Saving Images in the Background

One of the major enhancements to Camera Raw 3.0 is the ability to save converted images directly to disk without having to first open them in Photoshop. Notice that when you have x images selected, Camera Raw's Open and Save buttons change to read "Open x images" and "Save x images," respectively. When you click Save x images, the Save Options dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 5-40.

Figure 5-40. Save Options dialog box

The Save Options dialog box lets you specify a location, a naming convention, and a file format for the files you save out of Camera Raw.

When you click Save, Camera Raw goes to work processing the images. The exact behavior depends on whether Bridge or Photoshop is hosting Camera Raw. When Photoshop hosts Camera Raw, you can continue to work in the Camera Raw dialog box during the save, but if you dismiss it, you'll see the Save Status dialog box shown in Figure 5-41, and you won't be able to do anything else in Photoshop until the save is completed.

Figure 5-41. Camera Raw Save Status dialog box

When Camera Raw hosted by Photoshop is saving files, you see this status message.

When Bridge hosts Camera Raw, the images are processed in the background. You can continue to work in the Camera Raw window, or you can dismiss it and do other work in a Bridge window (including launching a new Camera Raw session). While Camera Raw hosted by Bridge is saving files in the background, the only status message that appears is in the Camera Raw window itselfsee Figure 5-42.

Figure 5-42. Camera Raw Save Status message

When Camera Raw hosted by Bridge is saving files, the only status message is in the Camera Raw window itself, just above the main control buttons.

I'll discuss the workflow implications of Camera Raw's saving abilities under both hosts in much greater detail in Chapter 7, It's All About the Workflow. For now, I'll simply make the point that Camera Raw 3.0 offers much more workflow flexibility, with many more options, than did its predecessor.