Camera Raw Tips: Jeff Schewe

[Chris Crevasse]

I have recently learned two basic Camera Raw tips that are significant for my workflow but that do not, as best I can tell, appear in Jeff Schewe's book "Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS5" or other popular references, such as those by Scott Kelby.  Jeff, may I suggest that these tips be added to your next edition?

(1)  Opening Camera Raw in Photoshop allows for faster 64-bit processing than opeing Camera Raw from Bridge, which is a 32-bit program.  To open Camera Raw in Photoshop, use Command/Control-O or set your preferences so that double-clicking on a raw file does NOT open Camera Raw in Bridge (and therefore by default opens Camera Raw in Photoshop).

(2)  If you use Camera Raw's output sharpening, you will want to have the image sized correctly.  Set the cropping tool to the size print you desire (8x12 and inches, for instance), and your workflow options to the native resolution and the appropriate PPI for the printer you will be using.  Then, crop your image, even if the cropping border corresponds with the uncropped image border.  When you save your image with sharpening through Camera Raw, the final image will be in the correct dimensions and PPI for your desired print.  For instance, an 8x12 image at 300 ppi will be 2400 x 3600.

[Schewe]

(1) is in there...I believe it's a note (I'll try to find the page ref)

(2) well, the first statement is in the book. Nice tip re: custom crop. However I still find output sharpening in ACR to be way too limited from within the batch Save. The other problem is that opening the image in Photoshop after running output sharpening limits the sharpening edits you can do creatively. You really don't want to go back into and image for creative sharpening after doing output sharpening.

[Schewe]

(1) It's a Note on page 64...

[Chris Crevasse]

Thanks, Jeff.  I use the output sharpening in ACR when I don't plan on any additional work on an image, such as when I'm churning out 4x6 prints for a photo album.  It's handy for that, I think.

[AFairley]

Thanks, Chris, sounds like you can also use your tip to do back output to specific pixel dimension, which I didn't know.  (I.e., if you wanted 480x640 output, you could crop to 48"x64" @ 10 ppi, right?)