ACR questions

[MikeFromMesa]

I recently bought a new Mac Mini M2 machine and installed Elements on it. I mostly wanted access to ACR for processing files, but after installing both Elements and the extended Utilities I am left with some questions.

The Utilities installation asked me where to put stuff, and I specified a location, but nothing is in the folder location. I checked before calling ACR and after calling ACR, but the folder is still empty. I checked during processing in ACR, but the folder was empty. What is the purpose of the folder?

When I used Photoshop (which I no longer have on my current system) I could edit both raw and non-raw images in ACR, but now I can only seem to open raw images in ACR. Is there no way in Elements to edit tiffs in ACR?

The most puzzling things for me are the way raw images are handled with Elements and ACR. If I right-click on a raw image amd select Open With Photoshop Elements the image opens in ACR, but when saved it does not open in Elements for any further processing. The only thing I seem to be able to do is save it and then manually open it in Elements or another pixed editor. Am I missing something here? And I can not find any way to specify that I only want the image opened in ACR, not Elements, so I always end up with Elements open whether I want it or not. I assume if I could find the actual ACR app I could open a raw image (and perhaps even a tiff) in it directly, but I can't find it anywhere on the system. Where is it? Or is it hidden for a reason?

[MikeFromMesa]

OK. I found a way to open a tiff in ACR, but requires a manual search instead of just taking a file from the bin or accepting a call from an external editor with a tiff specified. But my other queestions still remain.

[Jeff Arola]

If from within the photoshop elements editor you open jpegs or tiffs using File>Open in Camera Raw, from then on the said photos should automatically open camera raw.

When you have an image in acr, you can press Open to open the image in the pse editor.

[MikeFromMesa]

Thank you. I guess what I was looking for was some way to directly open the file already opened in Elements in ACR. File -> OPen in Camera Raw requires a dialog box and a search for the specified file as that was what I remembered from when I had PS installed on my system.

Still, this will work fine. But I still wonder about the other parts of my questions.

[MichelBParis]

One of the main differences in the reduced ACR version of Elements compared with the full version of ACR is that it's strictly a converter tool. Converting includes the tools to manage tones and color (the equivalent of the negative conversion in silver photography) but not functions like saving or printing which are already available in the normal pixel editor. The 'save' button is misleading, it only converts to the universal DNG raw format from the proprietary raw one. As explained by Jeff, raw images are automatically opened in the ACR converter where you fine tune the conversion and supply an in memory photo format that the editor can understand and convert in your favorite photo format or can print. The converter can also use its non destructive, parametric workflow with non raw files like jpegs or psd or tiffs. In the full ACR, the saving functions can be applied from the ACR dialog as well as more advanced details editing features.

[Greg_S.]

@MikeFromMesa said:  And I can not find any way to specify that I only want the image opened in ACR, not Elements, so I always end up with Elements open whether I want it or not. I assume if I could find the actual ACR app I could open a raw image (and perhaps even a tiff) in it directly, but I can't find it anywhere on the system. Where is it? Or is it hidden for a reason?

The ACR is a plug-in to the Elements Editor.  It is not a separate application.  That is why it cannot be opened separately.

Since neither Michel or I know much about Macs, @Jeff Arola will have to answer your initial question about the location of folders and files.

[MichelBParis]

@MikeFromMesa said:  And I can not find any way to specify that I only want the image opened in ACR, not Elements, so I always end up with Elements open whether I want it or not. I assume if I could find the actual ACR app I could open a raw image (and perhaps even a tiff) in it directly, but I can't find it anywhere on the system. Where is it? Or is it hidden for a reason?

The ACR is a plug-in to the Elements Editor.  It is not a separate application.  That is why it cannot be opened separately.

Since neither Michel or I know much about Macs, @Jeff Arola will have to answer your initial question about the location of folders and files.

By @Greg_S.

Yes Greg, my understanding was that Mike tried to use the 'save' button which stores the resulting DNGs on a custom location.

[MikeFromMesa]

I think it is mostly that I don't know much about Elements.

I am familiar enough with Unix and MacOS to find my way around, to know where the Photoshop plugins are supposed to be and have been editing raw images for some time, but Elements is new. I used to have the full version of Photoshop and knew how to use that, but getting around Elements is difficult for me. I expect it to work like PS and it generally does not.

I also thought that the ACR in Elements would be the same as the one in PS, but that was probably a silly mistake on my part. Still, with the help I have gotten on this forum, I now have mostly figured out how to use the Elements version of ACR. I spent some time looking at how to save a file adjusted with ACR but I now see that the Done button seems to do that.

Thank you for the help you all have provided. It has been very helpful.

[Glenn 8675309]

ACR edits are non destructive.  What does that mean?  You always work on a copy.  The raw file is never edited. 

[MikeFromMesa]

Every 3rd party pixel editor does non destructive editing of true raw files. They don't have the capacity to rewrite the image in the original raw format, so they can't edit it. That is not true of dng files, but then dng is not a native raw format as CR2, NEF, ORF and the others are. It is true for all native raw files being edited by pixel editors not written by the camera company itself. And the Canon pixel editor that I used to use would not rewrite the raw files either, even though they presumably had the format libraries and physically could have done so.