Adobe Camera Raw Tutorials

Camera Raw Training and Tutorials. Learn about Camera Raw, the Photoshop component that enables photographers to open and manipulate raw files. Includes lessons on the Camera Raw interface, workflow, creativity, and more.
Filter by topic to find the latest Adobe Photoshop how-to tutorials, video tutorials, and hands-on projects.

Adobe Camera Raw Video Tutorials

Your problem: You can’t open your raw files!

Here’s the scenario: You just started shooting raw files because you need exposure insurance and white balance flexibility. But you can’t get those raw files to open in Photoshop, Photoshop Elements or Lightroom! You’re ready to give up. This camera raw tutorial will help you.

Camera RAW Workflow. Think of Adobe Camera RAW as a photo processing lab and Photoshop as a tool for in-depth coloring, retouching, and compositing. Both are incredibly important to the process of creating a stunning final image. We’ll show you the best way to help them work together. The December 2020 release of Adobe Camera Raw (version 13.1) provides support for new cameras, lenses, and fixes several issues. For a full list of supported cameras and lenses, see the following resources: Supported camera models; Supported lenses.

Here are some solutions for you!

Please read all the way down to the bottom of this page before trying anything, or before emailing me for answers. The answers are here – really. Capturing images in RAW file format is far more flexible than capturing jpgs. However, sometimes your camera and the software on your computer don’t quite sync up. This is true if you have a brand new camera and an older version of Photoshop, or new Photoshop that hasn’t been updated. If that is the case, you may have to update your Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) plugin for Photoshop. Follow the directions in Step One below.Now, if that doesn’t work, you’ll have to download the free Adobe DNG Converter utility, which will convert files from over 200 digital camera Raw files to a more universal RAW file format, DNG (which stands for digital negative), which can then be opened in an older version of Photoshop. (Older being CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6.) Photoshop Elements can also open RAW files, and you may have to follow the same process if you have a newer camera and an older version of Elements. See Step Two and Three below.

Before you start – Check to see if your camera is supported.

Adobe’s list of supported cameras is here. If your camera is brand new on the market, it may not be supported for a couple of months after it’s release.

READ the following if you can’t open your RAW files in Photoshop

Step One: Update Adobe Camera Raw (ACR)

Update and install the latest version of ACR (for CS6 use v7.1 – and just note it will only work for CS6 – For earlier versions or Creative Cloud see below.)
Use the Adobe updater (if it’s installed on your computer). That way all the updates will be automatic and much simpler than the manual method.
Windows users: Download Adobe Application Manager and update from there.
Detailed instructions are included on the download page of the Adobe site.
If you are using Photoshop CS2 – the latest version of ACR is 3.7
If you are using Photoshop CS3 – the latest version of ACR is 4.6
If you are using Photoshop CS4 – the latest version of ACR is 5.7
If you are using Photoshop CS5 – the latest version of ACR is 6.7
If you are using Photoshop CS6 – the latest version of ACR is 7.1 (DNG converter goes to versions 9.2 and beyond)
Photoshop Creative Cloud only lists the DNG converter and no longer lists ACR
Once you have installed the latest version (according to your software version), try again to open your camera RAW files
Easiest way is to navigate to the folder where your RAW files are using Adobe Bridge
If this doesn’t work, go to Step Two.

Here are the direct links to the latest Adobe Camera Raw updates for Photoshop:

Step Two: Download DNG Converter

If Step One doesn’t work, you will need to convert your files to DNG format, and then use ACR after that to open the converted files
Once you get your file converted to a DNG, it will open in any recent version of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, and other RAW image converters too.

Links to the latest Adobe DNG Converters:

Step Three: Convert Your Files

To use the DNG converter, follow these steps: (These are for Mac, but the PC steps are very similar)

Go to the appropriate link above and download the latest Adobe DNG Converter
Place it in your Applications folder
Launch the DNG Converter application
Select the folder where your raw files are located and click Convert
You can save the new files to another folder, which I suggest you do, (and perhaps delete the original raw files once you are certain the new DNG files will open)
You can also re-name your new DNG files, but it might be simpler to keep their original file numbering
The DNG files are also slightly smaller than your raw files, but don’t worry, all the quality is there

Step 4: If all else fails, try another software other than Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom.

I use Luminar to open raw files that Adobe products don’t open.
If you don’t want to pay monthly subscription fees, check out Luminar.
Download a trial version for free.
If you decide to buy, use my coupon code: ImageMaven for $10 off the price.

Suggestion

Try one small folder of images first to test

The DNG converter converts your raw files to the DNG format which can then be opened using ACR and Photoshop CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6 or CC
Very simple and fast. Converting files to DNG is actually considered very beneficial, as it is an archival format and it also uses a loss-less compression which makes the DNG files 15% smaller
DNG files can be opened by all RAW conversion software and in the future may become the standard file format for all digital cameras

Camera Raw for Photoshop Elements

Follow the same steps as with Photoshop above. Here are the updates to the Adobe Camera Raw plugins for Photoshop Elements MAC & Windows up to v.10. This will make it much easier to open your RAW files as you shouldn’t have to go through the DNG conversion process if you are using Version 9 or later. This is great news for Elements users.

Elements Version 11 +

For Elements v.11 and later, follow the camera raw update instructions on this page: Elements version 11 and later

Camera Raw Tutorial for Lightroom

If you are using Photoshop Lightroom for your image editing, keep your software up to date using the same method as in the Elements 11+ link above.

Final Words

Many people write to tell me this tutorial helped them open their raw files.Many more people tell me I should charge for this tutorial. But I’d like to help as many people as possible, so I’ll keep this information free for all to see.

If this tutorial helped you open your raw files, and you can afford it, please consider buying me a coffee. Just click the button below. Your support is greatly appreciated.

I have walked many people through this procedure in person and over the phone.

I have done it with Mac and Windows and I know it works. So don’t give up! Follow the directions carefully and you will succeed. Converting files to DNG format will also allow you to open your RAW files in other software such as Aperture, Lightroom, Capture One, iPhoto, GIMP and many more, especially if your software is a little older – not 5 years older or more though – just if you haven’t got the latest and greatest versions yet. There are also instructions for this procedure found on the Adobe site in the same locations as you get the ACR and DNG converter updates. And if NONE of these methods work for you after carefully following all the steps, then you can always use the software that came with your camera. If you’re lucky you will be able to convert to DNG files that way, and then open up the DNG files in your preferred raw image editing software.

Adobe Camera RAW 7.0 Tutorial for Photographers – Photoshop CS6

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or fresh out of the gate with your first quality digital camera, shooting your photographs in RAW is an absolute must to achieve higher quality results with your photographs. In the following tutorial and Photoshop CS6 feature run-down, we’re going to cover all the new features in Camera RAW 7.0 that I think are the best and ones that you’re going to use the most! Drop a comment if you have additional questions or suggestions!

One of my favorite things about the Camera RAW editor is that you can open it with either Photoshop or the Bridge. This allows you to work on RAW files in the Bridge while Photoshop batch processes or renders large images, etc… To open an image using Camera RAW in the Bridge simply select that image and hit Cmd/Ctrl + R.

Introduction to Camera RAW

The Camera RAW editor is included with Photoshop. If you purchased (or ‘acquired’) Photoshop, you will have Camera RAW. Camera RAW allows you to edit images outside of Photoshop in a very refined way, much different from the normal interface of Photoshop. Most importantly, Camera RAW allows us to pass images into Photoshop where we can further edit them!

TIP: In addition to your camera’s native Camera RAW files, you can use the Camera RAW editor to edit JPEG and TIFF files by right clicking those files in The Adobe Bridge and choosing “Open in Camera Raw…”

Let’s jump into this tutorial!

Opening RAW Files

To open a Camera RAW file using Photoshop, go File>Open and double click the RAW file you would like to open. NOTE: RAW file formats vary depending on the camera you use. Canon is .CR2, Nikon is .NEF, Adobe even has a RAW format (which I love!) .DNG, and the list goes on and on. Check out your camera’s manual for info.

Camera RAW Dialog

What you will see is the Camera RAW editor. Long story short, Adobe did some serious overhauling to this dialog and you will be able to beautifully push the limits of your images beyond anything you could in previous versions of Adobe Camera RAW. Things like artifacting, chromatic aberrations, and noise all are kept under much, much better control in Adobe Camera Raw 7.0, or ACR7 as we’ll call it.

Convert to 2012 Process (Camera RAW 7)

The image that I opened with Camera RAW has previously been edited in ACR6-which ships with Adobe Photoshop CS5. We want to edit this in ACR7 and we can do this by telling Camera RAW to update this image to the current process (Adobe Camera RAW 7 is current!) by clicking the little exclamation point in the bottom right of the image.

New Sliders, New Editor

The panel of sliders on the right will update and ACR7 will try to use settings that are somewhere near what the image previously had. Typically you will need to make some adjustments to tweak your picture a bit more.

Exposure

The sliders in ACR7 all have the ability for positive and negative values for any of these settings (plus/minus Whites, Blacks, Contrast, etc… etc…) and allows for a much broader range of option. I’m going to push my Exposure to 1.80. Exposure controls the mid-tones in your image. All that stuff in the middle of your histogram.

Highlights

Contrast is Contrast and I’m going to bump mine up to an even +55. Highlights control the brighter portion of your image (we’ll talk about “Whites” in just a second) and because the sky is getting blown out here I’m going to pull this way back, all the way back to -100.

Shadows

The Shadows slider is really going to target the darker portions of the image. I want to pour a little more light into the shadows so I’m going to push this up to +55. NOTE: The more you darken your highlights and brighten your shadows the less contrast your image will have. Contrast and Curves will be there to help you.

Whites & Blacks

The Whites and Blacks sliders target the highlights/shadows in a much tighter fashion than the Highlights/Shadows sliders did. There is a focus specifically on both ends of the histogram. Bright, bright and dark, dark areas of the image will be targeted, respectively. I am going to set my Whites to -100 and my Blacks to +50.

Artifacting, Chromatic Aberrations, & Noise Reduction

Other than the huge slider update and the massive back end performance boost with the much better prevention of artifacting, aberration, and noise worked in, ACR7 has included much better control of color and noise when using the Graduated Filter and Adjustment Brush tools.

The Graduated Filter Tool

Using the Graduated Filter tool (G), I will introduce much more orange and pink into the sky by boosting the Temperature and Tint to +20 and +100, respectively. Drag a gradient straight down from the top of the image to apply the effect. I also reduced the Exposure and boosted the Contrast.

The Adjustment Brush

By adjusting the Tint and a bunch of the other sliders I am able to brighten and pour in a bunch of contrast over the sand to give a neat look to the photograph. Check out the screenshot for all the settings. Also note that the adjustment brush gives you the option to “Reduce Noise”, this is extremely useful when brightening very dark areas of your image where noise tends to start appearing.

Vignetting

To correct and reduce the vignette around this image select the Hand tool (H) to view the normal editing options and select the Lens Correction icon near all the other icons and choose the “Manual” tab and increase or decrease your vignette “Amount” until it looks just right.

Workflow Options Dialog

Not necessarily new to ACR7, but very important to your success using the Camera RAW editor is workflow options link at the bottom of the dialog box. Click it to open a little dialog box of goodness.

Opening Your Image in Photoshop

In this dialog box you can choose the color space you want to work in (stay away from sRGB!), the bit depth (if your computer can handle it, 16-Bit is much, much better), the size of the image to be opened, and much more! Hit OK to commit the changes and then either press “Open Image” to open it in Photoshop CS6 or hit “Done” to save those Camera RAW changes to that RAW file and close the ACR7 editor.

Adobe Camera Raw Video Tutorials

Enjoy!