From the course: Photoshop 2025 Essential Training

Editing in Camera Raw or Lightroom versus Photoshop - Photoshop Tutorial

From the course: Photoshop 2025 Essential Training

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Editing in Camera Raw or Lightroom versus Photoshop

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I'm often asked when and what type of edit should be made in Camera Raw or Lightroom or Lightroom Classic and what type of edit should be made in Photoshop. Well, when working with photographs, especially with raw files captured on a digital camera or a mobile device, it's best to make as many corrections and adjustments to those photographs using the technology found in Camera Raw or Lightroom Classic or Lightroom before opening them into Photoshop. As far as what types of edits can be made, the Camera Raw technology excels at adjusting and enhancing color and tone and contrast in images. And these adjustments can be applied to either the entire photograph or to a selective area within the photograph. Let's take a look at three different examples. So the original is on the left-hand side and I've made some adjustments to the image on the right. I have straightened it or leveled it, as well as cropped it. I've removed the lens distortion. I've added or adjusted the tonal and color values in the image, both globally, meaning to the entire image, and also made some local adjustments, just lightening or darkening different areas of the ice. In this second example, I've added contrast by increasing the highlights or brightening them and darkening the shadows. I've also adjusted the colors, making the yellow in the background a little bit more vibrant, as well as the blue in the foreground. And this is going to help to add a little bit of color contrast and separate the foreground from the background. In this third image, I've selectively changed the saturation of the sky, making it a little bit darker and a little bit more muted. And I've also made some local corrections by increasing the amount of cyan in the iceberg and also decreasing the amount of blue in the shadows. Now, fortunately, the Camera Raw technology is found not only in Camera Raw, but also in Lightroom Classic, in the Develop module, and in Lightroom's Edit stack. In fact, it's also available in Lightroom on mobile and web. It's just that the tools and the sliders on all these different platforms are arranged a bit differently depending on the device. There are three primary reasons that you should make edits to your RAW files using the Camera RAW technology. The first is speed. So the changes that you make are done using a parametric image editing model. And this means that the application quickly applies a set of instructions to alter how the image is displayed on screen. This type of editing can be significantly faster when compared to a pixel editing application such as Photoshop. The second reason would be ease of use. So the Camera Raw technology is streamlined for image editing. It provides powerful but easy to use sliders and tools to adjust color, tone and contrast in images, both globally to the entire image or locally to a selective area using masking. Most adjustments can be made by simply selecting a preset, a profile or by moving a slider, and they can be refined and re-edited as often as needed. And the third reason would be quality. The Camera Raw technology never changes the original data in the original raw file. This means that regardless of how many times you make edits and refine them, you will always be working with the highest quality file possible. It's only when you choose to open the file with those edits applied into Photoshop that those enhancements are applied to the originals. Let's take a look at a few examples of when you would want to use Photoshop to continue editing. So here we have the original and the enhanced image using the Camera Raw technology. But if I wanna remove distracting elements or combine multiple images or remove objects and backgrounds, then I would definitely want to do that in Photoshop. When I'm doing complex compositing, like making really complex selections or creating intricate masks and compositing multiple images together like I have in this image, then again, I would want to use Photoshop. When I need to add filters or special effects like I have in this image where I've added motion in the foreground and I've replaced the sky in the background, again, that's a great opportunity to use the powerful tools in Photoshop. And whenever I want to add design elements like text or shapes, or if I want to paint and draw or maybe mock up screen designs and so much more, again, I would move to Photoshop. So we're gonna move through the Camera Raw technology and workflow later in this course, but first let's jump in and get acquainted with Photoshop.

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