another RAW newbie question

[jrg]

I recently installed CS6 and upgraded my RAW 9.0 to accommodate my EM-1 and EM-5.

I've posted about my learning curve previously. Now I have another question.

When I open an ORF file, do the adjustments, then OPEN IMAGE and save in JPEG copy, when I go to close the ORF file it asks if I want my changes saved. I say no, the job's done, I want the ORF file pure if I decide to have a second go. HOWEVER---when I reopen the file in RAW 9.0, all my changes are still there. I tried hitting default and although it does set things back in some departments, it doesn't do so in others.

 

[Jim Hess]

The raw file itself is completely untouched, remaining in its pristine state. When you make changes in Camera Raw those changes are stored in an XMP sidecar file by default. This can be changed so that the changes are stored in a Camera Raw database. However, most people prefer the XMP sidecar file. The reason the raw file opens and still shows all the changes is because Camera Raw will read the XMP file and apply the adjustments that were stored in that file to what you see on the screen.

Whenever you open a raw image in Camera Raw there will be a set of default settings that are automatically applied to the image. And this will immediately create that XMP sidecar file. If you want to work on that image on another computer and include the changes, you would take the image file itself as well as the XMP file. There is an option in Camera Raw to enable you to reset the image. This will not reset everything to 0, but will reset things to the default settings for that camera. But through all of this processing, the raw file itself is not modified. You always have the clean raw image data.

 

[ajscullard]

If you want to remove the settings that you previously applied, open your image folder in Bridge, right-click on the image you want to reset, go down to "develop settings" and click on "clear settings". This will return your image to its original state.

You can also select multiple images and reset all the settings using the same methodology.

 

[Redcrown]

In ACR, hold down the ALT key. The options "Open Image" and "Cancel" will change to "Open Copy" and "Reset".

If you then click on "Open Copy" ACR will pass the edited image to Photoshop, and then close itself WITHOUT saving the raw settings. No xmp creation or update.

Also, consider using the "Snapshot" feature in ACR. You can save many different adjustment combinations and go back to them at any time.

 

[jrg]

In ACR, hold down the ALT key. The options "Open Image" and "Cancel" will change to "Open Copy" and "Reset".

If you then click on "Open Copy" ACR will pass the edited image to Photoshop, and then close itself WITHOUT saving the raw settings. No xmp creation or update.

Also, consider using the "Snapshot" feature in ACR. You can save many different adjustment combinations and go back to them at any time.

Uh, like no.

Yeah, ALT gave me OPEN COPy. But then the ORF file still needed to be closed and/or saved and I've still got an XMP file attached.

 

[Art Jacks]

I use the open a copy option with my nef files, once I have made my initial adjustments in ACR I select open a copy, the file is then opened in Photoshop proper for fine tuning, ACR is no longer available until I open another file but all my original files can be revisited without any adjustments from the first attempt added. I have just looked through my image library and there is no sign of a a one of these x? files, I have as a check opened several previously edited files and all ACR sliders are at zero. Are you holding the alt key down when clicking open a copy ?

 

[jrg]

I don't get it. Now it's working, what Redcrown suggested. Not sure what I did or didn't do previously. I did have ALT pressed down, too, the entire time.

 

[Dan Marchant]

When I open an ORF file, do the adjustments, then OPEN IMAGE and save in JPEG copy, when I go to close the ORF file it asks if I want my changes saved. I say no, the job's done, I want the ORF file pure if I decide to have a second go.

This just seems like a really bad idea. Why delete work you have done. There is just as much chance that you will want to try adding something new to the work already done than there is that you will want to start again from scratch.

If you reset the image now and later learn something new that you want to try adding to the image you will have to try and remember all the processing you did (and deleted) before you can try adding the new processing. Much better to save the RAW in its processed state because you can always reset it later, if necessary (though I would strongly recommend making a snapshot so that you have a record of the processing you did).

One of the great features that Lightroom has that ACR (stupidly) does not is the "Virtual Copy" feature. It allows you to make one or more virtual copies of a RAW file (it doesn't actually make a new copy of the RAW, just a virtual entry in the Lightroom catalogue) so you can have as many different versions as you want, processed in different ways, without using up masses of disk space.

 

[Redcrown]

Snapshots in ACR is the same as virtual copies in LR. Nothing stupid about it.

 

[Dan Marchant]

Snapshots in ACR is the same as virtual copies in LR. Nothing stupid about it.

Actually they aren't. Lightroom has the same Snapshot function that ACR has and while Snapshots do achieve a similar end in regards to editing, Virtual Copies are different.

Snapshots are a saved point in the editing process of a single image. They can only be accessed by selecting the original image in Bridge then going into ACR and then selecting the snapshot. Bridge can't display the different snapshots as separate images - it just displays one image, using whichever snapshot you have currently selected as the preview image. If you have a colour image with a black and white snapshot only one of those will appear in Bridge. You can't separately keyword the colour/black and white snapshots so one image would have to be keyworded as both colour and black and white. If you filter images by keyword (eg B&W) you won't necessarily see the version you want to view if the last snapshot selected was the colour one (because that is what Bridge will display as the preview image)

Virtual copies are each displayed as a separate image in Lightrooms organiser (its Bridge equivalent) and each image can be individually managed. You can open whichever one you want directly into the Develop module (ACR) without having to open the original file. More importantly they can be individually flagged, rated, colour coded, keyworded and added to collections. You can have a colour version of an image that is 3 star rated and a B&W you prefer which is 5 star rated. Filtering by keyword will display only the (virtual) image that you want and won't require you to load the image and select a snapshot to view the correct version.

At the end this video

on ACR's snapshot function Julieanne Kost makes a telling comment. She states that she sometime creates a duplicate RAW file (thus using up more disk space) so she can remember that she has more than one version of an image. VCs completely eliminate the need to do that and it is silly that Bridge/ACR, which is basically the same program as Lightroom and create by the same company, doesn't have that feature.