texshooter wrote in post #18317046
Why does Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw fail to show the white balance type selected in camera? For example, see below. When I took the shot, I had the camera's white balance set to SHADE. Instead of showing "Shade", it shows "Manual." What if i forgot what it was set to? Why is that information not kept by Bridge or ACR. Everything else under the sun is.
It is because it is Exif information and Exif (Exchangeable image file format) is a standardized index controlled by two Japanese trade organizations, Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association and Camera & Imaging Products Association. Both the obligatory fields and the allowed informational contents for each field are dictated by the standard. For White Balance the info can be either "Auto" or "Manual". Any other more detailed WB information is contained in an entirely different section of the metadata called Maker Notes in which Canon has a great deal more freedom in determining its contents. This is part of the Maker Notes from a 5D2 which was set to use an intentionally inaccurate custom WB which elsewhere in the Maker Notes is identified as "Custom" and in the Exif is listed as "Manual":
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© tzalman [SHARE LINK] THIS IS A LOW QUALITY PREVIEW. Please log in to see the good quality stuff. Notice that the As Shot numbers are very different from the measured values that the camera would have used for Auto WB.
The only part of all this that ACR pays attention to is the As Shot multipliers applied to the red and blue channels, which it uses as the basis for calculating its own As Shot WB.
The problem that Adobe and other third party software makers have is that the camera makers use the freedom they have in Maker Notes to change the way the info is listed with each new model. That is part of the reason why new support has to be added to the Raw converters for each new camera. (A dozen years ago Nikon even tried to encrypt it - that created a furor). Theoretically Adobe could look in the Maker Notes in order to tell you what WB preset was set in the camera, but because they would have to program ACR/Bridge to find it in a different spot for each camera, they just read the Exif.
