Photoshop is covering Bridge when I return with Done or Cancel from ACR

Question

I don't know if this is a particular case for my PC or for the Windows 10 environment.
1. No application is open - only the desktop is visible.
2. I open Bridge and send an ARW file to Photoshop 21.
3. Adobe Camera Raw opens on top of both.
4. When I press Done or Cancel in ACR to return to Bridge ...
5. ... ACR closes, but now Photoshop is covering Bridge
6. I have to select Bridge again - an redundant activity - to bring Bridge in front of PS.
Can this behavior be controlled from any preset to let Photoshop open behind Bridge?

Chuck Uebele · Accepted Answer

Use Crtl/Cmd-R or right click and select "Open in Camera Raw." This will not open or sent Photoshopt to the front. It runs ACR through Bridge rather than through Photoshop. I think there is a setting in Bridge's preferences to control this.

gary_sc · Answer

Hi Eigil, one piece of information that will help you understand this is that Photoshop does not have ability to understand how to deal with a raw file (in your case an ARW file).

When you open a raw file from Bridge, it needs to be opened in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) to process the file into an image file that Photoshop can use. So when you double-click a raw file in Bridge, ACR is the first thing opened because only it can process the raw file (Lightroom Classic is a special kind of ACR with a database but that's another story). In the ACR window there are three buttons on the bottom right: Cancel, Done, and Open.

-Cancel means that anything you do in the settings in ACR will be ignored and you are back to square 1.

-Done means that any of the settings you do in ACR will be kept and you'll go right back to Bridge.

-Open means that the changes you made in ACR will be kept and those pixels will be opened in Photoshop. You'll note that in PS, there's no way to save the image back to ARW file. Rather, you can only save it into a standard image file: PSD, TIF, JPEG, etc. When you do save a file from Bridge, it will be saved back to the file with the same name (assuming you do not change it during the save process) but with a different suffix. E.g., a "my_file.arw" will be saved as "my_file.psd."

Lastly, if you do make any changes to the raw file, ACR will create a new "xmp" file (in my example, it will be "my_file.xmp") and will be saved in the same folder as the original. This new "side car" file contains all of the changes and adjustments you made in the file in ACR. If this file is tossed or moved to a different folder than the original file, when you open this file up in the future, all of your changes will be gone. IF you convert your ARW file into a DNG, the XMP file is contained within the DNG file and cannot be accidentally lost. There are other advantages to DNG files but I'll leave that for another day. There are many folks who do not do this converstion, it's a choice, not a mandate.

Hope all this helps,

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