*** From the Archives ***
This article is from February 2, 2009, and is no longer current.
Camera Raw in InDesign: Terry and Mike’s Tip
A Camera Raw file is a digital negative. It can be stored in the DNG format, a non-proprietary file format pioneered by Adobe Systems, or in a proprietary camera format like a NEF or CR2 file. (This is the raw file saved directly from higher-end digital cameras.) You can non-destructively edit Camera Raw images in Lightroom, used by digital photographers. Even easier for those of us who are primarily InDesigners, we can also use the Camera Raw plug-in using Photoshop or Bridge to do incredible image manipulations non-destructively. In InDesignSecrets.com podcast #80, David Blatner said, “Camera Raw is one of the best ways to be making edits to images. Even now you can do that with JPEG and TIF images.”
InDesign doesn’t support directly placing Camera Raw files. If you try to place them, you’ll get an error message. But, by using an easy-to-use trick, you can do it. The trick to to save a Camera Raw file out of the Camera Raw plug-in as a Smart Object. You can use this trick with either Adobe Creative Suite 3 or 4 because Smart Objects can be saved as a Photoshop PSD file by Photoshop CS3 or CS4. And virtually any version of InDesign can place PSD files.
Rather than go through all the steps here, I’ll give you an easier way to learn about this trick. Terry White just recorded a short video on his Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast that tells you how to do it. He shows you that after you’ve placed such an image into InDesign, you can always go back to make adjustments in the Camera Raw plug-in, save the results, and have them immediately linked in InDesign!
To be fair, Terry didn’t originate this idea. David credited it to Mike McHugh showing it at the InDesign Conference last year in New Zealand. He and Anne-Marie mentioned it on podcast #80.
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I have been doing this ever since CS3 came out: very useful. What I would like to know though, is how to make a batch of Raw files into smart object PSDs? It’s easy enough to open multiple objects from within camera raw, but that gets tricky when there are hundreds of images involved. I can’t figure out how to integrate this feature into an action for a batch command. Maybe it is only possible with a script, which I am not capable of?anyone know?
It’s even possible to convert the PSD file? with the RAW embedded into it as a Smart Object? to CMYK color mode!
A task not really necessary (because exporting to certain types of PDF from InDesign already does the conversion using a CMYK profile), but interesting anyway…
that blew my mind
I am obviously missing something here. A raw file is a file in which the changes you make to it can’t be applied to the raw file directly, you have to save those changes you made to the raw file to another format like tif or Photoshop. Am I correct on this?
If that is true would you have imported an image that still needs to have editing done to it? I am confused.
Kip,
When you use the Camera Raw plug-in in Bridge or Photoshop to make adjustments (including straightening and cropping) to a camera raw image, the image?s original camera raw data is preserved. The adjustments are stored in either the Camera Raw database, as metadata embedded in the image file, or in a sidecar XMP file (a metadata file that accompanies a camera raw file).
That’s what makes working with Camera Raw files non-destructive. You can always go back to the original data, and nothing has been lost. This gives you the ultimate amount of control.
If you open a camera raw file in Photoshop, you can save the image in other image formats, such as PSD, JPEG, Large Document Format (PSB), TIFF, Cineon, Photoshop Raw, PNG, or PBM. From the Camera Raw dialog box in Photoshop, you can save the processed files in Digital Negative (DNG), JPEG, TIFF, or Photoshop (PSD) formats. Although Photoshop Camera Raw software can open and edit a camera raw image file, it cannot save an image in a camera raw format.
I hope that explains it for you. Ask more questions if you need to.
“it cannot save an image in a camera raw format.”
What I am asking is if camera raw file does not save changes in camera raw format does that mean that the camera raw file you are placing into InDesign is unedited because it can’t be edited?
And if that is the case wouldn’t you want it to be edited? I suppose the photographer could have shot the photo perfectly as the raw file.
Kip,
You must not have watched Terry’s video. Don’t get confused by the “Photoshop can’t save a file in a camera raw format.” The bottom line is that IF YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO EDIT THE FILE, you can use the workflow, and the video shows you how. If you don’t want it to be edited, do exactly what you’re doing now.
I think I get it now. Technically speaking what is being placed in InDesign is a PSD. But clicking on that PSD for editing brings up camera raw which lets you take advantage of non destructive editing?
Or is the Raw information merged inside of a single PSD file?
I believe that the raw information is embedded in the PSD file. That’s the way Smart Objects work. If you had a Smart Object with vector information, it’s embedded in the PSD. If it’s a Photoshop layer or layers that’s the Smart Object, it’s embedded in the PSD.
To save downloading and watching the video – hold down Shift in ACR to ‘open object’ rather than open image. File then opens in PS as a smart object. Convert to CMYK if you want, then save as PSD. Load the PSD into InDesign. To later alter the ACR settings, open the PSD and double-click the smart object’s layer icon.
This technique only allows basic editing of the image – you can add adjustment layers to the PSD, but if you add any raster layers, they won’t change if you later alter ACR settings, so removing power lines for example (cloning using a layer above the smart object layer) isn’t an option in that instance. I think that’s what Kip was trying to say… You’re limited to whatever edits you can do in ACR, plus adjustment layers/masks/shapes/paths, or you’ll have to redo your raster edits each time you alter the ACR settings of the original raw file…
It would be nice if you could open up multiple raws in ACR, select all and tweak colour, contrast etc. then all the PSDs would update in InD. It seems though that the PSD smart object stores the raw settings and doesn’t update them from ACR’s database/.xmp files.
Thanks for sharing, it’s something else to add to the ‘one-day…’ toolbox!
Also my 14MB raw becomes an 82MB PSD smart object! Ouch! Even if I open my 12megapixel file at the smallest raw setting of around 1.5megapixel, it’s 25MB! My computer is too slow to use this technique for multiple images…
Another tip: In the dialogue box in ACR where you specify the size/res you want your raw to open up, there’s a checkbox for ‘open in PS as smart objects’. This changes the ‘open image(s)’ button to ‘open object’ as default – no need to hold down Shift… (Shift will now switch to ‘open image’)
Sorry, but for some reason I found this all very obvious.
I would typically utilise PSD’s as my images in ID – until I’m happy with the result (so they update as I edit them), then once I’m happy with the image, I’d export it as a jpg or whatever and swap that for the PSD in ID to keep the computer from chugging.
PSD’s in ID are certainly handy when you know an image isn’t quite right – though I suppose you could get the same effect by saving as / overwriting the image file used in your layout.
It would be rare I’d use an image only adjusted in ACR – there’s usually some PS involved at some point.
I know this post is ancient, but it’s still among the top results on Google for “Camera Raw in InDesign” so I think my comment belongs here.
The method I have just worked out (using Creative Suite 6) is to do the adjustments in Camera Raw from Bridge, then select them and choose File->Export to->Hard Drive, keep the same file names but put them in a new folder (and choose “overwrite existing files”), then in InDesign choose “link to new folder” and point to the export location. Voila: your InDesign file is relinked to jpegs that use your camera raw settings from Bridge, and if you want to make any more changes, just do so from the original files in Bridge and then re-export (overwriting existing files) and InDesign will update automatically (when you click “update all links”, of course.)
Extra tip: If you browse to an InDesign file in Bridge, you can right click and choose “show all linked files.” (Then go through, do camera raw edits, export as above and then “relink to folder” from InDesign.)
This took some digging and messing around to figure out, so I’m sharing it here for anyone else like me who stumbles across this blog post in search of this solution.