Seems that we are unable to Choose for "open as" a default of Camera Raw" ?

Question

Greetings
I have no problem with this in that if I, for instance, want to open a JPEG in Camera Raw, then I choose that from the drop-down box.  I have learned this by
initially forgetting many times, then completing the action successfully.  Then the drop-down box comes up with that option for the rest of the session.  Next time I
open Elements however the default is not Raw but,instead Photoshop PSD.
However, we do teach other people at our sessions how to use Elements and this makes it more difficult to do.  Although there are many possible permutations, the
most obvious is to open as Adobe Camera Raw.  If we want to open as Photoshop PSD then a simple "Open" on a Photoshop PSD file will do the trick.
Is there something I am missing ??

Answer 1

Jim Air wrote:
PS - I did not answer your question re are we teaching the use of "ACR as default for jpegs".  I would not go so far as to say, default.  Nevertheless we try to encourage the use of RAW and also very definitely for the images that we really like and/or are unique shots, the extra value of processing these jpegs in ACR.
Yes I agree with the purpose.
I think it's not only a quality advice, it's also a matter of efficiency in your workflow. When you compare the workflow in Lightroom to a traditional workflow in the combo editor - organizer - ACR, you can see how the 'parametric' editing of Lightroom is valuable. You can edit batches of files with raws and jpegs, you don't bother about creating output versions at editing time, you can appy the same edits to a selection of files. In a way, you can do the same if you are only working with raws in Elements. What breaks the combo is when you are working with jpeg. You can't open jpegs in ACR from the Organizer... unless they have already been opened from the editor!
My last experiment in the Christmas event was dealing with a collection of 300 pictures taken at max ISO by three different P&S cameras, a few with flash, most without. The lighting was indoors, several kinds of fluorescent lights, halogen, tungsten and mixed daylight. Any combination of those lights, different abilities from the 3 cameras re ISO, noise, saturation... but they were taken by short sequences of 4 to 15 in the same lighting conditions.
So, you are right only ACR can provide a good start to deal with the atrocious white balance problem as well as the noise (In some cases, there was no other solution than a black and white conversion). But I was able to process quickly each sequence in a similar lighting by using common settings. I did only open a few in the editor, I simply clicked 'Done' after the tonal, noise and cropping adjustments. After the first batch of edits, I was able to use only the Organizer for my final edits as I could open 'converted' jpegs as well as raw in the editor.
So, the workaround for the organizer inability to open jpegs in ACR would be to 'Open in ACR' in the editor batches of jpegs, doing nothing in the ACR dialog except selecting the whole batch and clicking 'Done'. After that, you can open in ACR from the Organizer! Note that doing nothing in the ACR dialog means that the 'default ACR conversion settings' will be applied (non destructively). Believe me, that was already a big improvement in white balance and tonal rendition!