Camera Raw in Elements

[jslevine]

I have recently started getting into shooting RAW instead of JPG. I noticed in screen shots of ACR that it has more features in CS3 and LR. My question is how important those features are in processing RAW photos. Can these be done in PSE itself? Is it reason enough to invest in LR or CS3?
Thanks all,
Jeff

[Jeff Perry]

Jeff, ironically, exactly the same Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) file is installed for both Photoshop CS3 and Elements, and for some unknown reason, they produce two different sets of controls. It is essentially the same code used by LR, so all three programs are benefiting from the same raw programming. The CS3 and LR implementations are all but identical. The PSE implementation is a little "weaker" with less controls but the important ones are there and easy to use. One of the biggest drawback to the PSE implementation is the lack of Presets. It also doesn't allow you to save to anything but DNG format unless you Open Image in Elements then save to JPG, TIFF, whatever.

In my opinion, it would not be worth buying CS3 or LR JUST to get the more robust implementation of ACR. There are plenty of other reasons to buy CS3 and/or LR, both of which I dearly love, but I am perfectly happy with the ACR implementation in PSE6. Perhaps in the next PSE incarnation, Adobe will just give us all the same ACR tools.

Jeff

[chestnutmare]

Is it reason enough to invest in LR or CS3?
Thanks all,
Jeff[/quote]

I'm interested in the answer to this myself. I'm using the beta version of Lightroom now and since CS3 is being offered for $299... I too am curious if the switch would be worthwhile? ... and to which one?

[Chuck S.]

Elements has always had a "reduced feature set" version of ACR, although there has been some increase in the capabilities of the PSE rendition over the last couple years. It's likely there will alway be an ACR differentiation; Adobe has to protect the value of its flagship(s). I agree with Jeff, though - the most important adjustments are available in ACR for PSE.

[Chuck S.]

Mary, it's unlikely that Lightroom would satisfy all your editing needs; it really is limited in what it can do, although it's a great 'front end' processor.

If I were sitting in a position to spend $300 either to acquire Lightroom or CS3, I'd likely opt for CS3; it would give me all the editing capabilities of CS3 (huge!) along with the full implementation of ACR. Further, ACR now supports presets, so many of the presets available to Lightroom have a version that can be installed in ACR/CS3.

Just one person's opinion....

[jslevine]

Appreciate the input. From what I gather ACR in PSE should do me just fine.
Jeff

[Jeff Perry]

Jeff, one other interesting and very useful feature of ACR in all three apps, that I don't think is available in any other RAW processor, is the ability of ACR to process JPG files with almost the same feature set. An excellent way to pre-process JPGs before loading into PSE.

Jeff

[TonyW]

It should do you just fine and if you get adventurous in the future there are ways to use full Photoshop or Lightroom presets in the Elements version of ACR. Although the Elements implementation doesn't let you change some of the things (like curves, individual tones, black and white conversion) that you can adjust in full Photoshop or Lightroom there are sneaky ways to do it if you want.

Tony

[jslevine]

I have tried using ACR for JPG and it is pretty cool. I see the term presets used but I am not sure what that refers to.

[Jeff Perry]

Presets are just a saved set of adjustments (settings). IN ACR (CS3) and in LR, you create a set of settings that you like, say to turn a color image to high key B/W, and save the settings as a preset to be called upon (loaded) later to apply to a different image. People make them up, save them,and then either give them away or in some instances sell them. You can find them for both ACR (CS3) and LR. Perhaps TonyW will share some of his secrets as how to implement ACR presets thru the PSE6 version interface.

Jeff