Can you enhance JPEG photos in Photoshop’s Adobe Camera Raw?

A friend mentioned that Photoshop allows for enhancing JPEGs in Adobe Camera Raw but how do you do that? And why would I want to use a Raw-converter software on an image that was made with JPEG capture?
—Maryanne L.

Yes, you can do so with JPEGs, Maryanne with CS3, CS5 or CS6. First, you must start the process in Photoshop’s Bridge browser (File > Browse). You can then open a folder of images in Bridge, and identify the JPEGs that you plan to modify by clicking on the thumbnails.

To identify several images, hold the keyboard’s CTRL key—or the Command (Apple) key with a Mac computer—while mouse clicking on several image files. Then, use the following command: File > Open in Camera Raw. The files that you had identified will then appear in the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) dialog box.

In order to modify a JPEG (or TIFF) file in Adobe Camera Raw, start in the Bridge Browser with CS3, 5 or 6. Identify the images you want to modify and hit the Enter key; they'll then open in ACR where you can use any of the numerous available tools. © 2012 Peter K. Burian

In ACR, you can use any of the numerous tools to modify your photos. Be sure to click on the various icons near the upper right corner of the ACR box to find all of the features. Naturally, CS 5 and 6 offer more tools than CS3. When you’re finished modifying the images, click on Open Image. (Again, use the CTRL or Command method to open all of them at one time, in Photoshop.) The benefit in terms of retaining image quality is the same as you would get when using Photoshop’s tools with Adjustment Layers, but with greater simplicity.

ACR includes some useful—and easy to find—options such as Chromatic Aberration and Lens Vignetting corrections, different methods for sharpening, noise-reduction and colour-saturation adjustment, sliders for adjusting clarity, vibrance, colour temperature, etc. And you can quickly apply the same modifications to any or all of the open images. (Start with the CTRL or Command method to do so.)  So, the bottom line is that Adobe Camera Raw provides some powerful tools that you may find to be more intuitive to use than the utilities in the standard Photoshop.