ACR to Photoshop Edits Aren’t Set in Stone

I was talking to a photographer the other day and I was saying how much I love Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), and that I’ll do 90% of what I want to achieve there before moving into Photoshop. He argued against this stating “Once you’ve clicked Open Image in ACR your adjustments can’t be changed”. By default this is true, but not when you use my beloved modifier keys….

Shift It To Smart It

By default, to open an image in Photoshop you’d click the Open Image button. If you do this, I agree, it locks down the adjustments you’ve made in ACR. You can of course return to your edits via the RAW image, but anything you do in Photoshop will have to be redone.

You can however, change the buttons. Pressing the Shift key modifies them and they become;

By clicking the Open Object button You Open Your Image as a Smart Object.

Opening an image as a smart object means that should you wish to alter anything in your image, double clicking the layer will open it up in ACR again.

In Camera RAW you’ll notice that the buttons have again changed, his time showing OK and Cancel. Both will return you to your image in Photoshop but Cancel will not carry forward any of your adjustments.

Smart Object By Default

If you find this useful and would like to have the Open Object button as default you can set this up very easily. At the bottom of the ACR screen you’ll see an underlined line of text, it’ll look something like this;

Clicking on this brings up a dialogue box, at the bottom of which is a check box;

Check this and you’ll have the Open Object button as default. You can open your image as a layer still, just press the Shift key and you’ll have your Open Image button back again.