When editing raw...

[Hardrock]

What do you guys actually edit in raw? The CBrush workflow I believe he only edits the color temperature? Do you guys only adjust color temperature as well or do you guys use the sharpening and other components? I experimented last night for about 35 minutes and was having a difficult time noticing the difference when sharpening in raw.

 

[Gaerek]

95% of my PP is in ACR. I do everything from color balance, exposure, contrast, clarity, saturation, sharpening, and noise reduction. The only things I really do outside of ACR is cropping, leveling (both can be done in ACR, I believe, I prefer to do it outside), and spot healing/cloning.

 

[JimmyO]

I just use Lightroom. Helps alot with exposure control and dodge/burn aswell as all the other stuff. WB is alot easier to control too.

 

[KmH]

I too do a lot of my editing in ACR because it is non-destructive editing. No pixels actually get changed. Lightroom is a version of ACR so it's non-destructive too.

Even in Photoshop I use non-destructive editing techniques as much as possible.

 

[Hardrock]

Ok when you say ACR do you mean when the photo is loaded into photoshop and the image is displayed in raw that is where you make the adjustments or is ACR a different program?

 

[kkamin]

ACR is Adobe Camera Raw. It is a separate program. Lightroom uses a similar raw editor. I try to do as much as possible in the raw editor: it is non-destructive like many have said and it is designed specifically to edit photographs, meaning its tools are all geared towards things you commonly do to a photograph. I do bring most images into PS later on to do things not possible in raw editors or for export.

If you can't seen the sharpening, you might not be at the proper zoom level. You need to be at 100% or more to see the sharpening take effect. Many view this as a requisite first round of sharpening, because images coming out of the camera have a natural softness that is intrinsic to how images are captured and recorded in RAW. I think jpeg captures have sharpening applied to them, but I could be wrong, someone correct me if so.

 

[Hardrock]

ACR is Adobe Camera Raw. It is a separate program. Lightroom uses a similar raw editor. I try to do as much as possible in the raw editor: it is non-destructive like many have said and it is designed specifically to edit photographs, meaning its tools are all geared towards things you commonly do to a photograph. I do bring most images into PS later on to do things not possible in raw editors or for export.

If you can't seen the sharpening, you might not be at the proper zoom level. You need to be at 100% or more to see the sharpening take effect. Many view this as a requisite first round of sharpening, because images coming out of the camera have a natural softness that is intrinsic to how images are captured and recorded in RAW. I think jpeg captures have sharpening applied to them, but I could be wrong, someone correct me if so.

So is acr a plugin for cs3 or does it already have acr? I looked on adobes website but did not see where you could buy acr?

 

[kkamin]

Think it comes with Bridge.

 

[Dominantly]

Adobe Camera Raw is just the program that opens when you open a raw file. You should just ensure you have the latest revision downloaded, from Adobes site.

I don't do a lot of editing in ACR. This is what I actually do; I ensure that the photograph is in 16 bit, then I look at the histogram. I adjust the exposure, fill light, recovery, and a few other things to get the histogram built nicely into the center. This is where I fix any clipping that I might have.
Then I open the image and do all my enhancements, with a good base image to start with. I always ctrl+J to create a copy so that I have a backup in the layers.
I would never do any denoise or sharpening in ACR.

 

[KmH]

Both Bridge and Photoshop have ACR.

Open Photoshop. Click on Help. In the drop down box click on "Updates". It will check to see if your CS3 and ACR are current.

If not it will show what needs to be downloaded. Just follow the directions.

 

[Garbz]

I experimented last night for about 35 minutes and was having a difficult time noticing the difference when sharpening in raw.

For minor adjustments you would have a hard time noticing the difference. Try setting your camera to the contrastiest settings possible, set the white balance to daylight and then take an under exposed photo indoors using RAW+JPEG setting.

Now in your RAW editor of choice, do the white balance correction, bring the contrast back down (maybe you'll need highlight recovery which won't work on the JPEG), and dial the brightness to the correct setting.

If you don't notice a difference then you're either an editing god, or did something wrong

RAW is not about minor edits. It's not about instant quality when you're taking a photo. It's about control. Control over your camera sensor, colour rendering, and about being able to pull the absolute most out of the image without your camera throwing away data.

White balance adjustment and highlight recovery are simply the two main and most obvious outlets for this control since they are clobbered the most in a JPEG.

 

[SilverUser]

It's a bad habit to do too much, or all editing in ACR. ACR applies your tweeks big bang, meaning it applies them to the ENTIRE composition. Sometimes this is ok, many times not okay.

I only do exposure and white balance tweeks in ACR, and NEVER anything else.

I apply my tweeks surgically in PhotoShop, using layers and masks as required, and all this can be done very fast.

Editing in ACR is often the worse place to do them, and for the reasons I stated...better to do it surgically in PS or whatever program you use to edit converted raw files.

 

[kkamin]

It's a bad habit to do too much, or all editing in ACR. ACR applies your tweeks big bang, meaning it applies them to the ENTIRE composition. Sometimes this is ok, many times not okay.

I only do exposure and white balance tweeks in ACR, and NEVER anything else.

I apply my tweeks surgically in PhotoShop, using layers and masks as required, and all this can be done very fast.

Editing in ACR is often the worse place to do them, and for the reasons I stated...better to do it surgically in PS or whatever program you use to edit converted raw files.

I don't agree that it is a 'bad habit', that's a pretty strong judgment. I think if you like to use PS to do your adjustments, that is a preference, rather, than the 'right way' to do things.

ACR has an adjustment brush which allows you to make localized corrections and adjustments, much like masked adjustment layers in PS. I think the clone tools work wonderfully. A professional work flow often contains three rounds of sharpening and the first one occurs out of the camera--many feel ACR's sharpening tool is exemplary. I love the graduated filter tool and use it all the time. I'm not defending ACR, but I'm trying to make a point that ACR definitely has uses beyond WB and exposure in a professional workflow. I feel I am a somewhat advanced Photoshop user but personally I try to do as much as possible in ACR or Lightroom.

 

[Gaerek]

It's a bad habit to do too much, or all editing in ACR. ACR applies your tweeks big bang, meaning it applies them to the ENTIRE composition. Sometimes this is ok, many times not okay.

I only do exposure and white balance tweeks in ACR, and NEVER anything else.

I apply my tweeks surgically in PhotoShop, using layers and masks as required, and all this can be done very fast.

Editing in ACR is often the worse place to do them, and for the reasons I stated...better to do it surgically in PS or whatever program you use to edit converted raw files.

I don't agree that it is a 'bad habit', that's a pretty strong judgment. I think if you like to use PS to do your adjustments, that is a preference, rather, than the 'right way' to do things.

ACR has an adjustment brush which allows you to make localized corrections and adjustments, much like masked adjustment layers in PS. I think the clone tools work wonderfully. A professional work flow often contains three rounds of sharpening and the first one occurs out of the camera--many feel ACR's sharpening tool is exemplary. I love the graduated filter tool and use it all the time. I'm not defending ACR, but I'm trying to make a point that ACR definitely has uses beyond WB and exposure in a professional workflow. I feel I am a somewhat advanced Photoshop user but personally I try to do as much as possible in ACR or Lightroom.

I agree with you here. Non-destructive workflow for the win. ACR is incredibly powerful, and you'd likely be surprised what you can do with it.

 

[KmH]

It's a bad habit to do too much, or all editing in ACR. ACR applies your tweeks big bang, meaning it applies them to the ENTIRE composition.........

As has been pointed out, this statement is not correct, if you know how to use all the tools ACR has to offer.