What is Adobe Camera Raw? How to use Adobe Camera Raw

There are many photographers out there who love shooting Raw for more freedom of editing in post-production. In this article, ThuThuatPhanMem.vn will introduce you to the specialized Adobe Camera Raw tool for editing Raw files in Photoshop.

1. RAW images, what is a RAW file?

A RAW image file is a raw, uncompressed file that contains the original image data recorded from the camera’s sensor. RAW files have many differences from JPEG files that we are used to.

To get a JPEG image, when you press shutter, the camera’s sensor will start capturing light. Your ISO settings will then provide the correct exposure.

Continuing, the signal converter will send the signal to the processor. The data is processed, colored, sharpened, compressed and finally formed into a JPEG file, which is written to the memory card.

For RAW images, processing stops as soon as the image and light are detected by the sensor. As such, your RAW image file is considered original, untouched by camera settings. RAW files make it easier to edit photos later.

2. What is Adobe Camera Raw?

You cannot open RAW files with regular JPEG image viewing software, but must use specialized image editing software.

Adobe Camera Raw is a plugin that supports opening and editing RAW files in Photoshop. This plugin was developed in conjunction with Photoshop, as it works separately, and is only used when needed.

Adobe Camera Raw automatically pops up when you open a RAW file in Adobe Photoshop or Bridge. From there, you can edit common RAW image files like CR2, CR3, NEF, ORF or DNG without error.

Adobe Camera Raw gives you the same tools as Lightroom. You can easily find profiles, adjust tone bars, create curves… Besides supporting editing, Camera Raw also helps you to export files with many desired formats and settings such as bit depth. , resolution, color space and compression ratio.

You can also add multiple images and edit them at the same time.

3. Difference between Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom

In essence, Adobe Camera Raw helps you get the most important features of Lightroom when using Photoshop.

The biggest difference is the file handling. Lightroom is catalog-based, it stores all your photos and edits them in bulk. Whereas Camera Raw stores all your edits in a small XMP sidecar file.

Simply put, with Lightroom, you can organize your entire photo library in one software. But with Adobe Camera Raw, you need to manage the files yourself.

4. Download Adobe Camera Raw

Adobe Camera Raw is included with Photoshop as part of a subscription. But if you can’t install Camera Raw automatically, download it manually at this official link.

You scroll down and download the latest version of Camera Raw, suitable for Windows / MacOS computers.

Run file .exe (or .pkg) is downloaded to proceed with the Plugin installation.

In the settings screen, you tick I accept the agreementthen press next.

Press Install and wait for the plugin to be installed successfully.

Conclude

Above, Thuthuatphanmem.vn introduced to you Adobe Camera Raw and its uses. Did you find this plugin useful? Please share your views in the comments section!