Adobe Camera Raw - Lightroom instead of Photoshop?

[Stephen23]

Hello everyone,

I have a technical question about Adobe Camera Raw. I recently purchased a Nikon D7000, and discovered, annoyingly, that my Adobe CS4 Design Premium package could not open the RAW files from the new camera. A bit of research told me that they have released an update to ACR that will read D7000 files, but it only works with Adobe CS5 - not my version.

Which basically means Adobe is screwing me over in order to force me to update. I was leaning towards updating before, but this kind of thing makes me mad, and now I'm considering how I can avoid ever giving any money to Adobe again.

But in the meantime, I'm a working photographer who needs to be able to work with RAW images from my new camera. One option is to just upgrade Photoshop instead of my entire Design package. That would cost $200 vs $600, which isn't too horrible. But then I thought about it, and I think that the new version of ACR should also come with Lightroom 3, which would only be a $100 upgrade for me.

The question is, if I got the newest version of Camera Raw via Lightroom, then how is it going to interact with my CS4 version of Photoshop?

My normal workflow has pretty much eliminated Lightroom these days... so if it's a choice between the two upgrades based on which product I use more, then it's Photoshop hands down, but at the same time Photoshop CS4 does everything I need, so if I can open RAW images in ACR and then bounce to Photoshop for $100 instead of $200, then it makes me happy not rewarding Adobe for bad behavior.

Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to give up Photoshop entirely, so while other options and opinions are welcome, note that at least for now, I do have to choose one from this small list of options.

So, does anyone know? If I get an updated version of ACR with Lightroom, will it interact seamlessly with Photoshop from the previous generation?

Thanks!

Stephen

 

[chrfr]

You can use Adobe's free DNG converter to convert your D7000 files into DNG which CS4's Camera Raw plugin can open directly.
You're a bit confused about what Lightroom includes. It's a standalone program which uses ACR technology and settings but it does not include any sort of plugin for CS4 or CS5. You can export your processed files from Lightroom into Photoshop easily enough but you will never be able to work directly with your raw files in CS4 unless they're converted to DNG first.
Finally, if you own some version of Creative Suite rather than a standalone Photoshop, you cannot upgrade only Photoshop.

 

[Apple OC]

IMO ... upgrade the Photoshop to CS5

 

[Stephen23]

That is what I didn't know - Lightroom obviously contains ACR, as the updates for ACR apply to both Photoshop and Lightroom. I just didn't know if updating it inside of Lightroom would allow the standalone ACR to interact with Photoshop and open the files.

And yes, I know about the DNG converter, but batch converting hundreds of images is a pain in the ass, and it pisses me off that Adobe treats it customers this way when it would take one of their developers about a day to write an update for CS4 (given that the CS5 update is already done).

I just confirmed what Chrfr said about not being able to upgrade a single product once you have purchased the suite. I can't even begin to describe how livid I am with Adobe right now. This is the worst customer service I have ever experienced with any company. Period.

Starting today, I am going to do my best to figure out a way to never give Adobe another dime, and to convince anyone else I know to do the same. Wow. So annoyed...

 

[Keleko]

Is the ACR included in Elements the same ACR as used in Photoshop? If you just want the cheapest way to do it...

 

[Stephen23]

That's a good idea Keleko. To be honest, I have no idea how Elements compares to the real photoshop. Can you do masking and other semi-advanced photo editing with it?

To be honest though, right now the very idea of giving Adobe even $100 of my money makes me sick. I'm looking into the alternatives to Photoshop for Mac... I really don't want to learn a completely new program, but I'd rather do that than support a company that treats its customers this way.

I work as an artist, and like many artists, for years, I was broke and used pirated software from various companies. A few years ago, I made a conscious decision that I should start paying for the software than I used, and even if it hurt, I should spend the money... so I did. Vectorworks, Final Cut Studio, Logic, Office, the Adobe Suite, Qlab - altogether it was almost $5000 in software... not to mention that most of those companies want you to upgrade ever year or 18 months, and spend even more, which I do when I need to, or feel that the upgrade is good value based on the improvements I'm getting.

Today is the first time in all of the time since that I've regretted spending that money.

 

[DustinT]

It is possible to install the ACR update into older Photoshop versions. I'm running ACR 6.3 on Adobe cs2. It works fine. There's just a few files you copy from the ACR into the CS2 directories and thats it.

 

[Keleko]

That's a good idea Keleko. To be honest, I have no idea how Elements compares to the real photoshop. Can you do masking and other semi-advanced photo editing with it?

Yes, you can. It has layers and masking. There are some features of those not available in Elements that are in CS*, of course. I've never used any version of CS to be able to tell you what is missing. Elements has plenty of tools for my hobbyist photography needs.

To be honest though, right now the very idea of giving Adobe even $100 of my money makes me sick. I'm looking into the alternatives to Photoshop for Mac... I really don't want to learn a completely new program, but I'd rather do that than support a company that treats its customers this way.

I work as an artist, and like many artists, for years, I was broke and used pirated software from various companies. A few years ago, I made a conscious decision that I should start paying for the software than I used, and even if it hurt, I should spend the money... so I did. Vectorworks, Final Cut Studio, Logic, Office, the Adobe Suite, Qlab - altogether it was almost $5000 in software... not to mention that most of those companies want you to upgrade ever year or 18 months, and spend even more, which I do when I need to, or feel that the upgrade is good value based on the improvements I'm getting.

Today is the first time in all of the time since that I've regretted spending that money.

You could use Aperture for photo management and basic editing (no masking or layers, though). That will get you the RAW support you want. Heck, you could just use iPhoto for RAW importing at a minimum level. Pixelmator seems to be a popular Photoshop-like competitor on the Mac App store. I have never used it, so I can't say how it compares to Photoshop.