EXCITING NEW Features in Camera Raw—Coming to Lightroom?

In this tutorial, I demonstrate the new features added to the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw, which is part of Photoshop 2025.

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[AnthonyMorganti]

In this tutorial, I demonstrate the new features added to the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw, which is part of Photoshop 2025.

Check out my latest course, Photoshop Unleashed!

I have FREE Keyboard Shortcut Cheatsheets and Mini-Courses available. Check them out:

To get more info about Photoshop, go here:

I am an Adobe affiliate and will earn a commission if you purchase anything using the link directly above. Please read my Code of Ethics Statement:

[jamesrichard-zw]

I am sure that most people here already know this, but when I opened an image from LR to PS and then went to Camera Raw, I could not access these new features. So, I downloaded my RAW file to my desktop and opened it from PS. Of course, you had to save it to the desktop and import it. However, my friend told me that all I needed to do was open an image from LR as a Smart Object and double-click to get into Camera Raw. Again, I am sure this savvy group already knows that, but if you are like me and did not, I hope this helps!

[stevejarvis]

Good afternoon Mr Morganti, Thanks for explaining all of this for us. One thing Ive noticed though in this, is that when you delete that Adobe Camera Raw file and then go back in and update the AI settings, it produces a differrent dog paw to the first time around!

[jpdj]

Correction. Both Lightroom Classic (LrC) and Photoshop (Ps) use Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) for "raw processing" (AKA raw conversion).
Adobe is transparent to this in the documentation in their website.

In both cases, in IT terms, ACR is run as a plug-in for the main app. Ps however leaves ACR to its native UI while LrC camouflages it in the Develop tab. The LrC Develop tab is functionally exactly the same and the ACR "engine" is too.

In Windows you cannot start ACR as an app without help. If you want to run it "stand-alone" you need to have Adobe's image browser Bridge (Br) installed.
In Bridge, go to the image you want to "Develop" in ACR, right click on the file and select Open in ACR from the pop-up menu.

The difference between running ACR as a plug-in versus ~stand-alone is that e.g. LrC does not allow you to set preferences from the Develop tab directly in ACR but LrC takes control of the Preferences. The Preference mapping here is not complete and hence some features cannot be switched on while they are present under the hood that you might not be able open due to Preference incompleteness.

Your image-edits in LrC are stored into the catalogue that's open in LrC, but can also be stored in "sidecar" files.

When you edit an image in stand-alone ACR, then ACR stores your edits in a sidecar file that however is exclusive to ACR. If you were to build a new catalogue of an image directory with ACR sidecars in it then these are ignored by LrC, while LrC sidecars are used to build the new catalogue - I would have liked it when LrC could add these ACR sidecars as virtual copies.

[ASMPHOTO]

Little confused with all the extra work with the extra file? Will watch again!

[MikeNovakPhoto]

Great video. I noticed the extra file as well. I hope it really makes its way to Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. I find this is great as it's a smaller file than a full DNG.

[clausgiloi]

That's great. I hope (and suspect) you're right about generative expand coming to Lr. It's a natural next step.

[stevethompson]

Very good explanation of side car files ACR vs Lightroom

[seanhuxley]

it looks like it generated a new version of the expansion in the restore?

[estwern]

let them bring into lr the possibility to expand (with a chosen color) the canvas. Sometimes we need some border of the image. Existing solutions are too time consuming....

[oneeyedphotographer]

For generative AI and the like, you should be dong it i locks net exceeding 1, 000 pixels on a side. For my Olympus raw files, that's six blocks horizontally, four vertically. Then, Rover would have good-looking paws.

[dsimons]

Thanks for posting. Can't get generative expand to work in my system. Using macmini with Camera Raw 17.0 with raw file (.dng) generated by Leica camera. I get the old crop menu system. Any suggestions? Never mind, figured it out. : )

[caskraker]

Man, that is one ugly paw. Looks more like a hand. And totally out of focus too. As always, Adobe makes a lot of fuss about their AI features but in practice it is all useless.