Take control of Acr
James Paterson explains how to alter the mood of your Raw files with a few simple Camera Raw tweaks View The Video
Photoshop CC is arguably the world’s most powerful imageediting software, but one thing it can’t do on its own is process your Raw files. This is where the Camera Raw plug-in comes in. It’s always said that Adobe Camera Raw is the digital photographer’s darkroom, and there’s a good reason for this; it’s the best way to make non-destructive edits to your photos. Here, we’ll show you how to recreate four popular image effects with just a few simple tweaks in Camera Raw.
Even though Camera Raw is a Photoshop CC plug-in, it’s easier to think of it almost as a separate program (that’s been streamlined for speedy photo editing). The panels and tools are really intuitive, but the best thing about editing in this way is that you’ll still be able to go back to the original Raw file if you don’t like the effect you’ve created. Where we’ve made specific suggestions for moving the panel sliders, don’t be afraid to experiment until you’re happy with the results.
A good thing to bear in mind is that, if you’ve edited one of these effects and you want to apply it to another image, you don’t have to faff around editing each image separately and trying to get them to match. It’s easy to apply your settings to the rest of the images from the same shoot. Select your edited image in Bridge, rightclick, go to Develop Settings> Copy Settings. Then choose the rest of the images you want to sync the effect to, going to Develop Settings>paste Settings.
Get started by creating a cool effect with one image, then apply it to the rest of your photos.