Image settings in Camera Raw. Dmitry Evtifeev's blog Menu tabs main in camera raw 9.7

At the time of writing this article, I am using the Adobe Camera Raw plugin version 7, which comes with Adobe Photoshop CS6. This is the first version of Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) to feature fully automatic chromatic aberration correction, which is very important to me. I find earlier versions of ACR unacceptable, and until the release of Adobe Camera Raw 7, I used DxO Optics Pro as my main RAW converter. DxO does not have a very user-friendly interface, but it provides excellent quality for converting RAW files, which Adobe was able to approach only in 2012. Since the ACR interface is more convenient for me, I, having appreciated the advantages of the seventh version, changed the converter.

If you are using any other RAW converter, try to follow the same steps as described in this article. The general principle of operation of all converters is the same, and they differ, by and large, in details. Among the popular converters, in addition to Adobe Camera Raw, I can recommend DxO Optics Pro and Phase One Capture One PRO. Converters from photographic equipment manufacturers - Canon Digital Photo Professional and Nikon Capture NX do an excellent job of converting images taken using Canon and Nikon cameras, respectively, but have an extremely inconvenient interface. The widely used Adobe Lightroom runs on the Adobe Camera Raw engine, and therefore does not differ from the latter in conversion quality.

When choosing a RAW converter, make sure that the images converted with it are no worse in quality than the JPEG obtained using the camera. In recent years, in-camera conversion has provided (if properly configured) such good results that often shooting in JPEG is preferable to inept processing of a RAW file in a converter that is not the first fresh (see “RAW or JPEG?”).

Let's look at the basics of processing RAW files using the example of a photograph of a picturesque valley in the Skole Beskids. Let's open the file in Adobe Photoshop, and the Adobe Camera Raw window will open in front of us. The raw landscape, as always happens with RAW files, looks quite washed out, but we'll fix that soon.

At the top left is a panel of the most frequently used tools from the point of view of program developers. I usually have magnifying glass selected ( Zoom Tool– Z key) or hand ( Hand Tool– H key or holding down the space bar). In the upper right corner you can see a color histogram, and below it there are tabs for groups of tools for image editing.

If you open several RAW files at once in ACR, you will see them on the left as a row of icons. Camera Raw supports batch processing of files, i.e. By selecting multiple images, you can change different settings simultaneously for the entire batch. You can also apply uniform parameters to all open files based on an already edited sample using the Synchronize function.

Before you start working with Adobe Camera Raw for the first time, you should configure some plugin settings so that you won't be distracted by them in the future.

Setting up Adobe Camera Raw

First of all, open the ACR settings dialog. It can be found in the top toolbar (third button from the right) or called by pressing Ctrl/Cmd+K.

In the section General, in the Save image settings in item, select where the processing parameters for each edited image should be saved - in separate .xmp files (Sidecar “.xmp” files) or in a special database (Camera Raw database). I prefer the first option, i.e. After saving the results of the work, the program creates next to each RAW file an additional settings file with the extension .xmp, into which all changes made are recorded. In the case of a database, all information is stored centrally, which is inconvenient for me. In both cases, the RAW file itself does not undergo any changes, and therefore you can always go back in the editing process or even reset all settings and start editing again. Also, settings are reset when deleting an .xmp file or ACR database.

In the section Default Image Settings Uncheck all the boxes to prevent the program from arbitrarily adjusting images.

In the section Camera Raw Cache indicate the maximum volume of temporary files acceptable to you (at least 1 Gb) and the folder where they should be stored (preferably not on the system drive).

Chapter DNG File Handling you can not touch it, but in the section JPEG and TIFF Handling disable support for JPEG and TIFF formats (Disable JPEG support and Disable TIFF support), since these formats are better processed directly through Photoshop.

Save the settings by clicking "OK".

At the very bottom of the Adobe Camera Raw window, in the form of a blue link with an underline, there is a description of the workspace that will be assigned to the image after you finish working in ACR and open it in Photoshop. Click on the "link". In the window that opens, check the following points:

Try to avoid clipping in highlights by constantly monitoring your histogram. By pressing the O key you can turn on the highlight clipping warning. Clipping shadows is much more common, but also requires caution.

Contrast– contrast. Controls the overall contrast of an image using an S-curve, changing the difference in brightness between the darkest and lightest areas. I rarely use Contrast values above +25, and now I won't touch it at all.

The following two tools work in tandem to selectively control the brightness of highlights and shadows:

Highlights- Sveta. Helps bring out details in overly bright light. I'll give it -50.

Shadows– shadows. Brightens shadows like a fill flash. +25 will be enough.

The next pair of tools operate even more narrowly, affecting only the extreme points of the histogram, which is sometimes necessary to combat clipping, or, conversely, lack of contrast:

Whites– white dot. I'll move the edge of the histogram to the right by +30, although I use negative values much more often.

Blacks– black dot. I’ll leave it unchanged – the black color is still in its place.

Experiment with Highlights/Shadows and Whites/Blacks to see how they differ from each other.

Clarity– clarity or local contrast. Clarity is the most useful tool because in many scenes you have to deal with a lack of local contrast, while the overall contrast is fine, or even excessive. But be careful: in the pursuit of detail, it’s easy to go too far and get unnatural halos around objects. I usually don't go above Clarity +50, but today I'll make an exception and set it to +75.

Vibrance And Saturation control color saturation. The difference between them is selectivity. If Saturation increases the saturation of all colors indiscriminately, then Vibrance works more delicately, increasing the intensity of only the least rich colors. I'll set the Vibrance to +50 and Saturation to +15, which is quite a lot. More often you have to use lower values in order to then selectively increase the saturation of only individual color channels.

Often, after I've adjusted all of the Basic tab tools, I'll return to the white balance sliders to adjust them to account for any changes in brightness, contrast, or color saturation that may have affected the color balance.

This is what we got at this stage. You can compare the processing results with the original image by hovering your cursor over the image.

I am unhappy with the sky - it is too light, has an unnatural gradient of brightness from left to right, and its color is not intense enough. In addition, I would like the mountains closest to us (to the left and to the right) to look a little more contrasting and more prominent. I'll deal with the mountains later in Photoshop, and a gradient filter will help me improve the sky ( Graduated Filter– G key). It is an imitation of a real gradient filter, but has a wide variety of customizable parameters.

First of all, to shade the top left corner, I will apply a diagonally oriented gradient filter to it with the parameters: Temperature -10; Exposure -0.50. Then, across the entire sky, from the top edge of the photo to the horizon, I will draw another gradient with the parameters: Temperature -20; Exposure -0.50; Contrast -25; Highlights -25; Clarity -50; Saturation +15.

Note that the gradient filter allows you to selectively change the color balance in certain areas of the image, which can be useful if, for example, you want to warm up a landscape while keeping the sky cool and blue.

Since I'm already working on gradients, I'll probably add one more at the very bottom of the photo with the goal of making the water in the river bluer and the grass on the near bank greener. The only parameter: Temperature -20.

Compare the image with and without gradient filters.

To influence areas of the image that have complex boundaries, it is advisable to use not a gradient filter, but its analogue in the form of an adjustment brush ( Adjustment Brush– key K).

Tone Curve Tab

Here you can finely adjust the brightness and contrast of the image using curves. I rarely use curves in Camera Raw because... I usually have enough options in the Basic tab.

Detail tab

This tab is responsible for sharpening ( Sharpening) and noise reduction ( Noise Reduction). I prefer to increase sharpness in Photoshop, and therefore in ACR I turn off sharpening by setting Amount to 0. With suppression moderate ACR copes quite well with noise, especially chromatic noise. Typically I use the following settings: Luminance 25; Luminance Detail 100; Luminance Contrast 100; Color 50; Color Detail 100. The first three parameters are responsible for achromatic (brightness) noise, the rest are for chromatic (color). When suppressing luminance noise, special care must be taken to avoid creating a washed-out picture. When working in the Detail tab, always view the image at 100% zoom, otherwise you won't be able to see what's going on with the fine details.

HSL/Grayscale tab

An indispensable color correction tool. The HSL/Grayscale tab is designed for working with individual colors and includes three subtabs:

Hue- shade or tone. Here I'll move the Oranges to the left by -10 to make the clay on the shore redder, and the Aquas to the right by +10 to make the lower sky area look fresher.

In general, I find that Adobe Camera Raw tends to make the image a little more yellow-green than I would like, and therefore I have to adjust individual shades one way or another. If you're personally happy with ACR's color rendering, you can leave the Hue subtab alone.

Saturation– saturation. To improve the appearance of the clay I will set the Oranges slider to +25. Often I increase the saturation of the blue color (Blues), but in this case I solved the issue with the color of the sky and water mainly using gradient filters.

Luminance- lightness or brightness. I'll make the sky a little darker by moving the Blues slider to -15.

The Split Toning tab is designed for toning black and white photos and we will skip it now.

Lens Corrections Tab

Here you can correct lens aberrations, as well as perspective distortions. There are two sub-tabs – for automatic and manual correction:

Profile– automatic correction of lens aberrations based on a special profile. Profiles for most popular lenses come standard with Adobe Camera Raw. To enable automatic correction of lens distortion and vignetting, check the box next to Enable Lens Profile Corrections. I recommend doing this only in cases where distortion or vignetting is visible to the naked eye, since eliminating distortion leads to a slight deterioration in sharpness, and vignetting is not even always a disadvantage. In the case of our example, everything suits me anyway, and therefore I will only check the box next to Remove Chromatic Aberrations. The elimination of chromatic aberrations works perfectly in ACR 7 (which cannot be said about earlier versions), and I always use it, especially since it improves sharpness at the edges of the frame.

Manual– manual correction. Here you can correct a littered horizon and distortions introduced by perspective. In my photo, both the horizon and perspective are fine, so I'll leave everything unchanged. If you'll be working in manual correction mode, I recommend turning on the grid by pressing the V key to better see both the distortions themselves and your edits.

At this stage, I usually use the Crop Tool (C key) if the standard 3:2 aspect ratio does not suit me or if the edge of the photo has captured some foreign objects. No cropping is required now.

Effects Tab

There are only two effects: grain ( Grain) and vignetting ( Post Crop Vignetting). I will leave grain for lovers of pseudo-vintage photographs, but moderate vignetting can decorate many photographs. I'll shade the edges of the image slightly by setting the Amount to -15.

So, we went through all the functional tabs. You are already familiar with the Camera Calibration tab, but there are still two additional tabs:

Presets Tab

You can save all the changes you make to an image as presets, which can later be applied to any other images.

Snapshots tab

Snapshot means snapshot. This is the same as preset, but only within one RAW file. In other words, you can create several processing options for the same photo (for example, color and black and white versions), and then work with each option individually.

This completes the process of editing our landscape in Adobe Camera Raw. I will do the final finishing using Adobe Photoshop.

By clicking “Open”, you will open the image for further processing in Photoshop, and by clicking “Done”, simply save the results of your work in an .xmp file.

I suggest you compare the photo processed in Adobe Camera Raw with the original version.

Thank you for your attention!

Vasily A.

Post scriptum

If you found the article useful and informative, you can kindly support the project by making a contribution to its development. If you didn’t like the article, but you have thoughts on how to make it better, your criticism will be accepted with no less gratitude.

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Much has been said about RAW conversion and yet little has been said. The main drawback of the materials I've seen is that they don't say much about RAW conversion itself. Basically, the articles come down to describing the capabilities of converter programs and comparing them with each other. While most of the features of most RAW converters are not directly related to conversion. At the same time, when it finally comes to conversion parameters, their description often comes down to general comments in the spirit of “darker/lighter”, which do not provide an understanding of the logic of using these tools. According to my observations, most beginning photographers, even after reading books and articles, continue to be tormented by the question “what happens if I move such and such a slider and in general in what sequence they should be moved.” Let's try to fill this gap a little.

Basic parameters

First of all, let's figure out what will happen when setting the basic RAW conversion parameters. Let's try to do this without physics, mathematics and other fundamental processes that are behind this. We will consider using Adobe Camera RAW as an example, although in general this information applies to all converters (although the name of the parameters may change from converter to converter).

I would like to immediately clarify that RAW conversion algorithms are closed. Therefore, regarding some of the capabilities of RAW converters, there is no clear information whether they relate directly to conversion or are additional functions that can be used in an ordinary graphics editor. Therefore, within the framework of this article, the division of parameters into “converting” and “additional” is somewhat arbitrary.

Exposure

This parameter sets the brightness of the white point. At the same time, the brightness of the black point practically does not change, and everything that is between them is “stretched” or “compressed” in a new brightness range. It is fundamentally important that when increasing the value of the parameter, its algorithm does not interfere with the clipping of highlights (similar to the right slider of the Levels tool in Adobe Photoshop).

With significant magnification, it leads to the appearance of noise in the shadows.

Blacks

This setting is the opposite of Exposure and controls the brightness of the black point, keeping the white point as fixed as possible. Without caring whether shadow clipping occurs or not. Unlike Exposure, it can only change in one direction.

Recovery

The Recovery parameter is responsible for the redistribution of brightness information in the lightest part of the image - reducing the brightness of light points in general and, if possible, restoring information in overexposed areas. The brightness of points in other parts of the tonal range remains practically unchanged.

With a significant increase, it leads to a decrease in overall contrast. Which can be compensated by its increase through other instruments.

Fill Light

Fill Light literally translates to “filling with light” (meaning filling the shadows with light, similar to the terminology used when controlling light in studio photography) and is the opposite parameter to the Recovery parameter. Redistributes brightness in the darkest areas of the image. At the same time, the brightness of points in other parts of the tonal range remains practically unchanged. Unlike Recovery, it is not able to recover information in failed (cut off) shadows.

Large Fill Light values can result in noise in the shadows.

Note. The cutoff of information in highlights/shadows is also affected by the set values of other parameter parameters - primarily Vibrance, Saturation, Temperature, Tint.

White Balance

The Temperature parameter determines the overall color balance by changing the hue of the image along the “b” (Lab) axis. And the Tint parameter is along the “a” (Lab) axis. Since most photographers are used to dealing with RGB images, in other words it can be described as follows: changing the Temperature and Tint parameters affect the ratios between the brightness of the RGB channels, which affects the overall color balance of the final photo.

Brightness

This parameter is responsible for the overall brightness of the image. When increasing/decreasing, increases/decreases the brightness of all points of the final tonal range. Brightness increases/decreases out of proportion - most in midtones and least in light and dark tones. Even a significant change in brightness practically does not lead to clipping of highlights or shadows.

At significant magnification, it can cause noise to appear in the shadow areas of the image.

Contrast

The Contrast parameter redistributes the brightness simultaneously in the penumbra and three-quarter highlights, without changing the brightness of the midtones. In the case of positive values, the penumbra becomes darker, three-quarters of the light becomes lighter. With negative penumbra lightened, three-quarters of the light is darkened.

Increasing the contrast too much can result in information being clipped in the highlights and shadows.

Curves

Curves are available in most RAW converters. This is a powerful tool that allows you to determine what your future photo will look like. Whether to use it in a RAW converter or not depends on whether you want to get the final result after conversion, or a blank for further work in a graphics editor.

Some of the brightness-contrast operations described above (but not all) can be done using a tone curve, with more flexible control over the redistribution of brightness. For example, the Contrast parameter is similar to this curve shape (on the left). And in the case of working directly with a curve, we can set it more accurately, taking into account the individual characteristics of each specific photograph (example on the right).

Note for those using Adobe Lightroom. This program does not allow you to set points for working with the curve manually; this option is available in Adobe Camera RAW.

Clarity/Vibrance/Saturation

In this group of parameters, Clarity is essentially a more complex analogy of the HiRaloAm special effect (Hi Radius Low Amount in relation to the Unsharp Mask parameters). Vibrance and Saturation are similar in effect to the corresponding tools in Adobe Photoshop. We discussed the difference between these parameters in detail in this article.

All other tools of the Adobe Camera RAW converter are even more “makeweights” than those listed. Although, of course, they are designed to simplify the life of photographers. You just have to be aware that these are additional, sometimes quite limited, capabilities that can also be implemented in Adobe Photoshop (and, as a rule, of better quality).

Sequence of setting parameters

Now let's try to build some algorithm for setting parameters in the RAW converter. Why some. The fact is that, generally speaking, it very much depends on whether you are trying to get the final result in the converter, or the best possible workpiece for subsequent processing in Photoshop. At the same time, it is perhaps possible to propose some general logic.

It is important to understand that the perception of color depends on its brightness. In addition, the composite RGB curve and other brightness-contrast parameters affect the color characteristics of the image. Therefore, it would be logical to first set cutoff points, brightness, contrast, and then color balance and other color settings (if required). This does not mean that you cannot return to certain steps and make adjustments along the process, but nevertheless, I would suggest adhering to the following sequence of actions:

0. We start from the “zero” values - that is, we set all parameters to zero, the tone curve to the Linear value. This will allow us to see an image approximately corresponding to the one contained in the RAW file. The picture will be faded and half-gray - this is normal. At this stage, the white balance can be set either As Shot (often it turns out to be normal for starting work), or approximately by eye (if it is immediately clear that the color is too much shifted).

Set the white and black points using Exposure And Blacks.
If necessary, we restore minor overexposures using Recovery and lighten the shadows with Fill Light.
If you need to get a finished and or more or less finished photo after a RAW converter, set the contrast and brightness. I recommend doing this through the Curves tool if possible, as it is more flexible than Options Brightness And Contrast, although they can be used in combination.
We set the overall white color balance using the parameters Temperature And Tint.
If necessary, we reduce or increase the saturation of the photo through Vibrance And Saturation.
If required, you can use other additional tools - adjust subtle color nuances through the HSL / Grayscale color equalizer, combat chromatic aberrations and vignetting in the Lens Correction tab, crop, level the horizon, experiment with camera profiles in the Camera Calibration tab, etc.

These are the considerations. I hope you find them useful. If I made an inaccuracy somewhere, I would be grateful for corrections. For anyone who wants to better understand the issues of RAW conversion, I recommend attending Alexander Onishchenko’s RAW conversion seminar or Anton Martynov’s course Working in RAW converters, where the raised and other issues are discussed in more depth.

This article will introduce you to the Adobe Camera Raw module.

First, about what Raw is and what it is eaten with. To understand, let’s briefly recall how a digital camera works (it doesn’t matter whether it’s a digital camera or a professional SLR camera, everything is absolutely the same everywhere). Light passes through the lens onto a light-sensitive sensor, which consists of millions of sensitive elements. Initially, a black and white image is obtained, which is then divided into color pixels using unique gratings called Bayer filters. At the output from the matrix we have a Raw file (from English “raw”), which is then compressed, corrected and converted into the familiar Jpeg using special algorithms of the camera’s microcomputer. At the same time, a significant part of the information is mercilessly discarded.

Why are more people choosing to shoot in Raw format? The answer is simple:
1. There is no need to think about the camera settings (sharpness, saturation, contrast, etc.) - they are always in the middle position.
2. There is no need to adjust white balance. It can always be adjusted later with an accuracy of 1K, or to any neutral point, without loss of quality.
3. If you make a mistake with the exposure, you can correct it later without losing quality, up to 4 stops, which is absolutely impossible to do with Jpeg files.
4. It's easy to make jpeg or tiff files of any quality from Raw, while you still have the original. This is why Raw files are often called digital negatives. The original color depth is 12 to 16 bits, versus 8 in jpeg, so it's easy to recover information in highlights or deep shadows.
5. In jpeg, each subsequent conversion of the file leads to a loss of information, that is, a deterioration in quality. This doesn't happen in Raw.

The disadvantage of the format is the large file size (about 2-3 times larger than a similar jpeg file).

Let's briefly go through the module interface. For example, I took Adobe Camera Raw 4.6 for the Russian version of Adobe Photoshop CS3. The module consists of 8 tabs, the switch buttons of which are indicated by the number 1.

The first tab presents the main adjustments (2).

The top line shows icons of tools that will be easy to understand for those who already know the basics of Adobe Photoshop. (without this you should not start getting acquainted withCameraRaw). When you hover your mouse over them, tooltips appear. By clicking on the bottom line (3) you can open a dialog box for setting the color profile and resolution of the original image.
The second tab shows the master curve of the composite RGB channel

You can customize (in professional jargon, “bend”) the curve either with sliders (parametric curve) or by setting and moving control points (point curve)
On the third tab, you can adjust the sharpness of the image, and you can also reduce color and monochromatic noise. To observe changes in the image, you must increase the size to 100%

The fourth tab provides greater color management capabilities; adjustments are much more precise and varied than in Adobe Photoshop. You can fine-tune saturation, brightness, and shift certain colors along the color scale. Also, if desired, you can achieve a wide variety of fantastic effects and cross-processing effects.

Here you can mix color components in grayscale, that is, convert the image to black and white.
The fifth tab will help eliminate extraneous shades in shadows or highlights if the shooting was carried out in difficult lighting conditions and the color balance in highlights and shadows is different. Here you can also achieve certain effects.

The sixth tab is used to eliminate chromatic aberrations (the appearance of colored halos around bright objects) and the vignette effect when shooting with flash.

Using the next tab, you can create your own camera profiles for different shooting conditions.

On the last tab, you can select the profile you created, the settings of which will be applied to the image.

Those who want to thoroughly study the Camera Raw module can do this with the help of the appropriate specialized literature, since a detailed description of all functions and settings takes up a decent-sized book.

Step 1. Let's open the file in Adobe Photoshop. This automatically launches the Camera Raw module.

Let's analyze the image to present a plan for further action. We need:
1. Change the white balance towards warmer tones. Typically, the eye perceives warm tones better than cool tones.
2. Adjust exposure.
3. Bring out detail in dark areas of the image.
4. Make the colors of the image more saturated and varied. In this case, we will already use Adobe Photoshop and the Lab color space, which has no equal in expanding the color range.
5. Remove unnecessary noise and enhance sharpness. Here we will also turn to Photoshop, since its arsenal of methods in this matter is much richer.
We will work in this direction.

Step 2. Setting the white balance.
It’s as easy as shelling pears – just move the slider a little Temperature towards the yellow region of the spectrum.

In each case you need to act individually, sometimes it all comes down to a single mouse click in the neutral area, but in most cases you have to adjust two sliders. With a little practice, you will understand how simple it is.

Step 3. Setting up the exposure. Everything is also very simple - move the corresponding slider to the right to increase the exposure, to the left to decrease it.

Step 4. Let's bring out the details in the dark areas. To do this, move the parameter slider Fill with light a little to the right

Step 5. Now let's open our image in Adobe Photoshop. To do this, simply click on the button “ Open image." Our file will open in a program familiar to us.
We transfer the image to Lab mode: Image – Mode – Lab (Image – Mode – Lab).
Create an adjustment layer Curves(Curves). We give the desired shape to the curves, in each case it will be individual, in this case I got the curves shown in the pictures.

The advantage of an adjustment layer is that you can change the shape of the curves, the opacity of the layer, its blending mode, and apply styles at any time. Here is the result of applying curves.

Now merge the layers by clicking SHIFT+CRTL+E.
Step 6. We remove noise and sharpen the image. I will not go into detail on these operations, since there are many lessons on these topics on the site.

I wish you easy and enjoyable work in Adobe Photoshop!

Skip the tediousness

First of all, open the ACR settings dialog. It can be found in the top toolbar (third button from the right) or called by pressing Ctrl/Cmd+K.

In the section General, in the Save image settings in item, select where the processing parameters for each edited image should be saved - in separate .xmp files (Sidecar “.xmp” files) or in a special database (Camera Raw database). I prefer the first option, i.e. After saving the results of the work, the program creates an additional settings file with the extension .xmp next to each RAW file, into which it writes all the changes made. In the case of a database, all information is stored centrally, which is inconvenient for me. In both cases, the RAW file itself does not undergo any changes, and therefore you can always go back during the editing process or even reset all settings and start editing again. Also, settings are reset when deleting an .xmp file or ACR database.

In the section Default Image Settings Uncheck all the boxes to prevent the program from arbitrarily adjusting images.

In the section Camera Raw Cache indicate the maximum volume of temporary files acceptable to you (at least 1 Gb) and the folder where they should be stored (preferably not on the system drive).

Save the settings by clicking "OK".

Space(color space). If you don't know what this is, then you should choose sRGB. However, even if you are familiar with the concept of color space, I do not advise you to switch to Adobe RGB, much less ProPhoto RGB, without a good reason. The final output of your work, whether intended for print or online publication, will still eventually need to be converted to the commonly used sRGB, and the less often you change the color space, the less the quality of your photos will suffer.

I’ll make a reservation that Adobe Camera Raw is completely indifferent to what color space is in your camera settings (these settings are for JPEG, not RAW), and therefore, even if you plan to use Adobe RGB when editing, you can shoot everything with a clear conscience in sRGB - you won’t lose a single bit of information for RAW images, but you will be sure that your JPEG images will be displayed correctly everywhere.

Depth(color depth). In theory, the more bits, the higher the quality, but in practice the difference between 8 and 16 bits only becomes noticeable with very aggressive editing, so in most cases I use 8 Bits/Channel and only switch to 16 bits when really necessary. If you are not trying to save space on your hard drive, you can immediately select 16 Bits/Channel, but do not forget that when saving the image in JPEG format, the color depth will still be changed to 8 bits.

The choice of color depth can only matter for subsequent processing in Photoshop. Camera Raw, where I advise you to perform basic manipulations with brightness and contrast, will in any case work with the native color depth for your camera, i.e. 12 or 14 bit.

The image size (Size) and resolution (Resolution) can be left unchanged, and in the Sharpen For item you should select None - it is always better to sharpen manually.

Make sure there is no checkmark in Open in Photoshop as Smart Objects and click OK.

Now find the tab on the right Camera Calibration and in the section Camera Profile select a profile that will be responsible for basic color rendering and overall contrast settings. I usually use Camera Neutral because I find it easier to work by increasing contrast and saturation as needed rather than decreasing them. Any profile can be customized to your liking.

If you choose a profile other than the default Adobe Standard, you can change the default settings so that each new RAW file opens with the profile you want. To do this, click on the subtle menu icon to the right of the tab name and select Save New Camera Raw Defaults. In principle, you can set any changes that you routinely make to all images to default settings to save yourself from unnecessary steps.

Select an option to specify where settings are stored. Using XMP files is useful when you need to move or save an image file and want to retain the settings of the raw photo. The Export Settings command can be used to copy settings from the Camera Raw database into accompanying XMP files or embed settings into Digital Negative (DNG) files.

After a raw image file is processed using Camera Raw software, the image settings are saved in either a Camera Raw database file or an accompanying XMP file. Settings specific to DNG files are typically saved directly to the DNG files, similar to settings for TIFF and JPEG files.

Note. When you import a sequence of raw image files into After Effects, the settings applied to the first file apply to all other files in the sequence that do not have their own accompanying XMP files. After Effects does not check the Camera Raw database.

You can set an option to determine where settings are stored. When you reopen a raw image file, all settings default to the settings that were in use when the file was last opened. Image attributes (target color space profile, bit depth, pixel size, and resolution) are not stored with settings.
1 In Adobe Bridge, choose Edit > Camera Raw Preferences (Windows) or Bridge > Camera Raw Preferences (Mac OS). Or, in the Camera Raw dialog box, click the Open Preferences Dialog button.
2 In the Camera Raw Preferences dialog box, choose one of the following Save Image Settings To menu options.

Camera Raw Database Saves settings in a Camera Raw database file located in the Documents and Settings/[username]/Application Data/Adobe/CameraRaw (Windows) or Users/[username]/Library/Preferences (Mac OS) folder. This database is indexed by file content, allowing you to retain the image settings of a raw photo even if the image file is moved or renamed.

Accompanying files.xmp Allows you to save settings in a separate file, in the same folder where the raw image file is stored, with the same base name and .xmp extension. This save settings option can be used for long-term archiving of raw snapshot files with associated settings, as well as for sharing raw snapshot files with associated settings in multi-user workflows. The same XMP accompanying files may store IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) data or other metadata related to the raw image file. Before you open files on read-only CD or DVD media, be sure to copy them to your hard drive. The Camera Raw plug-in will not be able to write the XMP file to read-only media and will instead write the settings to the Camera Raw database file. It is possible to view XMP files in the Adobe Bridge application; To do this, select the "View" > "Show hidden files" menu.

Important information. If version control is used to manage files and settings are stored in XMP accompanying files, please note that in order to make changes to raw images, you must have input and output control of the accompanying files; Likewise, XMP accompanying files should be managed (eg, renamed, moved, deleted) along with their corresponding raw image files. Such file synchronization is provided by the Adobe Bridge, Photoshop, After Effects and Camera Raw applications themselves, if you work with files locally.

If your raw photo settings are stored in the Camera Raw database, but you decide to move the files to another location (burn to a CD or DVD, transfer to another computer, etc.), you can use the Export Settings to XMP command to export the settings to XMP accompanying files.

3 If you want to save any adjustments you make to the DNG files directly in the files themselves, select Ignore Accompanying .xmp Files in the DNG File Handling section of the Camera Raw Preferences dialog box.