Camera Raw in Elements 15

ontcanuck  wrote When I downloaded Elements I did not download camera raw.  I just have a cheap camera.  I have no idea if I should download the camera raw and what advantage would there be?  Also I don't know how to get rid of it either.  So you can see I am in quite a situation.  LOL

Don't worry...

That module is automatically installed... and can't be uninstalled.

You can check it from the menu Help >> About plugins. A list of plugins will appear with Adobe Camera Raw and its version.

It's possible your camera does not output raw files, that should appear when setting your options in the camera.

The ACR module is mainly a converting tool to transform the raw data of the camera in an image format like jpeg or psd.

It also has a powerful set of commands to edit your photos. You move sliders to correct your image, and those sliders moves are saved in a kind of recipe, a text file with an .xmp extension, saved along your original (never changed). That's what is called a 'sidecar' file. You can choose to open the resulting image in the editor, where you can continue editing and from where you can save a resulting jpeg, psd or other format image file.

The editing features of the ACR module are very interesting, that's why you also can open a non raw image like one of your jpegs: menu 'File >> Open in ACR' (in Windows). That will give you an idea, and there is a help button to show you more.