Camera Raw, the brilliant Lightroom raw image editing engine, is suddenly an always available, all-purpose Photoshop tool.

Let's say you have an image open in Photoshop ready to edit. You've been working a lot in Lightroom and your reflexes are tuned to the Lightroom develop module sliders and tools. The most convenient way to get from point A to point B would be to tweak some sliders and watch the image respond, but you're in Photoshop, so you have to snap into the context of Photoshop's toolset and work with the tools available in Photoshop's very different world. Not a big deal, but a slight conceptual interruption to your train of thought. Well, now there's a very handy and arguably, revolutionary alternative. 


Duplicate layer

Make a merge visible layer (cmd-opt-shift-E) or duplicate layer (Cmd-J) so you have a pixel layer to "filter"

duplicate-layer.png
 

Filter Menu > Camera Raw Filter

From the Filter menu, choose Camera Raw Filter

filter-menu---camera-raw-filter.jpg

Open Adobe Camera Raw

The Adobe Camera Raw Dialog will open with the same adjustment sliders and tools as the Lightroom Develop Module, although with a different placement of the tools across the top left side of the screen.


adobe-camera-raw.png

Camera Raw adjustments

Here I've converted to black & white by sliding the saturation slider all the way to the left, and added a mid-tone contrast and strengthened the blacks with a moderate move to the right on the clarity slider. Click the "OK" button in the bottom right corner.

camera-raw-edits zoom.jpg

Result: back in Photoshop's main screen

results.png

 

PhotoshopCC's BEST New Feature!

Let's say you have an image open in Photoshop ready to edit and you wish you could work with the toolset you were just using a few minutes before in Lightroom's develop module. Well now you can:



Duplicate layer

Make a merge visible layer (Cmd-Opt-Shift-E) or duplicate layer (Cmd-J) so you have a pixel layer to "filter"

Duplicate layer


Filter Menu > Camera Raw Filter

From the Filter menu, choose Camera Raw Filter

Filter Menu > Camera Raw Filter


Adobe Camera Raw

The Adobe Camera Raw editing dialog will open up displaying your layer content ready to edit in ACR, which has the very same feature set as Lightroom's develop module.

Adobe Camera Raw


Camera Raw edits

Here I've converted to black & white using the Saturation slider, and pumped up the blacks along with a little clarify.

Camera Raw edits


Results

Here's the result - the layer is transformed to black & white with punch!

Results