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Adjust color rendering in Camera Raw

Learn how to apply profiles to your photos in Adobe Camera Raw.

Profiles allow you to control the colors and tonality in your photos, providing a foundation for your edits. Applying a profile doesn’t change the values of other editing sliders, so you can edit your pictures freely and then use a profile to enhance the already edited image. 

Apply a profile to your image

  1. Open a raw photo in Adobe Camera Raw, select  , and then select the Profile you want to apply from the drop-down menu. 

    Note:

    When you import photos, Adobe Color and Adobe Monochrome profiles are applied by default to color and black-and-white photos, respectively.

  2. Select the Browse icon to view all Camera Raw profiles. 

  3. Expand any of the profile groups to view the available options.

    Select the drop-down in the Profile Browser panel to access the viewing options. You can view the profiles as Grid thumbnails or as a List. You can also filter the profiles using ColorB&W, or All.

    Favorites

    Displays profiles that you've marked as favorite. See Add profiles to Favorites.

    Note:

    When you apply any of the Adobe Adaptive (beta)ArtisticB&WModern, and Vintage profiles, an Amount slider lets you manually adjust the intensity of the profile. For other profiles, the Amount slider is dimmed or inactive.

  4. Move the pointer over any profile to preview its effect in your photo. Select the profile to apply it to your photo.

  5. To return to the Basic panel, select Close at the upper-right corner of the Profile Browser panel.

Types of Profiles in Adobe Camera Raw

Camera Raw offers a variety of Profiles for you to select from. Learn more about the types of Profiles:

Adobe Camera Raw profile options
Select the desired Adobe Profile to enhance your photos.

Adobe Adaptive (Beta) Profile

The Adobe Adaptive (beta) profiles helps with image-adaptive adjustments for SDR and HDR images. Perfect for raw photos, Adobe Adaptive (beta) can help adjust the tone and color, enhancing contrast. 

The Adobe Adaptive (beta) profiles work best on raw HDR images. The default version of the profile does not support Monochrome raw files, while the Monochrome version does. Once you have applied the profile to a photo, select HDR to enhance the image with adjustments specifically for HDR. You can also view the SDR version of the same image. 

Tip:
  • When you select B&W, the Adobe Adaptive Monochrome (beta) profile will be selected automatically. 
  • It's recommended to not apply the Auto and Adobe Adaptive (beta) profiles together.
  • Apply the Adobe Adaptive (beta) profiles before making other edits and adjustments in Camera Raw.

Adobe Raw Profiles 

  • Adobe Color: This is the default profile, providing a good balance of color and contrast.
  • Adobe Monochrome: This is ideal for black and white photography.
  • Adobe Landscape: This enhances blues and greens, perfect for landscape shots.
  • Adobe Portrait: This improves skin tones for portrait photography.
  • Adobe Neutral: This offers a more subdued color palette, which is helpful for further editing.
  • Adobe Vivid: This provides more vibrant colors and contrast. 

Camera Matching Profiles

The Camera Matching Profiles display profiles based on the camera make or model of your raw photo. These profiles match the color and tone of the in-camera JPEGs, such as Camera Standard, Camera Vivid, Camera Landscape, and more.

Creative Profiles

Creative profiles in Camera Raw add stylistic effects to a photo. You can apply these profiles to any image type (including JPEGs and TIFFs), not just raw files. This profile type includes Modern, Vintage, Artistic, and B&W profiles.

Add profiles to Favorites

To add a profile to Favorites, do one of the following:

  • When browsing the profiles in the Grid view, hover over the profile thumbnail and click the star icon that appears at the upper-right corner of the thumbnail. 
  • When browsing the profiles in the List view, click the star icon that appears before the profile's name.
Note:

When you add a profile to Favorites, the Profile pop-up menu in the Basic tab of the Camera Raw dialog box gets updated too. When you remove a profile from Favorites, this Profile pop-up menu reflects the change. This way, you can easily customize the Basic pop-up menu with your favorite or most frequently used profiles for easier access.

Install profiles

Manually install profiles

The existing DCP profiles on your computer are automatically converted to XMP format. If you want to add a DCP profile after the first launch, copy the profile manually to the following locations:

Win: C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles
Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles

To manually add an XMP profile, copy the profile to the following location:

Win: C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\Settings
Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/Settings

Import profiles and presets

You can import DCP and XMP profiles and presets as zip files using the Import Profiles and Presets dialog box. To access this dialog box, follow these steps:

  1. In the Basic panel of the Camera Raw dialog box, click the Profile drop-down list.

  2. Select Browse.

  3. In the Profile Browser panel, right-click (Windows)/Command-click (Mac) anywhere on the profile groups area and select Import Profiles and Presets from the context menu.

    Alternatively, you can right-click (Windows)/Command-click (Mac) in the Preset panel and select Import Profiles and Presets.

  4. In the Import Profiles and Presets dialog box, select your desired profile or preset and select Open to import it.

    Access the imported profiles in the Profile Browser panel.

Note:

The Import Profiles and Presets dialog box allows you to import zip files only. To import individual profiles and presets, you can manually install them at the right location. See Manually install profiles to know more.

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