Amazingly, every adjustment with ACR is parametric. That is, the
changes are saved as a set of parameters, temporary instructions
that are applied to your image only at output. So your work is safe,
your “digital negatives” (i.e., your original files) are protected, and
you can rethink and readjust your photos at any time.
Whether a raw image file is saved to DNG or to one of the many
proprietary camera formats, ACR supports it directly—without the
need to preprocess the file using your camera’s software. Photoshop
CS5 comes with Camera Raw 6, a plug-in so vast and sophisticated
that I could devote an entire book to the topic (and many have). Even
with two full exercise to work with, we’ll focus only on Camera
Raw’s most essential capabilities and recent innovations.Adjusting White Balance in ACR
Even though a raw image may not look as good as a JPEG equivalent
when it first comes off a memory card, it represents much more po-
tential. A raw image is much like a film negative, containing all the
information needed to bring out all the luminance data that your
camera captured. Although JPEGs can be adjusted in ACR, and
quite effectively so, some processing has been handled on board
your camera by the time you pull a JPEG file off your card. With
raw files, you have more control. And ACR is the environment you
need to assert it.Adobe is continuously updating ACR to keep up with file formats employed
by new cameras. If your proprietary raw format image doesn’t open in
ACR, make sure you’ve updated to the most recent release of ACR. Choose
Help→Updates from either the Bridge or Photoshop.In these ACR exercises, I’ve provided a set of DNG files for you to
work on. My colleague shot them with a Canon camera, but rather
than supply you with the proprietary Canon CR2 files, I’ve con-
verted them to DNG, Adobe’s manufacturer-neutral raw format.
DNG has some nice advantages, one of which is that your adjusted
settings travel with your image (instead of in a sidecar file, which
other formats use to convey edits to raw files).- Locate and select four raw images. We’ll start things off in the
Bridge, which you first saw way back in Lesson 1, so that we can
select multiple images simultaneously. If you’re in Photoshop,
switch to the Bridge by choosing File→Browse in Bridge or by
clicking the icon in the application bar. Then do the following:
296 Lesson 9: Pro Photography Tools