Trying to get ACR 6.6 with CS4/Bridge through LR3

Hi all,

I've been using CS4 for all my photo post processing for a little over 2 years now, and I just got the Canon S100, and had the unfortunate problem of being unable to use Bridge/ACR with the RAW files.

My options are to either get LR3 or CS5 to process the images with ACR 6.6.

I downloaded LR3 and started playing with it... I might decide to switch my entire library over to LR but before I make that leap, is there any way that I can get LR3's ACR to work with Bridge from CS4, so that my workflow doesn't need to change so drastically.

(I've also been using Noiseware exclusively for noise reduction, is there anyway to use that inside LR3?)

Thanks for any help!
Edmond

Lightroom doesn't "work with" Adobe Bridge, so the answer to that question is no whether you are using CS4 or CS5. You can, though, open in image from Lightroom into the Photoshop editor directly, and can even open images as "smart objects", and this should work with CS4.

As to Noiseware, I don't use it but there are many plugins that have been developed to work in Lightroom. Someone who has it can fill in the specifics, or you can check with the Noisware site to find out what's involved in getting the LR plug-in.

The so-called "plugins" for LR are not really plugins, at least not in the same sense that they are for PSCS. LR's architecture does not allow a plugin to work within it, integrated into its work flow and adding its edits to the parametric workflow of the RAW. LR plugins are actually standalones that require the rendering of an RGB image (tif or psd) thus breaking the parametric chain. They often will automate the transfer of the tif from LR to the plugin and later reimport back into LR, but no more than that. If you have been using Noiseware as a PSCS4 plugin, your best course will be to continue doing that by sending the rendered pixel-based image to PS. without sharpening or NR in LR. If you want to avoid having to store RGB files, try LR3's NR, which is really quite good.

crazyhorse76 wrote in post #13595975
My options are to either get LR3 or CS5 to process the images with ACR 6.6.

3rd option is to use the free Adobe DNG converter and convert the RAW files to DNG and continue using Bridge/ACR as you have been. click for PC or click for Mac.

Also, Adobe has changed their upgrade policy to only allowing upgrade pricing from the previous version instead of 3 versions back as in the past. You will now need CS5 to get the upgrade pricing for CS6.

Thanks for all the advice everyone!

It almost seems like Adobe wants everyone to have a "subscription" to Photoshop now. I like upgrading every other time too... oh well.

Just trying to save a few bucks. dumb adobe.

Well, if you want to hang on to CS4 and not hassle with Lightroom, plenty of folks have been quite pleased with the Canon Raw processor Digital Photo Professional. It really does a nice job with Canon Raw files, and then you can tranfer images to Photoshop and it works quite seamlessly.

Or, as was pointed out above, you can convert your Raw files to DNG files and then process them in the CS4 Camera Raw processor and still work through Bridge.