Elements 14 keeps openign up JPEG files in RAW

JerryL1948  wrote Need your help.   I shoot JPEG.    ... I try to use the Elements 14 as my editor to work with the images, but for some crazy reason, it wants to open the images as a RAW file though it shows JPG in the file name.

Jerry,

There is a situation where opening jpegs in the ACR module automaticaly is the right thing to do (from the editor or the organizer). It's when you have already chosen to open them in ACR before from the menu 'Open in ACR'. This is the expected way to keep the non-destructive editing in ACR. You can change your settings or revert to the original.

The sliders values you have changed in ACR are saved directly in the metadata header of the photo file itself as well as in the catalog. If you click 'Done', no edited (rendered) copy is created. If you click 'Open', you can continue your edits in the editor and save a rendered copy as a version set for instance in any format.

So, the next time you want to open the file, the organizer checks another value in the metadata header to see if the file has been edited in ACR. If you open the file from any other program, that metadata indication is ignored and you get the original unedited version.

About the same process also exist if you use Photoshop ACR or Lightroom. So the same 'Edits Applied' indicator may have been added by those softwares in the metadata of the files themselves. Do you think that has been possible in your case? I really can't imagine why a third-party software would be able to add or recognize that metadata piece.

The problem may be that you have good reasons to want to open the files directly in the editor. In that case, an external editor like FastStone or Irfanview will open the original unedited version, ignoring the sliders settings. You can't do this directly from the Organizer. You have to state if you want the original or the rendered edited version.

Now when I go to CLOSE ALL it wants to save them in a PSD file and I have to change every one of them to jpg.

That means that you have clicked on the 'Open' button instead of the 'Done' one, either to add edits from the editor or to save the edited version as a copy, perhaps in a version set.

If you are always been prompted to save as psd that's perhaps because you have set ACR to send a 16-bits copy to the editor. Since jpegs don't support 16-bits, only psd is prompted. You can set the default of ACR to 8-bits in the menu in the middle of the bottom bar.

Yes I know RAW is better however I'm dealing with 1200-1800 images a weekend at horse shows..

And raw is also much faster to edit such big batches of jpegs.

http://photoshopelementsandmore.com/thread/3154/elements-acr-workflow-non-files

In your case, I would edit by smaller batches of about 50 files in ACR at the same time. Correct in batch general edits like white balance, exposure, contrast, perhaps crop all files individually (non-destructive). Then save the edits with 'Done'.

Instead of opening and saving files individually in the editor, I would use the organizer to export all edited files, even 1500 into a new folder, with the export options, size, quality, file name...