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Camera Raw's New Grid View Is the Catalog-Free Workflow You Already Own

October 9, 2026 · 4 min read
Camera Raw's New Grid View Is the Catalog-Free Workflow You Already Own
In short: Camera Raw can now cull and sort folders of raw files with a grid view, ratings, color labels, and filters — no Lightroom catalog required. It also gains exposure matching that reads your camera's ambient light data, plus detachable histograms and vectorscopes. Most photographers already own this workflow through Photoshop and the free Bridge app.

What does the grid view actually do?

Camera Raw now opens a folder of raw files as a grid with star ratings, color labels, and rejects, each with its own keyboard shortcut, plus a full filter bar. A walkthrough by Matt Kloskowski opens 580 raw files at once, narrowing them by rating, label, date, file type, camera, or lens. Your picks stay with the files, so reopening that folder a year from now restores every bit of sorting you did.

Why does the folder model matter?

Bridge is a free Adobe download and Camera Raw comes with Photoshop, so plenty of people already own a catalog-free workflow without realizing it. Ratings, labels, and edits are written to small XMP sidecar files next to the originals — copy the folder to another drive and everything stays intact, with no database to rebuild or relink. A catalog still earns its keep when you need to search across years of work at once, but for shoot, cull, finish, and move on, the folder model tends to fit better.

What's new in exposure matching?

Exposure matching arrives in Camera Raw too. Select several photos and the first you click becomes the target the others are matched to. The settings-based option compares shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, which breaks when a scene's light changes — matching dark alley frames to a bright street frame pushed them far too dark. The second option matches camera settings plus light: according to Adobe, cameras record an ambient light reading that almost no software uses, and Camera Raw now reads it. Timelapses are the killer use. The histogram and vectorscope can also be torn off and parked on a second monitor.

Why it matters for you

If imports and catalogs are why you have stayed away from Lightroom, the distance between the two apps just collapsed — the folder-based workflow you already own got meaningfully better. Rating and labeling inside folders with XMP sidecars teaches file discipline that transfers anywhere: your picks survive computer changes and app switches, because they live next to the photos instead of inside a database.

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