Adobe Camera Raw

About this release

Camera Raw is the layer between a camera file and everything downstream. It decodes the raw data, applies the camera and lens profile, and hands the result to the host application as an image that has never been baked. Because it opens as a filter inside the host, every one of those decisions stays adjustable for the life of the document rather than being locked in at import.

The panel is the same one photographers know from the catalogue application: exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites and blacks, then the tone curve, colour mixer, colour grading, calibration, detail, lens corrections, geometry and effects. Masking is the modern part, with subject, sky, background, object and people detection generating masks that then combine with brushes, gradients and range selections.

Camera and lens coverage is the practical reason to keep this current. Each release adds profiles for newly released bodies and optics, and without them a file from a recent camera either fails to open or opens with the wrong colour interpretation. Profile driven correction for distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration applies automatically once a lens is recognised.

Detail work has moved forward considerably. Machine learning denoise handles high sensitivity files far better than the older algorithms, super resolution doubles linear dimensions with usable results, and raw defringe cleans high contrast edges without desaturating them. Settings save as presets and apply across a whole selection in one action.

What it does

Non destructive raw decoding

Opens as a smart filter so exposure and profile decisions stay live in the host document.

Automatic masking

Subject, sky, background, object and people masks that combine with manual tools.

Current camera and lens profiles

Support for recently released bodies and optics, with correction applied by profile.

Machine learning denoise

High sensitivity files clean up far better than with the previous algorithms.

Super resolution

Doubles linear dimensions with detail that holds up at print size.

Presets and batch apply

Save a look and apply it across an entire selection in one pass.

Changed in this version

• Profiles added for the latest camera bodies and lenses.
• Denoise runs faster on supported graphics hardware.
• Masking edge behaviour improved on hair and foliage.
• Colour grading panel reorganised.
• Fixed a colour shift on some compressed raw formats.

System requirements

Install order

1. Close the host application before installing.
2. Unpack the archive to a short path.
3. Run the installer, which places the plug in in the shared component folder.
4. Reopen the host and confirm the version reported in the plug in dialogue.

Worth knowing before you start

File details