About the photo editor which is embedded into fotoARRAY

When we created fotoARRAY some years ago, many users wanted some kind of photo editing right inside the organizing software. This is practical when you just want to quickly crop an image, straighten it or change the exposure. Version 2 was already able to open RAW files, but the interface, the functions and the output quality were not really good. So for version 3 we rewrote this tool entirely.

It is now based on its own RAW engine. It follows ideas found in dcraw, but it is an original implementation. Because of the programming language we use and also because patended algorithms have to ve avoided, it may not be the fastest tool around, but it tries to do developing right. It processes exposure, shadows and highlights in the right order, so none of the precious data in your RAW files is wasted. Most tools also work on already developed images such as JPEG or TIFF. For the best noise reduction and lens correction, we recommend pre-developing your RAW files to DNG with DxO's excellent PureRAW.

fotoARRAY Free includes all the basic controls you need to develop a RAW image. It uses the fast and efficient PPG demosaicing algorithm, which gives natural-looking images. The "Falloff Correction" slider works on top of the automatic lens correction and brightens the edges of the image (the full image, not the crop). Drag it left or right for different vignette shapes.

In "Tone Controls", four sliders go even further:

    The "Color" tab holds white balance and the color tools. The "Detail" tab has the controls for sharpening fine details and reducing blur.

    The automatic curve (in three flavours: Auto, Landscape, Portrait) already gives you a good starting point for any edit. Because of the way fotoARRAY is built, it never throws data away. If the RAW file still has headroom in the shadows after the automatic curve, you can still brighten black areas.

    fotoARRAY PRO adds advanced tools for when you want to go further: the curve tool, color grading, and Clarity with several fine controls. It also offers a more advanced demosaicing algorithm with two original optimizations, one for more detail and one for less noise.

    It also invites you to experiment. Among other tools you will find:

    Note: The fotoARRAY user interface is fully scalable. Press Ctrl+Alt+Plus or Ctrl+Alt+Minus to make it larger or smaller.

    How to use the photo editor

      The Photo editor can be opend for an image in the grid when you press F3.
      You can also CTRL+Click on any image in the fotoARRAY grid to edit it.
      Note: If you select multiple images F3 will bring you first into the compare view, from there double click sends an image to the editor. 

      Overview

      This manual describes the Free edition: what you see, what every button does and how you save and export your pictures.
      Many of the buttons also have context menues, please click right to open them.

      1. The window

      The window has four areas:

      The toolbar at the top carries the buttons described in chapter 2. It also shows short status messages, for example after a click on a button.

      The picture in the middle shows the current development. It is updated while you move a slider.

      The parameter panel on the right holds the sliders, sorted into the pages Light, Color and Detail.

      The filmstrip at the bottom shows all pictures you have opened. It appears as soon as two or more pictures are open.

      The title bar shows the file name, a star * when the picture has unsaved changes, the position in the filmstrip, for example (3 / 12), and [RAW] for a RAW file.

      The program starts with the dark interface. The language is English unless you switch to German with the language button.

      2. The toolbar buttons

      The buttons are listed from left to right. Hover a button to see its tooltip.

      Files

      OpenOpen (Ctrl+O) opens the Windows file dialog. You can select several pictures at once; they are all added to the filmstrip. The context menu lets you select the exclusive mode, a new opened images replaces the one which was loaded.

      SaveSave (Ctrl+S) stores the development. What is written is chosen in the right-click menu of this button.
      You can also save the original files together with the development recipe to a different folder.
      You can also save a variant, this create a new recipe which works on the same original file.

      ExportExport (Ctrl+E) opens the export dialog with target folder, size and quality.
      PRO: When doing the export you can resize the image and you can also create a white frame or add a water-mark.
      The created image can be sent directly to a preview window where you can check and compare developed images.
      If several prevides are open they can zoom and scroll syncronized: you the shortcuts A (align) and Y (synchronize), R to rotate.

      Editing

      UndoUndo (Ctrl+Z) takes back the last change.

      RedoRedo (Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z) repeats a change you have taken back.

      ResetReset sets all sliders of the picture back to their start values. Reset can be undone.

      View

      100 % Accurate View: If enabled, some slower tools such as sharpening are applied to the image in the editor. In the context menu you can select in which resolution the editor works, the full image or a reduced resolution for more speed.

      Compare at 100 %Compare at 100 % places a frame on the picture. Move it to a detail and press OK.
      A window shows the detail at 100 % as it looks with the different demosaic methods. The Free edition uses the method Normal; the other tiles show what the PRO edition offers. Close the window to end the mode. Click in the editor to move the source rectangle or pan the view in the overlay window.

      FitFit (Ctrl+0) fits the whole picture into the window.

      FilmstripFilmstrip (Ctrl+G) shows or hides the filmstrip. It works from two open pictures on. Use the context menu to remove frames.

      CompareCompare shows the picture before and after the development. A simple click switches the comparison on and off. Ctrl+click or a right click opens a menu:

      Comparison: Off shows only the edited image. Before shows only the starting point; the badge at the top right of the picture switches it off again. Divider shows the before state on the left and the result on the right. Drag the divider across the picture. This is the default.

      Before shows:The unedited image or the camera preview from the RAW file, which is the JPEG the camera stored inside the RAW file. The camera preview is the default, so you can compare your development with the camera's own result.

      HistogramHistogram shows or hides the histogram over the picture. A right click chooses its position: Top left, Bottom left or Top right. Hover a letter of the histogram to see a single input channel. The position is remembered.

      Automatic and tools

      Auto developAuto develop applies the automatic curve control. Usually the cureve is automatically applied. You can control the auto mode in its context menu by selecting off or a different option. If switched off, the auto curve is not applied for loaded images, click the button to see the menu to apply a specific one. Note: In the first tab you can toggle the auto curve.

      ToolsTools opens the tool menu. In the Free edition it contains:

      No tool (handles) returns to the plain view.

      White balance picker: click a neutral grey or white spot in the picture, and Warmth and Tint are set so that this spot becomes neutral.

      ToolsAll modes off ends every active mode: no handles, no picker and no comparison. The same happens when you press Esc or Enter in the picture.

         

      Light / darkLight / dark switches between the light and the dark interface.

      3. Opening pictures

      There are four ways to open pictures:

      Open button or Ctrl+O: choose one or more files in the file dialog.

      Explorer and command line: start fotoARRAYRAW with a picture, for example with Open with in Windows Explorer. If the program is already running, the picture is passed to the open window.

      fotoARRAY File Browser:   (This is an optional tool which comes with the PRO license.) Choose Develop on a picture.

      The filmstrip only contains the pictures you have opened. It does not load the rest of the folder automatically.

      Supported files:  fotoARRAY opens the RAW files of all common cameras (CR2, CR3, NEF, NRW, ARW, RAF, ORF, DNG) and the image formats JPEG, PNG and TIFF. A few RAW types, especially those that use restricted compression methods, need the free Adobe DNG Converter to be installed. fotoARRAY then uses it to make an intermediate DNG copy that the developer can work with. This only happens once per RAW file and usually takes just a few seconds.

      4. The parameter panel

      The panel has three pages: Light, Color and Detail. Each page contains groups of sliders. The group header has a small triangle to collapse or expand the group, and a checkbox to switch the whole group off. Switching a group off keeps its values; switch it on again and they are back.

      Working with sliders

      Drag a slider to change the value. The picture follows at once. Press the ALT key for finer control of the movement,

      Double click a slider row to set it back to its default value.

      Ctrl + double click a group title to set all sliders of the group back.

      Hold the small peek button at the left of the value to see the picture without this setting. Release it to see the result again.

      At the bottom of the panel are Undo, Redo, the Template menu and the ... button, which opens the tool menu. The template menu can copy and paste the settings of a picture and export or import them as a file.

      Tone

      Exposure brightens or darkens the whole picture in exposure values, like a longer or shorter exposure.

      Brightness lifts or lowers the middle tones and leaves black and white in place.

      Contrast increases or decreases the difference between dark and bright areas.

      Dynamic compresses a large brightness range, so that both shadows and highlights keep detail.

      Deep shadows, Shadows, Midtones and Highlights change one range of brightness each, from the darkest to the brightest parts of the picture. Blacks and Whites cut the tonal range from their respective ends. PRO also lets you adjust the tonal range (zones) each tool affects, using a histogram right below the sliders.
      PRO also includes Highlight Recovery ("L. recovery" for RAW only). When raising the exposure washes out bright areas, it restores their detail, as long as the RAW file still contains the data.

      Dehaze removes haze and mist and restores contrast in distant parts of a landscape.

      Sky darkens or brightens the sky - it works on the top aera of the image.

      Graduated filter darkens or lightens the lower part of the picture gradually, like a graduated filter on the lens.

      Falloff correction brightens the darker corners that many lenses produce. Drag it left or right to change the shape of the vignette correction.

      Soft Highlights (checkbox) rolls off very bright areas softly instead of cutting them to white.

      Automatic Curve

      The checkbox in the header switches the automatic tone curve on and off. USe the popup menu in the MagicWand icon to select the type of auto curve: Auto, Portrait or Landscape for more contrast. (Apply to curve is part of the PRO edition and copies the curve to the curve tool which is not included in the Free edition)

      White balance

      White balance preset chooses the starting point: As shot, Camera, Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash or Custom.

      Warmth moves the colours towards blue (cooler) or orange (warmer).

      Tint (green/magenta) corrects a green or magenta cast, for example from fluorescent light.

      WB Kelvin sets the colour temperature of the light directly in Kelvin.

      The quickest way is often the White balance picker in the tool menu. Click a spot that should be neutral grey.

      Color

      Saturation strengthens or weakens all colours evenly.

      Vibrance strengthens mainly the weak colours and protects skin tones and colours that are already strong.

      Hue shift turns all colours around the colour wheel.

      Invert (negative) turns a scanned negative into a positive.

      Sharpness

      Sharpen sets the strength of the sharpening.

      Radius sets the size of the details that are sharpened. Small values sharpen fine textures, larger values give outlines more contrast.

      Threshold leaves smooth areas such as skin or sky out of the sharpening.

      Edge mask limits sharpening to real edges, so that noise is not sharpened.

      Blur (soften) softens the picture.

      Judge sharpness at 100 % (Ctrl+1) or use the magifying glass feature . At smaller zoom levels the preview cannot show fine detail. 

      Note: The PRO Edition adds Clarity, with separate control over several levels of detail.
      It also includes three carefully crafted demosaicing algorithms: Universal, Detail and Low Noise.

      5. Moving around in the picture

      Mouse wheel: zoom in and out around the mouse pointer.

      Drag with the left mouse button when you have zoomed in and no tool is active: move the visible part. A small navigator map appears; click in it to jump to another part of the picture.

      Drag with the middle mouse button: move the visible part, also while a tool is active.

      Ctrl + double click: switch between Fit and a 4x magnification at the pointer.

      Filmstrip: click a thumbnail to open that picture. Every picture keeps its own settings. A right click on a thumbnail offers Copy parameters and Paste parameters, the fastest way to give several pictures the same development.

      6. Saving

      fotoARRAYRAW does not change your original file. Your development is stored next to the picture as a small recipe file with the extension .fadev. It also contains a small thumbnail. When you open the picture again, the recipe is loaded and you continue where you stopped.

      A right click on the Save button chooses what Save (Ctrl+S) writes:

      As .fadev: the recipe file. On by default.

      Beside the picture: _dev.jpg: a full size JPEG named picture_dev.jpg next to the original. On by default.

      Choose target ...: asks for a file name and folder every time.

      /_final/*: as 6 MP JPEG or as 12 MP JPEG: a smaller JPEG in the subfolder _final of the picture folder, handy for sharing. Only one of the two can be on.

      Overwrite an existing '*_dev.jpg': without this option a new name is used, so an earlier result is never lost.

      Auto save: the recipe is saved automatically when you switch to another picture or close the program. On by default. When it is off, the program asks on exit whether changed pictures should be saved.

      Save as a variant: stores the current settings as a second version of the same picture, for example a colour and a black and white version. A variant is a small .favar file; it appears in the filmstrip behind the original with a badge. The RAW file is not copied.

      The first time a picture is saved in a session, the previous recipe is kept as a backup file ending in .fadev.orig.

      7. Export

      Export (Ctrl+E) writes the developed picture as a JPEG file. The dialog Export images offers:

      Folder: the target folder. Leave it empty to write the result next to the picture. Subfolder adds a folder name below it.

      Size: Original, a Long edge in pixels, or a percentage. Aspect ratio and Portrait follows the image control the format of portrait and landscape pictures.

      Compression: the JPEG quality.

      Sharpening: output sharpening for screen or print, and the colour space sRGB, Adobe RGB or ProPhoto. Use sRGB for the web.

      Name suffix and File name: how the new file is named.

      Metadata and Write XMP: which camera data is copied and whether an XMP file is written. (PRO)

      Attach recipe: stores the recipe with the result, so that the receiver can see how the picture was made.

      Replace existing: overwrite files with the same name.

      With the [+] button you can switch on a second output, /_final/*.jpg: a JPEG with a long edge of 2048 pixels in the subfolder _final.

      The Free edition exports JPEG files in full resolution, without a watermark and without a size limit. TIFF and DNG, several outputs, watermarks and borders, the choice of the demosaic method and the export in a separate process are part of the PRO edition. Using the speparate process, you can continue to edit images since the development takes place in the background.

      8. Keyboard shortcuts

      Ctrl+O Open

      Ctrl+S Save

      Ctrl+E Export

      Ctrl+Z Undo

      Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z Redo

      Ctrl+0 Fit

      Ctrl+1 100 %

      Ctrl+G Show or hide the filmstrip

      Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V Copy / paste the settings of the picture

      Ctrl+Alt+Plus / Ctrl+Alt+Minus Scale the user interface up or down in steps of 10 %

      Ctrl+Alt+0 Interface back to 100 %

      Esc or Enter in the picture: leave the active tool

      R - rotate the image

      11. A typical workflow

      1. Open an image in the editor (usually directly from the catalog - F3)

      2. Press the magic wand and choose Auto tone for a good starting point.

      3. If the colours are not neutral, use the White balance picker from the tool menu and click a grey or white spot.

      4. Fine tune with Exposure, Shadows and Highlights.

      5. Use Export to create a high resolution image.