Nikon NEF (RAW) file... whats the point?

[sma200]

I thought I would try out shooting in RAW tonight on my Nikon because of the ability to edit on a wide scale. However, I can't open these files in photoshop, and it seems my only option is to convert to JPEG and then edit. So, whats the point? What am I missing?

My images look perfect on the camera screen after being taken, but are much darker when loading them. So I thought shooting in RAW would help with adjusting the exposure. SO frustrated, any suggestions??

[jmuench]

Depending on the model of camera if maybe a new one such as a D7000 you may need to update your camera raw to use the version of NEF. Raw leaves you so much more to edit with espessially with white balance, exposeure etc. Editing them first in Camera Raw then converting to a tiff or opening direct in photo shop after.

Is you monitor calibrated are they dark when they are printed ? if so you may want to adjust your exposure comensation on the camera.

[candleman]

ummm.. you need ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) to open a RAW file.. your version probably isn't up to date for your camera.

Raw files are supposed to look dull and muddy, that's because it hasn't allowed to camera to saturate, sharpen etc etc the file.
It's left up to you to process it the way you want it.

Kindof like driving a Stick-Shift, Vs. an Automatic

Sure, Automatic does it for you... Stick shift gives much more control, and ou can get out of stick situations earier but it's a little frustrating to learn.

[sma200]

Originally Posted by jmuench

Depending on the model of camera if maybe a new one such as a D7000 you may need to update your camera raw to use the version of NEF. Raw leaves you so much more to edit with espessially with white balance, exposeure etc. Editing them first in Camera Raw then converting to a tiff or opening direct in photo shop after.

Is you monitor calibrated are they dark when they are printed ? if so you may want to adjust your exposure comensation on the camera.

It is a D7000, and am I understanding you correctly that you are correcting exposure in camera (which I have never done). I just switched from canon, and worked with canon raw files in photoshop CS4.

[sma200]

Originally Posted by candleman

ummm.. you need ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) to open a RAW file.. your version probably isn't up to date for your camera.

Raw files are supposed to look dull and muddy, that's because it hasn't allowed to camera to saturate, sharpen etc etc the file.
It's left up to you to process it the way you want it.

Kindof like driving a Stick-Shift, Vs. an Automatic

Sure, Automatic does it for you... Stick shift gives much more control, and ou can get out of stick situations earier but it's a little frustrating to learn.

I understand raw files are suppose to look dull, but I have not even been able to open them because their in NEF. I looked to see if there was a plug in, and when I went to update with the latest version I got a pop up telling me that Im already all up to date. I will see if I can resize a pic and post it to see how flat it looks.

My monitor is not calibrated, but Iv'e viewed the pics on other monitors and they look just as equally dull. When I shot with canon, they never looked this lifeless.

[jmuench]

You can use exposure compensation on the camera yes canon, nikon doesn;t matter. if I am correct i think you may need to update to cs5 and a newer version of camera raw. Raw files are first adjusted in a raw editer than imported into photoshop or some other editing program for any more complicated editing that cannot be done in camera raw.I assume with the canon raw files you would still edit in ACR first before using in photoshop, it is no different with nikon but the d7000 did requie a new ACR version to reconize te files.

[jmuench]

Originally Posted by sma200

I understand raw files are suppose to look dull, but I have not even been able to open them because their in NEF. I looked to see if there was a plug in, and when I went to update with the latest version I got a pop up telling me that Im already all up to date. I will see if I can resize a pic and post it to see how flat it looks.

My monitor is not calibrated, but Iv'e viewed the pics on other monitors and they look just as equally dull. When I shot with canon, they never looked this lifeless.

The ACR is up to date for CS4, unfortunatly you need to update to CS5 as the new version of ACR is only compatibe with CS5 (I think)

[sma200]

This is a picture I took a few days ago, and other than resizing and cropping off the size to upload here, I have not touched it with any editing. I dont know if Im metering wrong, or if the in camera meter is off, or is it my monitor?

I used Corel to edit Canons Raw photos, not photoshop... oops

[Chip]

Nikon's View NX 2 is a free download that will let you open NEFs (hopefully for the D7000, too) and edit them to a certain extent. Here's a link.

I don't use CS4, so I don't know if using View NX2 to open the NEF files will act as a workaround to then let you open them in CS4.

Good luck.

[inkista]

Welcome to what is known as "the Photoshop Tax", which comes with buying any new camera. Remember that RAW is not a file standard. It's not even an acronym. It's a proprietary file format that includes the raw sensor data and any metadata. Because new features often need new metadata support, typically, the RAW file format is different for every single camera.

Because your camera was released AFTER CS4 was released, there's no way that CS4 can understand the D7000's NEF format. Adobe, in their need for profit, only updates ACR for the latest version of Photoshop that's out whenever your camera is released. That would be CS5 in this case. You can try updating ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) to 6.3 for CS4 and seeing if that would work, but it's unlikely CS4 can use ACR 6.3.

However, you don't need to update to CS5.

You can also use the free Adobe DNG converter which will always be able to use the latest version of ACR. Realizing that forcing people to upgrade Photoshop whenever they buy a new camera is unpopular, Adobe has their own version of RAW that is a standard: DNG. Because it's a standard file format, all versions of Photoshop can grok it. In converting your NEF to DNG, you may lose some proprietary EXIF information, but all the standard fields will left intact, and you will get that extra latitude non-destructive editing RAW goodness.