RAW Images & Photoshop

[Graemey]

Hello All,

I'm very keen to use some RAW images btu at the moment can't open them in Photoshop. I have some software called ridge which came with my camera and I thought this might solve the problem but some one said that this was only a kind of database to look at the images and gather information about them.

It was also explained to me that I can get a plugin fom he Internet that would let me open the RAW images in Photoshop. Any advice from the boys and girls here will be greatly appreciated.

Best wishes
Graeme

[RichardTaylor]

It depends on your version of Photoshop and Adobe Camera RAW plug-in and your camera model.

This is the latest.

camera raw | Adobe Photoshop CS5
.

[Graemey]

Hello,

Thank you.

I have a Sony A200 and Adobe Photoshop CS version 8.I found Camera_raw_6_2-updater.zip, will this be wnat I am looking for?

Best wishes
Graeme

[RichardTaylor]

I am not aware of Photoshop CS 8.1 as CS (Creative Studio is only at CS5)?
Creative Studio started at (O) which was in theory Photoshop 8 but not called that by Adobe.

You need CS5 to work with the RAW download you mentioned. It won't work with older versions.

You may be able to update your version of Photoshop (CS) to the latest through the Adobe store.

There may be a work around.
See this flickr thread.
Flickr: Discussing Photoshop Raw. in SONY ALPHA DSLR-A200/A230

[Graemey]

Hello Again,

I have some software that came with my camera called Sony Image Data Suite and Sony Picture Utility. There is Lightbox and Image Data Convertor. This allows you to adjust the images then importd them into Photoshop as a TIFF image. Should that be OK?

Thank you as always,

Best wishes
Graeme

[RecurrentNerve]

Not ideal, Graeme, as apart from anything else TIFF compresses the image, which means you will lose (in this case colour) information and thus quality.

The plugin you mentioned is actually a separate program called Adobe Camera Raw. It is a free application that converts most camera RAW formats into DNG, which even early versions of Photoshop (CS onwards) can open. DNG is lossless so you lose no information in the conversion. You can simply import the RAW files from your camera, convert through DNG convertor (a 3 click process), then delete the files you imported originally.

You can get the DNG Convertor from Adobe.com

[potterm]

I have Photoshop CS and have to use the Adobe DNG Converter application first before I can open RAW files directly in PS - you can get it from the link provided by RecurrentNerve.

Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) is not in fact the DNG converter, but a RAW processing plug-in that comes with Photoshop and Lightroom. The ACR plugin you have with Photoshop CS is able to open the DNG format and older RAW formats, but not the newer ones that come with the latest cameras which is why your RAW images won't open.

To get a newer version of ACR you'd have to get a paid upgrade to Photoshop, so the only option short of that is to use the DNG convertor. Of course, this also means that you'll be using an older version of ACR that doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the latest version, but at least you'll be able to open RAW files in Photoshop CS.

[Vagebond]

Originally Posted by RecurrentNerve

Not ideal, Graeme, as apart from anything else TIFF compresses the image, which means you will lose (in this case colour) information and thus quality.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought TIFF was a lossless format, or rather can be lossless depending on the compression method (or none) that you choose for the file?

[RecurrentNerve]

Technically correct Vagebond, but as I don't know what method Graeme's software compresses with I couldn't really recommend it (it is lossy if it uses JPEG), especially when the software for conversion to a readable RAW format is free.

[Vagebond]

Originally Posted by RecurrentNerve

Technically correct Vagebond, but as I don't know what method Graeme's software compresses with I couldn't really recommend it (it is lossy if it uses JPEG), especially when the software for conversion to a readable RAW format is free.

Understood, good point, thanks.