How can I bypass Camera Raw and go directly to Photoshop (

[nicolebranan]

<p>Hi guys,<br>

I am using PS CS2 (on a Mac) and wonder how I can bypass the Camera Raw dialog and open images directly in PS. Several resources say to hold the SHIFT key and double click on the RAW file in the Bridge but that doesn't work. Any help appreciated.<br>

Thanks much!<br>

nicole</p>

[bgelfand]

<p>The short answer is, for a RAW image, you cannot. Photoshop cannot decode the raw data from your camera; that is why there is Camera RAW.</p>

<p>If you do not want to use Camera RAW, have your camera save the images in a different format - JPEG, TIFF ... Or convert the RAW image with another program, save it as a JPEG or TIFF and open the JPEG or TIFF in Photoshop.</p>

[mendel_leisk]

<p>In Adobe Bridge if I select an image and type <ctrl> (<cmd> on MAC?) R it opens the image adjusting dialogue within Bridge. That's my usual practice. But, I believe if I just hit Enter with an image selected it will start up Photoshop and opens the image adjusting dialogue. Now, <em>both</em> methods actually employ Camera Raw, but maybe this is what you're thinking of?</p>

[howard_m]

<p>a RAW image isn't an image that PS can deal with, it's just (raw) computer bits-n-bytes. Somewhere, somehow, you need to use a RAW processor to produce a rendered image in a format that PS can work with.</p>

[nicolebranan]

<p>Thank you much for your responses, Brooks, Mendel and Howard. I understand what you're saying, I'm just puzzled because I had never seen the Camera Raw interface until I reinstalled PS CS2 yesterday. Before this reinstallation, I would open Photoshop, go to FILE -> OPEN and open a RAW file (I never used the Bridge). PS would ask me whether I wanted to do an exposure compensation and then it would open the file. The Camera Raw interface never ever popped up anywhere in this process. I don't know what happened in the reinstallation or what happened in my original installation that is causing this difference.</p>

[Stock-Photos]

<p>Nicole,<br>

One way is to shoot jpg !</p>

[howard_m]

<p>a RAW image isn't an image that PS can deal with, it's just (raw) computer bits-n-bytes. Somewhere, somehow, you need to use a RAW processor to produce a rendered image in a format that PS can work with.</p>

[howard_m]

<p>actually, you can do an ENORMOUS amount of good adjusting (even on a jpg) in Camera Raw to give yourself a better (and faster) starting point in PS.</p>

[nicolebranan]

<p>Thanks everyone, I appreciate the input!</p>

[kfoster70]

<p>Nicole,</p>

<p>I agree with what others have said, opening a raw file directly into PS without using camera raw is not a good idea. I decided to try using the shift, then double click on the image to get it to open directly into PS. I tried it on CS3, CS4, and CS5. It worked on my Mac in all 3 cases. Not sure why it doesnt work on your machine. Maybe this was not a option on CS2?</p>

<p>K</p>

[nicolebranan]

<p>That's interesting, Kevin - thanks for letting me know! The thing is when I opened RAW files directly into PS (without the Camera Raw interface showing up), my files looked fine. When I open them now and they automatically go through the Camera Raw interface, they look absolutely terrible. It seems that Camera Raw automatically makes some adjustments - and I don't like them. That's why I really wanted to bypass that.</p>

[kezia]

<p>All Raw files are adjusted in order to be visible onscreen. They contain all the information that hit the sensor (more or less) and the adjustments are what makes the picture visible. The difference is whether the software uses your in-camera settings to display them or some other settings of its own. It sounds as if your software has defaulted to open Raw files in Camera Raw. The problem there is that the default settings for viewing photos in ACR are not the ones you set in-camera (in my version they are more like the camera's "Neutral" setting). But ACR can simulate your in-camera settings (see the Camera Calibration icon). I start there, then know I can tweak the image further (white balance, exposure, regain highlight detail, increase vibrance) without the loss of quality I would get if I changed those things within PS. <br>

On the other hand, if when you open directly into PS your Raw file opens as a Photoshop Object (I think it must do that as Photoshop can't read Raw files without some sort of intervening transformation), then if you are not completely happy with the result, you may still have the option of moving back and forth between PS and ACR to tweak white balance or other factors that if changed in Photoshop would degrade the quality. The advantage is that if you are happy with the result 'as is' then you have by-passed ACR completely, and I can see why you might want to do that if you don't need to make further adjustments. I suspect you can change the Bridge default for opening files in Preferences, or perhaps you can right-click the picture and choose how to open it (I don't have a Mac so I'm not sure).</p>

[nicolebranan]

<p>This is great advice, Kezia, thank you! I'll check out the Camera Calibration and hopefully can get it set properly.<br>

As for quality loss, so you say that any adjustments made in Camera Raw won't affect the quality of the image while making these same adjustments in PS will? That's very interesting and I did not know that.</p>

[Richard Williams]

<p>'PS would ask me whether I wanted to do an exposure compensation and then it would open the file.'</p>

<p>I think this might be the clue to what's actually going on here. Some non-Adobe image processing software packages install their own raw conversion plugins, which override ACR. The most common ones are those installed by older Nikon packages like Nikon View and Picture Project. Do you have a Nikon, and did the window that popped up when you opened a raw file look like the first example on this page, with just an exp comp slider and wb selector?:<br>

http://help.nikon.ca/app/answers/detail/a_id/13953/~/how-to-select-the-nikon-nef-%28raw%29-plug-in-after-installing-nikon-and-adobe<br>

If so, and if you prefer the old plugin to ACR, you can get it back by re-installing the Nikon software.</p>

<p>'When I open them now and they automatically go through the Camera Raw interface, they look absolutely terrible.'</p>

<p>If you were using a non-Adobe plugin, you will also have been using a completely different raw processing engine and camera profiles. Nikon's software gives you raw conversion output that looks similar to the in-camera jpegs, and doesn't usually require much adjustment. Adobe's output tends to be 'flatter' and needs some work to get a nice image (especially in older versions of ACR that don't support the Camera Matching profiles). Note that you can get this style of conversion without a plugin by using the Nikon software directly to convert to tiff or jpeg, and opening the converted file in PS. In fact the latest Nikon packages don't include a PS plugin - you have to open the Nikon software directly to process NEFs, though once the image is open there's a shortcut to open it in PS (preserving the look of the Nikon conversion). Here's Nikon's latest free package, ViewNX, which includes an image browser and more raw conversion controls than the old NEF plugins:<br>

http://nikonimglib.com/nvnx/</p>

 

[nicolebranan]

<p>Richard! THAT...WAS...IT! Thank you so much!</p>