Using the Adobe Camera Raw Plug-In

Using the Adobe Camera Raw Plug-In

To open a RAW image using Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS3, just follow

these steps:

1. Transfer the RAW images from your camera to your computer’s hard drive.

2. In Photoshop, choose Open from the File menu, or use Bridge.

3. Select a RAW image file. The Adobe Camera Raw plug-in will pop up, showing

a preview of the image

4. If you like, use one of the tools found in the toolbar at the top left of the dialog

box. From left to right, they are:

■ Zoom. Operates just like the Zoom tool in Photoshop.

■ Hand. Use like the Hand tool in Photoshop.

■ White Balance. Click an area in the image that should be neutral gray

or white to set the white balance quickly.

■ Color Sampler. Use to determine the RGB values of areas you click with

this eyedropper.

■ Crop. Pre-crops the image so that only the portion you specify is

imported into Photoshop. This option saves time when you want to work

on a section of a large image, and you don’t need the entire file.

■ Straighten. Drag in the preview image to define what should be a horizontal

or vertical line, and ACR will realign the image to straighten it.

■ Retouch. Used to heal or clone areas you define.

■ Red-Eye Removal. Quickly zap red pupils in your human subjects.

■ ACR Preferences. Produces a dialog box of Adobe Camera Raw

preferences.

■ Rotate Counter-clockwise. Rotates counter-clockwise in 90-degree

increments with a click.

■ Rotate Clockwise. Rotates clockwise in 90-degree increments with a

click.

5. Using the Basic tab, you can have ACR show you red and blue highlights in

the preview that indicate shadow areas that are clipped (too dark to show

detail) and light areas that are blown out (too bright). Click the triangles in

the upper-left corner of the histogram display (shadow clipping) and upperright

corner (highlight clipping) to toggle these indicators on or off.

6. Also in the Basic tab you can choose white balance, either from the drop-down

list or by setting a color temperature and green/magenta color bias (tint) using

the sliders.

7. Other sliders are available to control exposure, recovery, fill light, blacks,

brightness, contrast, vibrance, and saturation. A checkbox can be marked to

convert the image to grayscale.

8. Make other adjustments (described in more detail below).

9. If you want ACR to make adjustments for you automatically, click the Auto

link (located just above the Exposure slider).

10. If you’ve marked more than one image to be opened, the additional images

appear in a “filmstrip” at the left side of the screen. You can click on each

thumbnail in the filmstrip in turn and apply different settings to each.

11. Click Open Image/Open Images image(s) into Photoshop using the settings

you’ve made.