Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

"Open as raw" was an option before Photoshop added the Camera Raw Filter.

You can use the Alt+Shift+Ctrl+O keyboard shortcut, or from the File menu you can choose "Open as" either of which will bring you to a dialog where you can find a file to open and decide what format you'd like to use to open it with. If you select raw, the file will open in the ACR editor, and you can edit it as if it were a raw file. When you finish your edits in ACR, you can then open it in Photoshop for additional editing.

The advantage of using ACR for editing a jpeg is far easier shadow/highlight recovery, white/color balance adjustments, dehaze, clarity, vibrance, easy and more intuitive HSL adjustments and all the other cool stuff ACR and Lightroom can do with a raw file. And it is in a single layer, which can be a smart object if you'd like. Granted, all of this and much much more can be done in Photoshop with far greater accuracy and precision, but for fast proof quality editing, even on jpeg files, ACR/Lightroom is hard to beat.

In Photoshop, you can not only vary the opacity, but the fill level and blend mode of a layer, and even what parts of a layer will be blended with it's underlying layer using the Blend If option in Layer Styles.

MikeT9

Why do so many people on this forum have to knock things without any understanding of what the features offered can do because they’ve never tried them. I agree with the previous comments. For all the birders out there with PS CC the latest version allows automatically selecting the main subject in your picture using ‘Select’ and ‘Select and Mask’. After inverting the selection and opening onto a new layer you can open the camera raw filter and get remove the noise in the background until your heart is content. While doing this you can see the disastrous effect it has on the detail of your subject, the last thing you want but when you click ok and return to PS only the background has the camera raw noise reduction applied. This feature is brilliant as a lot of birders get pictures taken at high ISO where they have detail in the bird which masks the noise but the background way too noisy.
Now there’ll be any number of know-alls who’ll be say use this, Topaz, Nik and other noise reduction software but this included in CC and together with the new automatic selection feature is a really useful but not the only method of selective noise reduction.

fergmark Loc: norwalk connecticut

Bob has put this as well as is possible. The wonderful thing about digital, is you don't just get one try at developing the negative.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

One huge advantage to using Adobe Camera Raw for JPEG is batch processing, including lighting adjustment, cropping and sizing. I can tweak over 30 images at a time, then save them to post on the web or some other purpose without having to open, tweak and save them individually.
Yes, I know they don’t have the same latitude in adjustment as a raw file, but for quick web posts, it works well.

Skiextreme2 Loc: Northwest MA

A jpeg is a jpeg and raw is raw. You can't turn a jpeg into a raw file. You could open a jpeg and save it as raw but it still won't be a raw file, as a lot of raw data was lost when it was made into a jpeg by the camera. To use a raw file, your camera has to produce raw images, which can be opened in LR or PS.

Davidka

The only advantage using PS ACR over Lightroom is smart objects. Even after leaving ACR opening in PS with one click you can return to ACR for more edits as long as you do not flatten file. I always forget to do some type of adjustment.

jackpinoh Loc: Kettering, OH 45419

It is not possible to work on a RAW file in Photoshop. The RAW file must first be converted to a .TIFF, .PSD, or .jpg file. (.TIFF or .PSD file format is highly preferable.) That is why you need ACR, Lightroom, or some other RAW processor. Also, it is best to make as many adjustments to your RAW file in ACR, Lightroom, etc. before converting the RAW file and exporting the converted file (TIFF, PSD, or JPEG) to Photoshop or elsewhere.

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

If it is a jpg, it has already been processed by a camera raw program and is no longer in raw format. Most raw converters that I know of do one thing and generally do it well with just one pass, They convert a file from raw format to one that is usable for PP.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

I have gone back and forth between raw and PS several times to achieve a certain look.

Davidka

Smart objects in PS are PSD files but if you double click on layer icon (small square) you will go back into ACR for more adjustments if you need them.

jackpinoh Loc: Kettering, OH 45419

Actually, you can adjust JPEG files in most RAW processors such as ACR and Lightroom, but adjustments are more limited than they are for RAW files.

dkguill Loc: Elkhart, IN

PS includes ACR and Bridge. LR also includes ACR. You can do more in post using PS and its inclusions than you can in LR and it's included ACR. It was just stated above that LR has a steep learning curve. So does PS, so if you have become accomplished in PS, why would you invite the brain damage of learning LR when you already have the facility in PS? The very cryptic cataloging residing in LR causes more trouble than its worth IMHO. Bridge offers intuitive search capability without the afore-mentioned brain damage if one employs just a bit of logic in storing photo files. If you don't have facility in PS, then what you choose to learn to meet your needs is academic...again IMHO. In my experience, PS is worth the extra effort...LR...not so much.

jackpinoh Loc: Kettering, OH 45419

LR and ACR are different applications that use the same processing engine. But some of the controls in ACR differ from those in Lightroom.

rplain1 Loc: Dayton, Oh.

I find it very useful. I shoot raw so I run all my photos through Camera Raw then to photoshop. But while editing the PSD file I may notice something that can be improved or changed in Camera Raw. I certainly don't want to go back to square one and start over in Camera Raw. Thus the usefulness of the filter. Doesn't make any difference if you are using LR or PS. I don't even have LR on my computer as I never use it.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

Just to be clear here: when you open a raw file in PS it does not get “wrapped” into a format until you save it. After opening in PS after initial adjustments, it is possible to use the ACR filter in PS at the same level of quality as you would get with the initial adjustment of the raw in ACR.

There is a caveat, however. You need to have ACR open the file in 16 bits, not 8 bits.

Once you have saved the raw in a standard image format, you have thrown away information—not as much using a non-lossy compression or no compression in 16 bit, but even then you have lost information from the raw. If you save in 8 bit—even uncompressed—you have thrown away a huge amount of information.

However even then you can use the ACR filter in PS to perform certain adjustments that are more difficult to do using standard PS tools. You will not have the range of adjustment using the ACR filter on a jpg as on a raw or 16 bit file, but that does not mean that you cannot or should not use the ACR filter to make adjustments just as you would use any other PS tool for post processing. I do it all the time and am happy to have its capabilities—and that is exactly why Adobe included the ACR interface as a filter, because it seriously extends PS’s processing capabilities on whatever kind of image file.