The Power of Smart Objects: Editable Raw Files in Photoshop

Want editable Raw files in Photoshop? It's easy - just open your Raw file as a Smart Object. In Camera Raw, hold down the Shift key and Open Image becomes Open Object. When you want to edit the Smart Object, double click it to launch Camera Raw and edit the image.

Something else that can be helpful with this workflow: you can convert the Photoshop document to CMYK but the embedded Camera Raw is still in RGB.

Processing Multiple Images with Camera Raw and Bridge

Here is a suggested workflow for efficiently processing multiple images using Adobe Camera Raw and Bridge. Whether you're working with a small group of photos from a family event or a large group from an entire wedding, the more work you can do with batch processing, the more time you will save.

1. Start in Bridge with all of your raw or jpg photos in the same folder. Activate the single image review mode by pressing the spacebar. Using the number keys (1 through 5) or the reject key combination (Opt-Delete), choose the best photos (5), the pretty good (3), the poor (boring, bad composition) (1) and blurry and awkward rejects (reject label). I prefer using these 4 options but you can use less numbers if you like.


2. Hit the Esc key to exit Review mode. Using the Filter tab, hide and show each category to make sure you are happy with your choices (this makes sure that you didn't accidentally reject a good photo or assign a 5 to a photo that is really better as a 3). For your final image processing you'll be using only 5s and 3s. If you are only creating a small gallery, use only 5s. If it's a larger event like a wedding, you will use both 5s and 3s. Sort any not good enough 3s into the 1 category, photos that document the day but aren't worth showing or posting. It's always better to show 20 great photos and than 20 great photos mixed with 80 boring/okay photos.


3. Hopefully most of the photos are taken at the same event in the same lighting. Choose a representative photo of the general colors and lighting and open it in Adobe Camera Raw (Cmd-R). Adjust the settings in the Basic tab starting at the top with White Balance, Temperature, Tint, Exposure and work your way down to Saturation. Adjust any other settings as desired.


4. When you are satisfied with your Camera Raw adjustments, click on the tiny fly out menu icon to the right of the Basic tab. Choose Save Settings, give your file a meaningful name and click Save. If you would like your setting to show up in Bridge when you right click and choose Develop Settings, make sure you save your setting in the default location which is User > Library > Application Support > Adobe > Camera Raw > Settings. If you mistakenly save it in a different location, you can always place it in that Settings folder. You may have to refresh Bridge (F5) if it doesn't appear.


5. Exit Camera Raw by clicking Done. In Bridge, select all of your photos and right click for the drop down menu to appear. Choose Develop Settings and click on the saved setting you just created. After applying the global adjustment, open photos individually in Camera Raw (Cmd-R) that need specific attention: cropping, extra exposure adjustment, horizon straightening, etc.


6. Once your image adjustments are final, you are ready to do the final batch processing. But there's one more step. Almost all images benefit from some sharpening. Depending on whether you need to export high resolution jpgs to create prints or low resolution jpgs for a web gallery, step into Photoshop for a minute and create a high resolution sharpening action or a low resolution sharpening action (if you don't know how to create an action, I'll do an action "how to" at some point in the future - just skip this step for now).


7. Back in Bridge, select all of your images you'd like to export. Select Tools > Photoshop > Image Processor. In section 1, it should say the number of photos you have selected. In section 2, choose a final destination folder. In section 3, choose jpg or tif depending on whether you want high res or low res final images. Use Resize to Fit to resize images down to a new maximum height and width. In section 4, choose the sharpening action you created in the previous step and make sure the Include ICC Profile box is checked. Click Run. Sit back and enjoy all of the time you have saved!

Photo credit: sxc.hu user babykrul

Creating A Sepia Tone Photo

Here are two great ways to create a sepia tone photo. My favorite way is the second way, using Adobe Camera Raw - something new I learned from Michael Ninness at the InDesign Conference in DC.

If you look at the photos closely, you will see that using the Black & White adjustment in Photoshop puts a lot of color into all areas: highlights, midtones, shadows. Using Adobe Camera Raw gives you a sepia tone with a more authentic vintage effect - the color is applied mostly to the midtones, giving you brighter, cleaner whites and shadows closer to black.

Using the Black and White Adjustment Layer in Photoshop

1. Open your image in Photoshop.


2. Create a new Black and White Adjustment Layer. In the Black and White Adjustment panel, adjust the individual sliders left or right to control how the black and white conversion is applied to the image.


3. In the top corner of the Black and White Adjustments panel, check "Tint". You can edit the default color by clicking on the Tint color box.

Note: Now that I think about it, you could simulate the effect of an Adobe Camera Raw sepia tone by adjusting the Blend If sliders on the Black and White adjustment layer and adding a Hue-Saturation layer underneath set to -100 saturation (desaturate). There are always so many ways to replicate an effect with Adobe products!

Using Adobe Camera Raw in Bridge
Adobe Camera Raw is a great sub application embedded into Adobe Bridge. It's generally used for raw files (hence the name) but it can also be used for any jpg too! So all of the settings like exposure, fill light and color temperature can also be applied to jpgs. Here's how to create a sepia with Adobe Camera Raw:

1. Open Bridge. In Bridge, select the jpg or raw file you would like to edit. To open the image in Adobe Camera Raw, type Cmd + R.


2. In Adobe Camera Raw, go to the row of icons below the histogram and click on the fourth item, HSL/Grayscale. Check "Convert to Grayscale". Adjust the individual sliders left or right to control how the black and white conversion is applied to the image. Arranging your sliders in an "S" curve is a general rule of thumb for a good image.


3. Click on the next menu item (fifth), Split Toning. Adjust the top two sliders, hue and saturation, to apply sepia tone color to the image.


4. Click Save Image in the bottom left corner to save your changes to a .tif file or click Open Image (bottom right corner) to open your jpg with the sepia effect in Photoshop and continue from there. Clicking Done will save the Adobe Camera Raw settings without harming the data in the jpg or raw file (it saves your Camera Raw settings for that image in a special side file).

Thanks to sxc.hu user CDJensen for the image in this example.