Rick36203 Loc: Northeast Alabama

In the main Photoshop program, the ACR filter is on the 'Filters' pull-down menu. It takes you to the ACR interface, but it does not save your changes to a sidecar file.

It applies ACR type adjustments to whatever 'layer' you send it. It is not working with the raw file directly. You can even send an adjustment layer (but not a group) to the ACR filter. (I doubt it would help anything).

Since the filter does not maintain a sidecar file, if you are working on a rasterized layer you cannot go back and 'undo' your modifications. Always use the filter on a 'copy' of your Photoshop image using this method.

If you are using the ACR 'Filter' on a smart object, you can return to the ACR interface and tweak your modifications.

Nightski

Thank you, Rick. I understood everything ... except I haven't studied smart objects yet. Thanks so much.

Rick36203 Loc: Northeast Alabama

You're welcome. A smart object can be thought of as a protective container for a layer or group of layers. This week is Photoshop week at the Creative Live website. Plenty of useful stuff there every year. Check it out if you have time.

Nightski

Thanks Rick .. I own Ben Willmore's Photoshop 101 and his Photoshop for photographers. I've been through most of 101 and then this last weekend I got brave and plowed through Jimmy McIntyre's luminosity masking and learned how to create luminosity masks .. then i dug into Photoshop for Photographers to help me understand some of the stuff I didn't understand with Jimmy's tutorials. He moves lightning fast. But yes ... huge fan of Creative live here!

Rick36203 Loc: Northeast Alabama

Good deal. I just caught a few minutes of one of Ben's classes this week, and he was talking about smart objects. But, Dave Cross almost preaches on the use of smart objects and non-destructive editing. He's on tonight, according to the re-cap listing.

Nightski

I will try to catch him. Thank you. :-)

lloydl2 Loc: Gilbert, AZ

Nightski, if you are indeed using lightroom as your primary photo management and editing system (highly recommended).. then here is a workflow you should consider as it will simplify photo management and control.
1) bring all photos into lightroom for storage and management
2) edit in lightroom which is the same as ACR in photoshop although the screen interface is different
3) if you find you need to do something in PS that LR can't handle,, (typically something requiring layers) or heavy use of the spot removal tools), etc.. then you can go to the photo menu in LR and select edit in- photshop. It will bring your image into photoshop with the LR updates included or not (you chose), do whatever you need including using the ACR filter, in photoshop and then when you save and exit the ps edited version will be brought back into lr with the ps edits included (you can chose for it to come back as a psd or tiff file). If you abandon the PS edit (don't save) then it will not bring your photo back to LR and you can go back to your last LR edited version and do it again.

In this way LR is the single point of reference for all your images.

Ok so now I've been trying to figure out what CA is/ what does it the abbreviation for?

Nightski

This makes very good common sense to me, Llyod. If I skip ACR all together, I won't have the problem of the xmp file. Excellent. CA is Chromatic Aberration. I don't know if I read it .. heard it in one of my tutorials ... or just got it in my head that ACR corrects this more efficiently.

PS: I store all my images in one folder on the desktop, but I import them to that folder from my sd card using Lightroom and if I move them I move them from the Lightroom program. I never go into that folder to move anything around and I don't import into it without using the Lightroom import button.

lloydl2 Loc: Gilbert, AZ

Correcting CA should be identical in ACR and LR.. in Lightroom under lens correction under the color tag there is a checkbox and then sliders to fine tune it. If that doesn't do the trick, here is a tutorial on using PS proper to do it http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-fix-chromic-aberration-in-photoshop/

Nightski

Thank you, Lloyd.