Today’s Question: Does the issue of a process version apply to Camera Raw, for those of us using Photoshop without using Lightroom Classic? I know you’ve said that Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic are basically the same thing when it comes to processing raw captures, but I’ve never heard about process versions for Camera Raw.
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, the process version setting is available in Camera Raw just like in Lightroom Classic. If you are going to refine the adjustments for an image in Camera Raw, in general I recommend updating to the latest process version.
More Detail: Today’s question is a follow-up to Friday’s question, which addressed outdated process versions in Lightroom Classic. You can review Friday’s question and answer here:
https://asktimgrey.com/2024/08/23/updating-outdated-process-version/
As with Lightroom Classic, Camera Raw does provide an option to update the process version, which corresponds to various updates to Camera Raw. If an image has an outdated process version, certain adjustments may be unavailable, or may produce results different from those of the latest process version.
In general, I recommend working in the latest process version (currently version 6) to ensure you have the latest features and updates available for your adjustments. However, updating the process version may result in a change in appearance for the image.
If you’re simply opening an image that you have already optimized so you can print or otherwise share the photo, without updating the settings for any adjustments, you can leave the process version as it is so the appearance of the image will be exactly as it was when you previously optimized it.
However, if you’re going to be refining the adjustments for an image in Camera Raw, I do recommend updating to the latest process version. Just keep in mind that the appearance of the photo may change to some degree when you update the process version, so you may need to refine more adjustment settings than you had anticipated to achieve the final result for a photo.
If an image has an outdated process version, an alert symbol (a triangle with an exclamation point in it) will appear at the bottom-right of the image preview in Camera Raw. You can click that icon to update the process version, or simply select the latest process version from the Process popup in the Calibration section of the edit panel on the right side of the Camera Raw interface.
