Raw & the DNG Converter have been updated to version 3.3 and can now be downloaded for Mac and Windows. New camera support includes the Nikon D200 (by very popular request to our inboxes ;-)). Here’s the full list of newly supported cameras (bringing ACR’s total to more than 100):
Canon
- EOS 5D
- EOS 1D Mark II N
- EOS 20Da
Fujifilm
- FinePix E900
- FinePix S5200/5600
- FinePix S9000/9500
Kodak
- EasyShare P850
- EasyShare P880
Mamiya
- ZD
Nikon
- D200
Olympus
- E-500
- SP-310
- SP-350
- SP-500UZ
Pentax
- *ist DL
- *ist DS2
Sony
- DSC-R1
As always, please take a second to ensure that you install the plug-in into the correct spot:
Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Plug-ins/CS2/File Formats/…
Win: \Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Plug-ins\CS2\File Formats\…
Happy shooting,
J.
New DNG utility: Recover Edges
Thomas Knoll has created a new utility called DNG Recover Edges, designed to reveal pixels at the very edges of raw files that are, for various reasons, not shown when these images are displayed normally. The simple droplet utility can recover somewhere between 4 and 16 pixels around the edge of the image–not a big deal for most files, but potentially quite valuable when something is getting clipped at the edge of the frame. (Thomas decided to write the utility after taking a photo of a bird that had its wingtip just outside at the frame. The extra 10 pixels he recovered in that shot were enough to put the entire bird in the shot.)
Michael Reichmann provides additional details & hosts the utilities for download from his Luminous Landscape photography resource site. Please note that the utility is Thomas’s own work, not an Adobe product, and is unsupported.
Trilobites & Kilobytes
I want to prevent cruelty to dead horses & avoid beating them whenever possible, and I hate scare tactics. But sitting on the floor of my apartment this week, trying to hoover the data off my old beige G3/266 and onto my PowerBook, I was reminded of why we’re bothering with this whole DNG thing. Innovation means change, leading to incompatibility, meaning that without some thought given to preservation, your work is at risk.
It was only 5 years ago that the G3 in question was my desktop workhorse, but in simply trying to recover its data I discovered:
- AppleTalk transfer between OS 8.6 and 10.4 fails. The machines could see each other, but transfers would immediately stall. I get why Apple wouldn’t test this scenarios heavily, but still, it’s only been 5 years.
- Connecting a current hard drive was out, given that USB and FireWire weren’t supported on this machine. And good luck finding SCSI components in a store now.
- You can still track down a Zip drive these days, but the new ones can’t write Zip100 disks. Luckily they can still read them.
- GoLive 8 (CS2) can’t read a site file produced by GoLive 4.
- Self-running Director presentations no longer work (my fault, given that I don’t maintain Classic on this machine, but it’s an indicator of the transience of the work).
Sneakernet and Zip disks ended up providing the solution, and as I played three-card monte with the disks, I browsed Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. Reading about the development of the fossil record, I had to smile. Picking through a circa-2000 machine felt a little like looking at the Burgess Shale, searching for signs of life.
In the end I was able to keep the bulk of my data, but the process offered some useful perspective. If talking to a machine from 5 years back was this tricky using the same platform, how would it be for one from ten years back? 15? And how will you get at today’s data in 15 years? Seems like a good case for making images & the edits done to them as open and portable as possible.
Trilobites & Kilobytes
I want to prevent cruelty to dead horses & avoid beating them whenever possible, and I hate scare tactics. But sitting on the floor of my apartment this week, trying to hoover the data off my old beige G3/266 and onto my PowerBook, I was reminded of why we’re bothering with this whole DNG thing. Innovation means change, leading to incompatibility, meaning that without some thought given to preservation, your work is at risk.
It was only 5 years ago that the G3 in question was my desktop workhorse, but in simply trying to recover its data I discovered:
- AppleTalk transfer between OS 8.6 and 10.4 fails. The machines could see each other, but transfers would immediately stall. I get why Apple wouldn’t test this scenarios heavily, but still, it’s only been 5 years.
- Connecting a current hard drive was out, given that USB and FireWire weren’t supported on this machine. And good luck finding SCSI components in a store now.
- You can still track down a Zip drive these days, but the new ones can’t write Zip100 disks. Luckily they can still read them.
- GoLive 8 (CS2) can’t read a site file produced by GoLive 4.
- Self-running Director presentations no longer work (my fault, given that I don’t maintain Classic on this machine, but it’s an indicator of the transience of the work).
Sneakernet and Zip disks ended up providing the solution, and as I played three-card monte with the disks, I browsed Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. Reading about the development of the fossil record, I had to smile. Picking through a circa-2000 machine felt a little like looking at the Burgess Shale, searching for signs of life.
In the end I was able to keep the bulk of my data, but the process offered some useful perspective. If talking to a machine from 5 years back was this tricky using the same platform, how would it be for one from ten years back? 15? And how will you get at today’s data in 15 years? Seems like a good case for making images & the edits done to them as open and portable as possible.
New DNG Automator action
Ben Long has expanded his Photoshop Action Pack with a new Automator action for DNG Conversion. To use it you’ll need the free DNG Converter for Mac. [Update: Thanks to Geoff Stearns for pointing out this DNG Workflow resource that ties the converter together with a folder action and a rename function.]
Adobe Camera Raw 3.3b released
We’ve posted version 3.3 (beta) of Adobe Camera Raw for Mac and Windows. Why beta? We didn’t want to keep people waiting for support of new cameras like the Canon 5D, and at this point we felt comfortable letting a build into the wild. There’s also a dedicated forum for discussing 3.3 beta-specific issues. (Just make sure to install into the correct location.)
This release raises the number of supported cameras to 102, and as always, we’ve also updated the free DNG Converter. That means that applications with less extensive camera support are now automatically compatible with all cameras that Camera Raw supports, provided those applications read DNG. Adobe’s work therefore provides a leg up to competing applications, but it’s worth it to get to the point where photographers no longer have to wait for every application to be revised as new cameras are released.
UPDIG: Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines
UPDIG describes itself as “A working group of digital imaging professionals and allied trade groups and manufacturers, dedicated to promoting worldwide standards in the commercial application of digital imaging.” The group has released its set of 15 guidelines on shooting and working digitally. If that describes your trade, the site is well worth a look.
The guidelines emphasize the need for conversion settings and metadata that can easily be transferred between individual computers and between computing platforms. Adobe Camera Raw never touches your original data, of course, so it writes its information into lightweight XML (XMP) sidecar files next to images. The DNG format was designed to store this data internally, and it’s great to see UPDIG suggesting the use of DNG in their Best Practices documentation.
More DNG Momentum
As I’ve mentioned in past entries, Adobe has been using its leadership in digital imaging to drive development of the Digital Negative specification. DNG addresses the need for a common, openly documented raw format–a solution much requested by customers. So, I wanted to pull together some recent good news on this front:
- Adobe has posted a new press release talking about Ricoh joining the ranks of vendors (Leica, Hasselblad, Samsung) producing DNG directly in-camera.
- The Library of Congress’s Digital Preservation project has expressed a preference for DNG over proprietary raw formats.
- Photographer Barry Pearson has compiled a list of dozens of applications that have added DNG support in the one year since Adobe announced the format.
- Apple Aperture includes support for DNG. Aperture supports about 1/5th as many cameras as Adobe Camera Raw, but by dropping images from the 60+ cameras Aperture doesn’t support onto the free Adobe DNG Converter, you can make the files compatible with Aperture and all the other DNG-aware applications out there.
PS–I’ve always preferred the nice, simple “raw” as the term for this sort of format. Saying “RAW” seems a little aggro (“RAW is WAR!!”), like you need to make the little devil-horns with your hand while saying it. The term is neither an acronym (RAW) nor a proper name (Raw), but rather a generic descriptor for a whole class of formats. Therefore Adobe just says “raw.”
New Ricoh 8MP camera supports DNG
Just a brief entry to note that Ricoh has adopted the Digital Negative specification for raw capture in the just-announced 8 Megapixel compact GR Digital camera. This announcement follows Hasselblad’s announcement last month, plus Leica’s announcement earlier this year.
Adding in-camera support for a new file format takes time and careful consideration, but the advantages of supporting a standard format (immediate compatibility with a wide range of DNG-aware software, for starters) are pretty apparent to customers. It’s great to see manufacturers responding to this demand, and we look forward to this momentum continuing.
DNG Update, Part II
Thomas Knoll, co-creator of Photoshop and author of Camera Raw, arrived in Japan today with a small team from Adobe. They’ll be talking more with camera manufacturers about how we can work together to improve digital workflow. So, there’s no additional news to report yet, but talks are ongoing.
The DNG standard is a relative newborn, having been announced less than a year ago, but we’ve already made more progress than we expected. Support has been widely and quickly implemented on the software side (Capture One, iView MediaPro, Extensis Portfolio, Mac OS X 10.4, etc.). Adding support in hardware takes more time, given that manufacturers were already on established paths with proprietary formats. It’s exciting to see the Hasselblad announcement today. We’ll post more news as it becomes available.
[See also: Jeff Schewe is keeping a list of good articles on DNG, including his own guides to building a DNG workflow.]
Hasselblad adds new cameras, DNG support
Hasselblad has announced new cameras, the H2 and H2D, as well as new camera backs. The press release included the following info of interest to those eager to see a common standard adopted for digital raw capture:
Open standards – redefining the way professional photographers work
Hasselblad has partnered closely with Adobe to make its new products fully compatible with Adobe’s raw image format DNG (‘Digital Negative’), bringing this new technology standard to the professional photographer for the first time. The DNG file format enables raw, compressed image files to be opened directly in Adobe Photoshop CS. This allows photographers to operate quickly and efficiently, reducing the “downtime” taken to process image data and enabling final images to reach the customer more quickly. Hasselblad image files now carry a full set of metadata, including capture conditions, keywords and copyright, facilitating work with image asset management solutions. For specialist commercial photographers the full productivity and creative freedom offered by Hasselblad’s FlexColor workflow software is also available via importing the DNG file. The new FlexColor now allows the photographer to manipulate color temperature and compare image details across multiple images for precise image selection.