Do you use all ACR settings or some in CS2?

[gwc1023]

I was playing with ACR last night for really the first time, while going through the first chapters of Kelby's CS2 for Digital Photographers. I've been using DPP, mainly because of the 'click' white balance feature (I'm embarrassed to say I didn't realize you could do this in ACR).

I am considering using ACR now, as I quite like the interface - my question is for those of you who use ACR for your RAW conversions: what settings do you change in ACR and what do you do in CS2? Things like curves, saturation, etc, I have always done in CS2, is there any difference between doing them while you're already in ACR or just using a few of the controls and then doing the rest in CS2?

Thanks!

[rafaelrivera]

I personally just mess with the white balancing features and exposure and then i work in 16bit cs2 which is where i do most contrast correction.

[coreypolis]

the advantage of doing it in ACR is its being edited in the metadata, so its non destructive and it only takes a second to revert to the original

[Jason77]

i don't do too much in ACR. i try to get an overall pleasing image to work with but not to the point where it really "pops". my reason for that is that i prefer to do any levels, curves, saturation in photoshop. i like being able to use levels and curves with the blending mode on "luminosity" so it doesn't affect the color. then, if i need to adjust the saturation, i'll make another adjustment layer for that.

so, as far as ACR goes, i mainly use it to set the white balance. for alot of images, i tend to lower the saturation to -100, then adjust my exposure, shadows, brightness and contrast. when i decide it looks good, i'll bring the saturation back. i do that because i like to be mindful that luminosity and color are two seperate elements in a digital photo.

the other thing i use in ACR is the calibrate section. i've made generic profiles for daylight and tungsten light using a gretag macbeth color checker chart. i also photograph the chart when i shoot artwork then adjust the calibrate tabs accordingly.