Adobe Camera Raw

The first few times you hear "Adobe Camera Raw" ... it's very confusing. My camera can record photos in "Raw" format; what is "Adobe Camera Raw"? How does this relate to Nikon Raw, Canon Raw, Olympus Raw, etc?

Adobe Camera Raw, often abbreviated ACR, is not what the name implies. It is computer software for editing digital photographs, with support for Raw format files from more than a dozen camera manufacturers. ACR has some particular ability to open Raw formats from various camera vendors, but it can also be used with common JPEG or TIFF. Yes, some features will not be available unless the image is in Raw format, but .... Adobe Camera Raw is not a file format and is not entirely dependant upon any Raw format.

If you capture photographs in Raw format (in most circumstances, you certainly should), your computer likely will not be able to open and display these images without special software. Your camera will include a CD-ROM of software from the camera manufacturer. Your camera manufacturer may offer additional software, such as Nik Capture Nx, which only supports Nikon Raw format (NEF). Other options include Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom, which include ACR.

ACR provides a few key features that render your free software (included with your camera) obsolete. White balance and exposure are very fast and easy. But "recovery" is absolutely essential; I rely upon it frequently. Fill light, black point, and vibrance are also fast and effective, but place a close second behind "recovery".
Both Adobe Bridge (part of Adobe Creative Suite) and Adobe Photoshop include ACR. This allows ACR/Bridge to carry out time-consuming operations on a large number of files, while you continue to use ACR/Photoshop.

One small complaint. When I purchased a new DSLR camera, I already had Adobe CS3, which includes Photoshop and ACR, that supports Canon Raw files. However, this camera introduced a new Canon Raw format, which was not supported by the ACR included with CS3. While Adobe does issue free updates to ACR, all new ACR updates were only compatible with CS4. I had to spend money not just on a Photoshop upgrade but upgrade the entire Creative Suite to CS4. Adobe makes a distinction between Adobe CS3 (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc) and Adobe Photoshop CS3. This is not clear on the Adobe website.

In retrospect, to get support for my new camera, there was one alternative to an expensive upgrade to CS4. Adobe DNG Converter is a free download that will convert the latest Raw file formats to DNG format.

On Macintosh computers, both iPhoto and Aperature applications are able to open Raw files, thanks to the Apple Digital Camera Raw module. Apple Digital Camera Raw is the means by which Mac OS X provides system-level support for digital camera RAW files.