Adjustment Brush in ACR v. Adjustment Layers in PS.

I'm late to the party, having just discovered the Adjustment Brush in Adobe Camera Raw. Before this, I've done the basic slider adjustments in ACR, then done area specific changes in Photoshop with adjustment layers and masks.

Does anyone here use the Adjustment Brush in ACR? I've tried to learn it today but it's counter-intuitive to the layer masks in PS, even though it's technically the same.

The tutorial said you are always better off making every adjustment possible in RAW before going to PS, but the Adjustment Brush doesn't seem to give as much control, plus I have to readjust everything every time I try to start a new adj. brush in ACR.

Blade Canyon said:

I'm late to the party, having just discovered the Adjustment Brush in Adobe Camera Raw. Before this, I've done the basic slider adjustments in ACR, then done area specific changes in Photoshop with adjustment layers and masks.

Does anyone here use the Adjustment Brush in ACR? I've tried to learn it today but it's counter-intuitive to the layer masks in PS, even though it's technically the same.

The tutorial said , but the Adjustment Brush doesn't seem to give as much control, plus I have to readjust everything every time I try to start a new adj. brush in ACR.

Click to expand...

I do use the Adjustment Brush in ACR and I like it for what it is. It's great for "spot" adjustments and quick corrections. Like most of the tools in ACR it lets you get quite a bit done in a pretty short period of time. That being said I disagree with the statement, "you are always better off making every adjustment possible in RAW before going to PS." I use ACR to a certain extent because, as I said just a second ago, it's often faster than doing a similar adjustment in Photoshop. But... Unless I'm using ACR as a Filter I lose the ability to do things like change the opacity and use blending modes; and that's huge for me. Also, sometimes I simply prefer to do things a certain way in Photoshop instead of ACR because that's how I roll; and that's okay. So yeah, the Adjustment Brush in ACR is way cool; a very potent tool I would urge you to learn; but don't get hung up on the idea that doing something in ACR is better than doing that same thing in Photoshop simply because you're doing it in ACR. ACR is another tool in the bag; no more, no less. Use it as you see fit.

Adjustment Brush definitely helps me weekly- my typical issue lies in uneven exposure across the frame (food group shot) or whites and bright yellows ending up blown out when the overall exposure is set to what I want, and often there's little I can do to prevent these off the bat (cloud cover, restaurant location, available light, etc).

So a quick brush of lower exposure + warmer temp to compensate usually solves those issues and I have zero need to use burn tool on the opened shot as a project file. Or to desaturate just a small area of a dish. This is a VERY, very useful tool hence having its own tab instead of being a part of another tool. I only wish that the ACR's healing/cloning tool was more like the brush in 'shop itself instead of this awkward circle jerk, but you can't have everything.

I'll also add that playing with luminance under color tool can save QUITE a bit often enough.

Blade Canyon said:

I'm late to the party, having just discovered the Adjustment Brush in Adobe Camera Raw. Before this, I've done the basic slider adjustments in ACR, then done area specific changes in Photoshop with adjustment layers and masks.

Does anyone here use the Adjustment Brush in ACR? I've tried to learn it today but it's counter-intuitive to the layer masks in PS, even though it's technically the same.

The tutorial said you are always better off making every adjustment possible in RAW before going to PS, but the Adjustment Brush doesn't seem to give as much control, plus I have to readjust everything every time I try to start a new adj. brush in ACR.

Click to expand...

They are absolutely in no way the same thing.

Yes, you can do some of the same functions, but the adjustment brush is as close as ACR gets to Control Points for localized adjusting. It's all about applying Develop Module functionality to a localized portion of the photo.

Layer masks can certainly perform the same function, by limiting an adjustment layer to only that portion of the image. But layer masking also allows you to blend multiple images, apply various blend modes to discreet portions, impose masks based on luminosity and a wide variety of other things. So don't confuse the two, and certainly do not equate them.