How to properly create action using Camera Raw in Photoshop.

Forum|Forum|19 hours ago
October 7, 2026
5 replies
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Hello, I have hundreds of headshots to edit in Photoshop. I really like the Camera Raw Remove Blemishes feature and want to make an Action out of it. The problem is that when create an action using “photo A” and then try to use the action on another photo “photo B”, the mask of blemishes are copied from Photo A and it just puts blemishes from Photo A onto Photo B. So, instead of the Remove Blemishes Action re-processing the Blemish filter, it just applies the processing that it created when I made the action.

I love the actions and have made many for all kinds of purposes that help me move through my edits faster. I can’t seem to figure this one out.

If you need clarification I can try and do that.

Thanks,

Will

willmen08Author

Known Participant

Thanks for your quick reply. Yes, I’m talking about NEF files. As I said I have several actions that I do in Photoshop. I can do this blemish removal first in Camera Raw but I do need to continue editing in Photoshop. If I click ‘done’ in Bridge as you say, will those photos get updated in Lightroom - and then I can open them into Photoshop from there?

My initial edits (mostly for color and cropping) are in Lightroom. Will Bridge carry those edits before applying the Camera Raw Blemishes tool? Or, do I need to do the Bridge edits even before color and cropping?

What do you recommend my new process order be? Also, just so you know, in Lightroom, I usually star the ones I pick to edit, then make my LR edits, copy/paste those edits, then import them, 5 or so at a time, into Photoshop and edit further there. I’m not familiar with Bridge, will it let me star the ones I want to edit and then can I just select those to do the blemish fix? (sorry for all the questions)

Thanks,

Will

Conrad_C

Community Expert

Normally it would be best to do the blemish removal along with any other raw-level edits done in Lightroom Classic or Lightroom. But it’s a little more complicated in this case because blemish removal recently appeared in Camera Raw first, and is not yet in Lightroom Classic/Lightroom. If/when they add blemish removal to Lightroom Classic/Lightroom, then it would be best to do it in there before sending the images to Photoshop. But for now, the batch edit has to be done in Camera Raw.

Bridge doesn’t actually have to be involved. I suggested it only because it’s a quick and easy way to do Camera Raw edits without having to open Photoshop. If you know all of these images are going to Photoshop anyway, then it’s OK to forget I ever bought up Bridge, especially because you already work in Lightroom which is similar. For now, do it as part of the step where you convert the raw files using Camera Raw (not Camera Raw Filter) on the way in to Photoshop:

Select the 5 or so NEF files in a batch and open them all at once in Photoshop. Camera Raw opens with all selected files in a filmstrip.
In Camera Raw, select all the files in the filmstrip and apply Blemish Removal. Each image should get its own blemish removal edits, but if needed, update AI settings.
Click Open. All selected files are converted into non-raw unsaved documents in Photoshop as usual, and now you can move on to the Photoshop-specific edits.

willmen08Author

Known Participant

As I’m already downloading Bridge... hehe. Ok - I like this, but I have to change my LR settings. I have it so the NEFs open in Photoshop without opening Camera Raw first. If I switch it and this works, then this is great, I’ll take it. Thanks so much!

Conrad_C

Community Expert

What is the original format of these images? Because if it’s possible to do this batch process in Adobe Camera Raw instead of Photoshop, it should be done in Camera Raw, not in Photoshop, for better quality and much faster processing.

Assuming Camera Raw can work with their image format (raw, DNG, TIFF, JPEG, HEIC, AVIF…), the steps below should be a much better and faster workflow:

Open Adobe Bridge, and in the Folders panel, and select the folder containing the images. The files appear in the Content panel.
Select all of the images and choose File > Open in Camera Raw.
In Camera Raw, select all of the images in the filmstrip.
Select the Remove tool and apply Remove Blemishes. Camera Raw runs blemish removal on all selected images, individually.
From here, if all subsequent edits can be done in Camera Raw, finish editing and then click the Convert and Save Images button to export the edited copies. Or, if the images need more edits that only Photoshop can do, click Open to send all selected images to Photoshop as edited copies. Or click Done to save the edits in metadata and return to Bridge.

Camera Raw should calculate blemish removal separately for each image. If it doesn’t quite look right, see if the Update AI Edits button is yellow (which means not up to date) and click it; that should update edits for each selected image.

For just a single image, on my computer applying Blemish Removal to the original raw image directly in Camera Raw finished much more quickly than with the same image in Photoshop using Camera Raw Filter. For a batch, Camera Raw should be able to process multiple images in parallel to finish the batch significantly faster than Photoshop, which runs actions by processing images serially (it can’t start the next image until the previous one is done).

In step 4 above, where you select all the images and apply edits which then change all the images, another way to do it is edit one image and either Sync Settings or copy/paste settings to other images.

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