How to Use Adobe Camera Raw With CS2

By Alexis Lawrence

RAW format is the most complete digital image format taken by cameras.
i camera image by Alexandre from <a href='http://www.fotolia.com'>Fotolia.com</a>

The Camera Raw plugin for Adobe Photoshop CS2 allows Photoshop users to read and edit the RAW files from a wide range of digital cameras. RAW files are the truest image files a camera takes, displaying color, brightness and sharpness exactly as it was captured, unlike JPG image files, which compress the image to fit into the JPG container, limiting the colors in the process. By working with a photo in RAW mode, the full-color range of the photo is available for manipulation in Photoshop.

Step 1

Download the most updated version of Camera Raw for your version of Adobe Photoshop. The Adobe website has free downloads of Camera Raw for both Windows and Mac computers (see Resources.) Install Camera Raw to your computer and it automatically integrates into Photoshop.

Step 2

Open Adobe Photoshop CS2 on the computer and go to Adobe Bridge by clicking the folder in the "Go to Bridge" button in the upper right corner of the Photoshop screen. Navigate to the folder on your computer's hard drive where the Raw files that you would like to process are stored.

Step 3

Right-click on the Raw photo file that you would like to open and select the "Open in Camera Raw" option from the menu that appears. To add multiple images from the folder, press the "Shift" button and click on each photo that you want to open to highlight them all, then right-click on any of the highlighted photos and click "Open in Camera Raw."

Step 4

Select which photo is open in the main window of Camera Raw by clicking on the photo thumbnails in the left-hand pane. Whichever photo is highlighted in the left pane displays in the main window and is active for editing.

Step 5

Try adjusting your Raw photos first by checking the "Auto" boxes next to "Exposure," "Shadows," "Brightness," "Contrast" and "Saturation" in the "Adjust" tab of the Settings box to the right of the screen. The auto-adjust feature of Camera Raw attempts to adjust the settings of your photo based on the adjustments it believes the photo needs.

Step 6

Use the sliders under the adjustment headings to change the settings if the photo does not appear the way that you want it after the auto-adjustment. Simply click on the checkbox again to turn off the "Auto" feature and slide the marker along the slider to adjust the "Exposure," "Shadows," "Brightness," "Contrast" and "Saturation" manually.

Step 7

Save the adjustments that you have made to the image by going to the "File" menu and choosing "Save." If you don't want to change the original Raw file, select "Save As" and enter a file name for the new version of the photo.

×