Birthdays at Photoshop and Lightroom

[scott kirkpatrick]

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(Mods:  This doesn't belong here, but I don't know where it should go, and still be seen.  Please move it and leave a link...)

Interesting article by Jeff Schewe on the 30th birthday of Photoshop, the 17th birthday of ACR, and the 13th birthday of LightRoom at 

https://photopxl.com/happy-birthday-ditital-imaging/

I was particularly taken by his rant on how the use of DNG by everyone would cost no proprietary advantages (everybody's files have to be readable or Adobe can't do anything with them), and would speed the support of every new camera model.  DNG, which is not even uniformly used within the L-mount consortium, is a real contribution to image permanence.  Thanks, Leica!  I knew that DNG is essentially the TIFF format extended or perhaps specialized for electronic imaging and is thus more than 30 years old.  But I didn't know before seeing Jeff's article that much of the technology came from George Lucas' ILM shop.

(Thanks, TOP, for the link.)

Edited February 21, 2020 by scott kirkpatrick

[Jeff S]

Scott, you might appreciate Schewe’s two books, The Digital Negative and The Digital Print.  Lots of behind the scenes background as well as excellent primers. 

Jeff

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[zeitz]

Adobe also owns the TIFF format.  TIFF is not raw; it is more similar to PSD.  Both preserve layers if desired.

I long for a world where all digital cameras would use DNG and all digital cameras would update to CF Express memory cards.

[scott kirkpatrick]

17 hours ago, zeitz said:

Adobe also owns the TIFF format.  TIFF is not raw; it is more similar to PSD.  Both preserve layers if desired.

I long for a world where all digital cameras would use DNG and all digital cameras would update to CF Express memory cards.

Digital formats for images go back a long way.  When I was at IBM, I had colleagues who played a role in creating the JPEG, MPEG and even  earlier compression standards.  So TIFF came out of the search for common file standards for storing these.  Digital photography came later.  My impression is that TIFF is as close to public as any of this stuff, and that Adobe isn't the obstacle to further standardization.  All the documents seem to be free.  But it is so broad that calling it a standard is almost meaningless.  You can make innovative use of something that TIFF and DNG permit, then discover that several apps in common use will not show your pictures, so it's back to the drawing board.

Having a slot shaped for SD cards in my laptop  adds a nuisance factor to XCD and CF Express , but that slot will soon go away.  I use XCD in my S1R and it is really fast to download.  

17 hours ago, Jeff S said:

Scott, you might appreciate Schewe’s two books, The Digital Negative and The Digital Print.  Lots of behind the scenes background as well as excellent primers. 

I thought I had Schewe's "Digital Negative" (maybe it's on Kindleapp) but couldn't find it just now.  I have several of Bruce Fraser's books, but I wonder to what extend the steady change in digital processing algorithms undermine the value of those.  To my mind, the basic photographer's library consists of Ansel Adams' "The Print" and "The negative" plus David Vestal's "The Craft of Photography." and I have returned to those for many years.

Edited February 22, 2020 by scott kirkpatrick

[zeitz]

TIFF is indeed very old.  It was not developed by Adobe.  But it is now owned by Adobe who acquired it by purchasing the previous owner.  All of Adobe's photo file formats, including PSD, are  in the public domain, with one exception.  (I don't remember the exception.)  That is, Adobe has made every effort to publish their standards for these formats in open locations.  Legally at that point Adobe can't claim (and doesn't claim) that the standards are proprietary.  Standards can be broad or restrictive depending on the intent of the publishing group.  If an app can't open a file, it is the apps fault.  It is not a fault with the standard.

SD cards are fragile, unreliable and slow, but cheap.  They were great when the card was introduced, but the world of flash drives has moved on considerably.  CF express is small enough physically and very fast, driven by the video industry.  The biggest problem with XQD and CF Express is that the cards are still expensive.

[Jeff S]

5 hours ago, scott kirkpatrick said:

I thought I had Schewe's "Digital Negative" (maybe it's on Kindleapp) but couldn't find it just now.  I have several of Bruce Fraser's books, but I wonder to what extend the steady change in digital processing algorithms undermine the value of those.  To my mind, the basic photographer's library consists of Ansel Adams' "The Print" and "The negative" plus David Vestal's "The Craft of Photography." and I have returned to those for many years.

I was mostly referring to your opening comment about his DNG rant, the George Lucas background, etc. Schewe explains in the book that the title, The Digital Negative, was a takeoff from Ansel’s book, which Schewe viewed as essential.  He also co-authored two of Fraser’s books, at Fraser’s request, and joined with Fraser and others to form Pixel Genius. As an alpha tester of Photoshop, Lightroom and Camera Raw, he became buddies with Knoll, Hamburg and others. I thought his background made many comments throughout his books richer and more credible, not necessarily groundbreaking or essential.

Jeff

[scott kirkpatrick]

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TIFF was built by Aldus, whom Adobe absorbed.  All of the standards, JPEG, MPEG, and even MP3 -- created because the MPEG audio layer somehow dropped out Suzanne Vega's vocal on the a capella "Tom's Diner" -- came together in the mid 1980s.

On standards that are too broad, I have a specific example in mind, where Apple and Microsoft both had apps, standard and free on their platforms, which wouldn't play the exotic format, even though it conformed to the TIFF/DNG requirements.  You're not going to fight that.

[zeitz]

The same is true of USB-C.  The USB-C standard allows for custom protocols.  Thunderbolt 3 is a custom protocol implemented according to the USB-C standard.  However Thunderbolt 3 only works with macOS; it does not work with Windows 10.  The standard is intentionally broad and allows for proprietary software while still adhering to the standard.

It really gets confusing with cables.  USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 cables look the same externally with the same connectors.  Thunderbolt 3 cables can be used for USB-C; but some USB-C cables won't work with Thunderbolt 3.

Edited February 22, 2020 by zeitz

[zeitz]

The Adobe Photoshop file format that is still propriety is .psdc.  It stands for Photo Shop Document Cloud.  The new feature in this format facilitates filing sharing / editing across mobile platforms.