11 Replies to Adobe Camera Raw: Overview:

1. 

   Kevin

   October 14, 2011 at 7:44 pm

   This was a good introduction to Camera Raw. Unfortunately they forgot to mention that if you press the Option key on a Mac, or the Alt key on a Pc, the Open image button changes to Open Copy. Working on a copy in PSE is best so that if you make a mistake, you have not destroyed your original one of a kind photo. The cancel button also changes to Reset, so you don’t have to open your photo up again. It just resets your changes that you made.
   Not all camera’s display a camera calibration, the only choices I get are Adobe Standard, ACR 3.5, and ACR 4.4. Hopefully you will mention what these things are in upcoming video’s.

   • 

     Mike

     October 15, 2011 at 6:35 pm

     Hi Kevin-

     Thanks for your comments. We may have to agree to disagree about the usefulness of Alt/Option-Clicking the Open button, though. About the only way to ruin a file edited in ACR is to physically delete the file. Changes made in Camera Raw aren’t permanent, so if you make a mistake, you can always open the file in ACR again and choose Camera Raw Defaults from the fly-out menu in the top-right corner of the panels area. This applies to both RAW files as well as JPG files. Although, if I’m editing a JPG file in ACR, I will often make a copy of the file before I begin, for added protection.

     Changing the Cancel button to Reset with Alt/Option is handy if you decide you want to start over before leaving ACR. I’m with ya on that one.

     As for the Camera Calibrations menu, they will vary depending on the type of camera used, and also whether or not the file is a RAW file or a JPG (JPG files will only have an option titled “Embedded”). Names such as Adobe Standard, ACR 3.5, 3.6, 4.4, etc. are simply names Adobe has given to different preset settings ACR can apply to the image.

     Thanks again for watching.
     Mike

2. 

   Cornelia

   October 16, 2011 at 9:37 am

   Thank you for the ACR overview. I am looking forward to more in-depth learning.

3. 

   Steve

   October 16, 2011 at 10:06 am

   Thanks Mike for the information. I look forward to future ACR videos.

4. 

   Jerry

   October 21, 2011 at 3:14 am

   This video takes some of the mystery out of RAW and leaves as many unanswered questions as answered ones.

   • 

     Rick

     October 21, 2011 at 9:06 am

     Raw is like that, Jerry – it takes a while to get all the concepts, but once you do, it can become quite a powerful tool.

     best,
     Rick

   • 

     Mike

     October 25, 2011 at 6:36 pm

     Jerry, feel free to fire off as many of those unanswered questions as you like, and we’ll see if we can work up another video. Or six. :)

     Mike

5. 

   Christine

   October 24, 2011 at 7:12 pm

   Mike,

   Thank you for the help in Camera Raw. It will be useful if I’m ever able to get it again. I used to get a window that opens up to Camera Raw. Well, it was intermittent. I shoot only in Camera Raw. But now, that window never pops up. Do you know what might have happened? I use PSE 8 and I also have Adobe Lightroom 3. I also use Topaz Labs’ plug-ins in PSE 8. I tried calling Adobe but to get a live person on the phone is nearly impossible. Please help!

   • 

     Mike

     October 25, 2011 at 6:42 pm

     Hi Christine-

     Hmm…so, what happens when you try to open a RAW file in Elements? Have you changed to a newer camera, by any chance? If so, you may need to update your version of Camera Raw (they’re free updates) to a version that supports your new camera.

     On a slightly different subject (forgive me if you know this already), Lightroom will process your RAW files as well, and virtually in the same way as Camera RAW. BUT…it has more options (and thus, more power) than does the Elements version of Camera RAW (as opposed to the version available in the full version of Photoshop). So, you may want to migrate to Lightroom for your RAW processing.

6. 

   wona

   November 5, 2011 at 5:55 pm

   I’m wondering…if you have a camera that does not shot RAW…would it be good to open your pictures in Camera RAW and save them as a .dng file?

7. 

   Martha

   February 14, 2012 at 4:26 pm

   I like it but would also like more information. I love what I have learned so far but I have a problem finding my origianl file if I was to use the sliders to re-edit. I’ll try some of the suggestions. I have LR but have not tackled that yet. Maybe later. I have so much to learn it is overwhelming.

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