This feature is useful for adjusting the effect of a Gradient Filter where there are objects which fall inside the area affected by the filter that you don’t want to be affected by it.

Paint with black on the mask to remove them and with white to reapply them. Notice that the Smart Object layer in Photoshop has its own layer mask so you can, if desired, use the layer mask to adjust the effects that you just applied to the image. Once you have made your changes click Ok to apply the changes to the image and return to Photoshop. The ACR filters are also available so you can use the Gradient Filter and the new Radial Filter to adjust the image.

Other useful adjustments you can make include adjusting Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks and Clarity – settings which are easy to access in ACR and less easy (or not available in the case of Clarity) in Photoshop. This is a fix that isn’t as easy to make in Photoshop itself. So you can, for example, adjust the white balance by clicking on the White Balance tool and click on something in the image which should be neutral gray. Now you can make your adjustments to the image using any of the tools in ACR. To apply the Adobe Camera Raw filter choose Filter > Camera Raw Filter. If you have multiple layers that you want to apply the filter to, then select those layers in the Layers palette before converting them all to the one Smart Object. Using Smart Objects ensures that the adjustments that you are about to make can be edited later on. To do this either right click the layer and choose Convert to Smart Object or choose Filter > Convert for Smart Filters.Įither way the result is the same and you will have a layer converted to a Smart Object. So that you can revisit and edit the changes made by the filter, start by converting the layer that you want the filter to act on into a smart object. To see how the Camera Raw filter works open any image in Photoshop CC.

Camera raw filter online