Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) is a plugin within Adobe Photoshop designed for processing and editing raw image files, which are uncompressed data directly captured by a camera’s sensor. Unlike JPEGs or other compressed formats, raw files retain all the image information, giving you much greater flexibility in editing. I think ACR was the best invention for digital photography.

Adobe Camera Raw and the Adobe Lightroom Classic Develop module are essentially the same program. While they may look slightly different, if you prefer to use Adobe Lightroom Classic—which is not an older version of Lightroom but rather a desktop version—you can use it as your raw converter instead of ACR. Check out my series on Adobe Lightroom Classic.

In Part 1 of this series, I will cover global adjustments, which are changes that affect the entire image. We will focus on the most basic yet essential adjustments, such as white balance, exposure, contrast, highlights, and shadows, among others. Adobe Camera Raw is packed with features that we will explore throughout this series. You will be shocked with how is uses AI to make the most accurate selections. Supersize and DeNoise are some other new awesome features of the program.

I will also explain the mysterious .XMP files that appear as sidecars to the original raw files. XMP files tend to make some people uneasy, but I personally find them invaluable. Raw files like .nef, .cr2, .cr3, and .awr cannot be overwritten. Instead, all adjustments and metadata added to the files are stored in an .xmp file with the same name. These are tiny text files—learn to love them.

All my videos on this site are supplement material for my college classes on photography, Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. I hope you enjoy this tutorial series.