open a file in Photoshop camera raw

How to Open A File In Photoshop – Basic Options

How to Open A File In Photoshop

As with most programs, the option to open a file can be found in the File menu, fig 1. This operation also has a keyboard shortcut Ctrl-O/Cmd-O (PC/Mac). How to Open A File In Photoshop

open a file in photo shop from the file menuFig 1 opening a file from the file menu

Once you’ve selected to open a file, the Open dialogue box will appear. From here you can navigate to your files and
images, fig 2.

the Open dialogue boxFig 2 the Open dialogue box

Adobe Photoshop Tools and Panels

Open As

In addition to the standard Open option in the File menu, there is also the choice to Open As. The Open As dialogue box is almost identical to the Open dialogue box, except that it allows you to open an image in one format and have it appear in Photoshop as a different format, Fig 3. How to Open A File In Photoshop

the Open As dialogue box, showing some of the many available file formatsFig 3 the Open As dialogue box, showing some of the many available file formats.

A helpful application of the Open As command is that you simply can open most single bedded file formats as a Camera Raw document. This will open the image into the Camera Raw plugin (fig 4) that is part of Abobe Photoshop. From here you can quickly and simply create simple changes to your image while not having to get into complex editing techniques in Photoshop. Editing in Camera Raw will be covered in the second book in this series.

open a file in Photoshop camera rawFig 4 Camera Raw

Open As Smart Object

The third option is to use the Open As Smart Object. A Smart Object allows non-destructive editing of your image and is useful if you are planning on making extreme edits or multiple transformations, such as scaling, to your image. Smart objects appear in the Layers panel with a small icon in the bottom right-hand corner and if you apply a filter to them, they will display the filter below the layer fig 5. The application of a filter to a Smart Object is not permanent and the settings can be changed at any time by double-clicking on the filter name in the Layers panel.

 raw objectFig 5 a Smart Object

There are many different ways in which of getting a picture into Photoshop, including merely dragging a picture onto the workspace. You can also use one of the two file browsing options; Bridge and Mini-Bridge. Adobe Bridge and Mini-Bridge will be covered in detail in the second post.

How to Open A File In Photoshop

How to Open A File In Photoshop

.This post contains content of the book An Introduction to Adobe Photoshop Steve Bark