What’s new in Adobe Camera Raw 8.5?
Among all the chaos of the Photoshop CC 2014 update did you notice that Camera Raw received some awesome new features?
What changed in ACR 8.5:
- New RAW profiles
- A new Preview button that toggles the adjustments on and off in any panel! LOVE THIS!
- The ability to brush masks on a Graduate Filter. Finally! I used to make all of my graduated filters in PS because I had more control with a mask. Now you can do it in ACR.
In this tutorial I will show you some of the new features and give you a detailed example of just how powerful masking your Graduated Filters can be.
If you liked this tutorial, you will LOVE HDR Insider!
f.64 Academy and f.64 Elite are the brainchildren of Blake Rudis. While he is a landscape photographer, he is most passionate about post-processing images in Photoshop and mentoring others.
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
Love this. I tend to ignore graduated in Camera Raw because it used to be so primitive. This is so fast and easy.
Thanks, Suzan
I can’t agree more!
Wow! I didn’t even notice these features. Thanks for the information and another great tutorial.
Vinny
They snuck out in amongst the Photoshop chaos! Glad you looked it!
Thanks Blake. Glad you gave us this tutorial as I probably wouldn’t have known it had changed and now I know I’ll use it since the brush tool can be used.
Thanks again.
It’s such a cool feature. Now if only every ACR module had a brush 😉
Hi Blake, your teachings are always amazing, You have helped me to take mi images to a different level. I have Photoshop CC but I can not see the new features in ACR and in photoshop as the new blur gallery and so. Is there something I am missing? Is there an up date that I should pay? I thought that if you have CC I should get all the upgrades.
Sorry to bother you with this kind of questions.
Your friend José
Thanks! That is great feedback, I certainly appreciate it. You have to download the new CC through the Creative Cloud. It is called Photoshop CC 2014. Nothing new to buy, you just have 2 versions of CC now. Kind of a pain.
Nice! Now if they’d port that over to Lightroom, I’d be happy!
Bev
Yeah I thought that may have happened, but I haven’t opened Lightroom in years! I just cant wrap my head around it like I can Photoshop.
Lightroom has graduated and radial filter, but not that special masking brush. I love LR, but it has limits being history based, so some things can’t be undone without losing others.
The ony issue I don’t like about doing this in ACR is that everything comes across as a single background. I’d love to see it come across as layers with the masks built up, so you could make further tweaks in PS. To be honest, I’ve never used ACR, and don’t know how to get started, so I tried this method and opened in PS and that’s when I saw it is just a single layer. I don’t think I like that, and I think it is something that could/should be noted in the review.
Nice tutorial, none the less. Can’t you do that sort of smart auto-masking in PS to do the same thing?
I see what you are saying. However, ACR saves the settings in a sidecar file for RAW images and in the settings of TIF images. Sure it won’t create layers, but you can always go back in and edit it.
I do this in PS as well when needed but it is nice to have this in ACR. ACR is the same as the Lightroom Develop module.
Another great tutorial Blake keep them keeping
Thanks! I appreciate the feedback!
Thanks Blake, I am new to your website and find it to be very impresssive….I did overlook this new feature in ACR . Lightroom is my preffered tool but I will be re-visiting ACR …Very useful info ..Thanks again
So does this upgrade not apply to cs6?
I installed ACR 8.5. It says 8.5 on it, but I do not seem to have the gradient options in your tutorial.
I am not sure, I have yet to look at it in CS 6. Sorry!
oh and I don’t have the preview options either….
Rob
Hi Rudi,
Thanks Rudi nicely quick any simple demo. Just downloaded 2014, took like foreva, now have both versions installed as mentioned (Thanks Adobe for telling me I needed to download, not update, NOT)
Do I now have two ACR’s installed? Why should I keep PS6 CC? If I uninstall PS6 CC using Windows 7 uninstall will all traces go without affecting 2014? What do I call it, CC6, CC7, 2014, CC2014, CC14 …?
Cheers Mate
Mike
I usually keep them all installed. For me it is a backup. If I am doing a Webinar and my CC 2014 crashes, I can quickly fall back on CC or CS6.
Rudi (sorry, Blake) seniors moment please forgive.
No problem, Rudi is my nick name among friends.
as per normal great vid Blake, easy to follow, easy to understand. thanks Blake
Thanks Steve!
This update is fine for Creative Cloud. However, there is no ‘true’ support’ for CS6. When people have spent several hundred pounds/dollars on a product that is still in date, support for these people should be given. All us CS6 users have been given is a camera update. It’s shame that there is not much in the market that can damage the greed of Adobe.
I see where you are coming from, but I strongly disagree with this mentality. If that were the case I should receive a free upgrade to the Canon 7D Mark ii because I own a high end Canon right now. I should also have received a 2010 vehicle after I bought my 2008. Does that also means I should give my next Zone System training for free to those who bought the previous one?
I understand where you are coming from, but the mentality is flawed. Right now Photoshop AND Lightroom are 9.99 per month. Everyone in every state, city, country, town, household, room, etc spends 9.99 on something worthless every month. That is only 2 dollars more than Netflix and you are receiving the 2 most powerful photo post processing programs on the planet. It is a no brainer to me.
Great tutorial – thanks for including it. I didn’t realise it was there until I saw your tut.
Awesome! Thanks for checking it out!
Good stuff Blake but doesn’t Lightroom have the same capabilities except for the mask? I would guess that might be coming soon in another update.
Blake – Thanks so much for taking the lead on providing such outstanding video tutorials on ‘how to use…” features of PS! Your explainations are clear, your videos are no-nonsense, and your timing is incredible! Strong work!!! Tom
Thanks Tom. I really appreciate the feedback! Thanks for fueling my fire 😉
Hi Blake…have utilised most of your page links including this video on ACR. I have spent nearly half a day here in Australia trying to get ACR ….I first downloaded it as a stand along download and substituted it in Adobe filing systems. I correctly dumped the ACR 6 version that ran both Adobe Bridge and Photoshop CS5Extended version.
When i opened up both applications it didnt allow me to use ACR new version 8.4. as ‘incompatible with current versions of CS5 and Adobe Bridge, which gives you the option to use ACR previous versions okay, once reinstalling the older ACR again.
What a frustration it has been to achieve just the ACR compatible programs. I was told by Adobe that i could only upgrad the prevous whole suite of CS5 to obtain the photshop and Adobe Bridge ability to utilise the new ACR verions. I couldnt even download just the CS6 Photoshop component as a stand alone without paying a full version of it rather than the upgrade price of A$303 as compared to A$1,200 for the full upgrade suite…
So i downloaded and upgraded lightroom 4 to 5. but while it will presumably read ACR 8.4 it isnt an option in the menus as a first use component like in Adobe Bridge.. Adobe should upgrade Bridge for CS5 users to allow for such improved use of ACR 8.4