Install LCF files (ALPA Lens Corrector) Photoshop CC?

[acapela2017]

Running the current version of Photoshop CC under Windows 10 x64.

Interested in installing/importing the "ALPA Lens Corrector" for use with the Adobe suite. I run the the whole "Creative Cloud" suite, including Photoshop, Lightroom, and whatever remains of Camera Raw.

In its current form, the "ALPA Lens Corrector" consists of a large collection of LCF files (i.e. files ending in the suffix .lcf) for a wide variety of current and historical lens (medium- and large-format) and digital capture (Phase One, Leaf, Hasselblad, Sinar, etc) combinations. This appears to be supplied as-is, without any current documentation.

I can't find any current/relevant documentation/forum posts on how to import third-party lens correction profiles into Photoshop/etc, except via the "Adobe Lens Profile Downloader"... everything I have been able to find is for an older version of Photoshop/etc, and no longer appears to be relevant. However, I tried installing the "Adobe Lens Profile Downloader", which requires Adobe Air for installation, but Adobe Air reports the download, as currently available from Adobe, as "damaged", so that mechanism appears to be moribund. Nor can I find any files ending in the .lcf suffix anywhere in my Adobe installation or AppData that might serve as a clue where to place new LCF files.

Has the Adobe suite moved on to some other mechanism for doing this, rendering the whole ALPA Lens Corrector obsolete?

As an alternative, could I still construct/import my own lens profiles, even if I wanted to? Or, should I be looking at something like DxO ViewPoint for this?

Any pointers to *current* documentation (i.e. for Photoshop CC 2017/2018), if it exists, would be appreciated.

[Jeff Arola]

You use those ALPA Lens Corrector files with the ALPA Lens Corrector plugin from here:

(you have to create an account and login in order to download the plugin)

https://www.alpa.ch/en/article/alpa-lens-corrector

Unfortunately, the plugin on the windows side is 32 bit, so you need a 32 bit version of photoshop to use it.

[acapela2017]

I don't know what to say.

I have an ALPA website account, I am logged in, and all I can find at https://www.alpa.ch/en/article/alpa-lens-corrector is an out-of-date (and apparently now incorrect) manual in PDF, some PDF lens distortion overlays/etc, and a zip archive containing a large number of LCF files. I can find no plugin in that zip archive.

If ALPA's intent is to distribute a Photoshop "plugin", then there must be another download somewhere. I certainly don't see it at https://www.alpa.ch/en/article/alpa-lens-corrector.

So, based on this response, I am going to assume there is no way to use these LCF files in the current version of Photoshop; they are for the ALPA plugin *only*... and beyond that, the plugin does not appear to be available any longer from ALPA?

The only zip archive I can find anywhere on the web containing any version of the actual plugin is from 2009.  Looks like I may be able to finagle a 32-bit version of Photoshop out of Adobe, for "legacy" purposes. I will contact their support and see what I can do (the most recent knowledge-base articles I can find on this are from 2015). Assuming I can arrange that, I will try to install the c. 2009 plugin again.

[acapela2017]

Update: Adobe Support (contacted them via online chat) informs me that 32-bit Photoshop is no longer supported, there is no 32-bit version available, Photoshop is available for 64-bit operating systems only.

Consequence: ZERO further support for legacy plugins like the ALPA Lens Corrector.

(If anyone from Adobe reads this and believes me to have been informed in error, I saved a copy of the entire exchange with Adobe support... and I would be happy to be more correctly informed.)

So, it seems I must look elsewhere to address extreme wide-angle pincusion/barrel/etc distortion (DxO ViewPoint seems like the most attractive alternative tool for this). My Phase One back has not arrived yet, but Perhaps Capture One also has some tools for this, that either already incorporate profiles for my distortion-prone lenses or that will enable me to build my own profiles.

I will tackle all of that in a couple of weeks when everything arrives and I can get hands-on.

[Jeff Arola]

After you login to the ALPA Lens Corrector site click on your name on upper right, then under Members Area you'll see a link to the the ALPA Lens Corrector plugin downloads.

As far as i know adobe still supports 32 bit photoshop or how else would users of 32 bit windows 7 thru 10 use the creative

cloud, so there are most certainly downloads for the 32 bit version of photoshop cc on windows, although adobe hasn't

released the offline installers for cc 2018, the 32 bit versions are available for cc 2017 and older.

Download Creative Cloud apps

Update information for older versions of Adobe Photoshop

[Jeff Arola]

In photoshop have you tried Filter>Lens Correction or Filter>Adaptive Wide Angle or then manual lens corrections in Camera Raw?

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/correcting-image-distortion-noise.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/adaptive-wide-angle-filter.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/using/automatic-perspective-correction-camera-raw.html

I do have DxO ViewPoint and it works quite well, but i don't use it as much anymore since photoshop has much better lens correction tools now than it when i got DxO ViewPoint.

[acapela2017]

That is of immense help. Endless thanks!

I had no idea that the ALPA website had a "member's area", and none of my searching on the Adobe support website resulted in the download page that you cite.

And unfortunately, it sounds like Adobe's own support people are ill-informed, and providing bogus information. Not good. I suspect someone at Adobe would like to know about this, but I have no idea who that would be or how to reach them.

Anyway, let me try installing Photoshop CC 2017 32-bit, and see if I can get the plugin integrated. I will also dig into the organic distortion/perspective-related features you mention in your second reply. Brief examination of these features indicate that none of my lenses are supported specifically, but some of the generic corrections will probably get me 90% of what I need (primarily barrel distortion from extreme wide-angle large-format lenses). Maybe I can print out and shoot one of the test targets that accompany Adobe Lens Profile Creator, using a couple of my more problematic lenses, so I have something geometrically "well-informed" to work with.

Thanks again.

[acapela2017]

Alright, the plugin is installed under Photoshop CC 2017 32-bit, and accessible via "File>Automation>ALPA Lens Corrector".

Once my digital back and new lenses arrive, I will have relevant images in need of correction.

Thanks again for all the help.

[Jeff Arola]

Here's a list of supported cameras/backs and lenses for adobe camera raw.

https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/kb/camera-raw-plug-supported-cameras.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/kb/supported-lenses.html

[acapela2017]

I think I am going to need to be able to originate RAW images with my Phase One equipment before I can see what sort of options are available via Camera Raw.

The images I have, scanned from film, don't seem to result in Camera Raw and its associated plugins presenting me with any choice of supported cameras/lenses. Just the base "manual" corrections are available (plus a comparatively limited selection of  camera/lens-specific options that do not include anything like the breadth of selection implied by the lists those Adobe pages indicate are supported).

And in any event, current-production Rodenstock dedicated digital lenses are not supported by Camera Raw (they are supported by ALPA Lens Corrector), neither are any "legacy" lenses (Mamiya, Hasselblad, Rodenstock, Schneider... some are supported by ALPA Lens Corrector since ALPA offered them as components of their camera system at various points in the past) that might find their way into a current digital/hybrid workflow.

I think I am just going to have to learn how to spot and correct the main types of distortion artifacts "manually". Looking into my crystal ball, I foresee some lens testing in my future...