Adobe's Camera Raw

[MrRamonG]

Is there a way to install Adobe's Camera Raw on Photoshop 7.0, or do you need CS4? I would like to start shooting RAW but I it appears I cant set Photoshop 7.0 to my Nikon D80.

 

[inTempus]

The latest version of Camera Raw (5.6) only works with CS4 and Lightroom 2.x. I had to upgrade my CS3 to CS4 to get it to work with my Photoshop.

 

[MrRamonG]

If you don't have CS4 or lightroom, and you are shooting RAW, what's your process?

 

[inTempus]

If you don't have CS4 or lightroom, and you are shooting RAW, what's your process?

For me it was to use Canon's DPP to convert the RAW's to TIF then edit them in Photoshop.

 

[Plato]

The latest version of Camera Raw (5.6) only works with CS4 and Lightroom 2.x. I had to upgrade my CS3 to CS4 to get it to work with my Photoshop.

It also works with PSE-8. I don't know about earlier PSE versions.

 

[MrRamonG]

Thanks Tempus and Plato. What I would like to do is start shooting RAW but only use one application to post process. I already have Photoshop 7.0 and I want to stick with that.

Anybody here shoot RAW and only use Photoshop 7.0 to process?

 

[Dwig]

...
Anybody here shoot RAW and only use Photoshop 7.0 to process?

The regular version of Photoshop v7 does not support Adobe Camera RAW. There was a rather expensive special release that did, but it only supported the v1.x version of ACR. Other than that, ACR support is as follows:

PS v7 - none
PS/CS (v8) - ACR v2.x
PS/CS2 (v9) - ACR v3.x
PS/CS3 (v10) - ACR v4.x
PS/CS4 (v11) - ACR v5.x

One would suppose that the next release of PS, likely called PS/CS5, will introduce another major revision in ACR.

While the idea of using a single application for PP sounds nice, there is little difference between using a separate application for RAW processing and using the ACR plugin if that separate application can pass the image to PS without having to save an interchange file (TIFF, JPEG, ...) to disk. ACR has its own UI and image display. When using it to do the RAW conversion you have absolutely no access to any of the PS functions. Only when you click OK to process the image and send it to PS can you perform any PS operations. Its not that different than using a separate app (e.g. Nikon's Capture NX).

Personally, I would suggest that you consider getting PS/CS4. While many threads debate the value of upgrading due to the small improvements in each version, the jump of four versions is significant. There are a lot of general editing improvements that are quite valuable. Otherwise, you might consider getting Nikon's Capture NX2.

 

[Garbz]

I would look at getting Lightroom. You'll most likely find that the vast majority of your editing can be done right in Lightroom which is based on the Adobe CameraRAW engine. For anything more two clicks opens the image in an external application of your choice.

Basically there is no way to open a RAW file in Photoshop 7. As for the desire for 1 application. Basically you don't get that option at all in Photoshop. You always need something (most commonly the CameraRAW plugin) to process the RAW file after which it becomes a standard image and you lost the ability to do all "RAW" part of the process again. Therefore there really is no difference to opening a photo in Photoshop, or opening a photo in Lightroom, or another RAW converter that integrates with Photoshop. You'll always have 2 separate windows for doing tasks on RAW, unless you don't need photoshop for a particular image and are happy just editing in the ACR window, or the Lightroom window, etc.

 

[Mulewings~]

I still use Photoshop 7. Don't use it for RAW images. I'll keep it because I've spent so many da*m hours learning how to use layers and editing with it...that it has become as comfy as old socks for doing certain creative and wild things.

Although I must say everyone is raving about Lightroom, so it looks like I'll need a bit more reading on the subject and then try a trial version?

I do have Elements 5 and downloaded the .NEF plug in.