When are RAW files really RAW?

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just got myself a Nikon D40 as a cost affective way of getting those RAW FILES to extend my 'Photoshop Elements' experience.

BUT Photoshop Elements will not read the ".NEF" (Nikon files) as what it calls 'camera RAW files'. they have been altered! yuck..... not what i bought the camera for.

help please. :Angry-Tongue:
 
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Huh?

I don't get it. It may not be reading them because you may need a plugin.

And RAW files usually don't have .RAW extension if not at all. Canon's are something like CW2 or something similar. I don't remember off the top of my head.

The only thing your RAW files may be getting is noise reduction, if that. I don't know if it's something you can truly turn off all the way in a Nikon. Just something I've read so there may not be any truth to it.
 
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nef are raw files....you are having an issue with your app. make sur eyou have all the correct plugin
-chris
 
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when i installed 'Picture Project' from the box and re-booted ...... it was then that photoshop has worked in the same way since .... with a huge delay converting the NEF.

then today took a few pics using the "RAW+B" setting when the D40 should have been giving me a RAW plus a JPG ...... well it gave me a JPG but the RAW was being read in by Elements with a message to say 'file has been altered by applications' and both the JPG and supposed RAW file (.NEF) look the same. :Smirk:

i thought RAW was RAW!!! thus JPG would be processed by the camera and RAW untouched???
 
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wikipedia said:
Nearly all digital cameras can process the image from the sensor into a JPEG file using settings for white balance, color saturation, contrast, and sharpness that are either selected automatically or entered by the photographer before taking the picture. Cameras that support raw files save these settings in the file, but defer the processing. This results in an extra step for the photographer, so raw is normally only used when additional computer processing is intended. However, raw permits much greater control than JPEG

I import my RAW images directly into Lightroom and do my post processing there. That being said, there is not always reason to even shoot RAW. I do with some pictures, but not always. Are you going to do a lot of post processing, such as manually setting white balance, color correction, and so on?

I don't use elements, but maybe somewhere in between a program is applying those settings that are stored in the file.
 
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Are you going to do a lot of post processing, such as manually setting white balance, color correction, and so on?

that is what i'm exploring..... going RAW and seeing if it makes a difference to JPG. O:)

i have learnt today that RAW = DNG and 'Elements' responded with this....

170053760-M-1.jpg


at last....... DNG is the savior for me today (down load the converter from adobe) with all the camera companies doing their little tweek on 'camera RAW' so that other things can't read.
 
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iPhoto has stopped converting to DNG

last week i found that if i highlight one of my nikon NEF files iPhoto would convert to a photoshop recognised DNG file.

no adobe DNG converter needed now and this mac methord ment single files could be converted to DNG rather then in batches.

here's the drop menu.

171832938-M.png


returning from the weekend i now had all the NEF files i wanted to work on in iPhoto. the same drop option gave an 'are you sure warning' before proceeding and when i export this time only a NEF comes out.

whats changed? what do i have to do to get iPhoto converting to DNG again like last week?
 
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Just forget about iPhoto, you have PS Elements, which has ACR or Adobe Camera RAW built in to process your RAW files. The whole point of shooting RAW is that you get a raw image from the sensor, with which you can adjust and apply settings as you want. Then you want to convert your RAW files into .Tiff files, which you then take into PS Elements to edit further.

When you have spare time, and providing you have plenty of spare storage available, convert your .NEF RAW files into .DNG files for safe keeping, use the Adobe DNG Droplet for this. If you plan on editing certain photos in PS Elements, you are far better off using a .Tiff file, as Jpegs will deteriorate rapidly and lose their original quality.
 
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Just forget about iPhoto, you have PS Elements, which has ACR or Adobe Camera RAW built in to process your RAW files. The whole point of shooting RAW is that you get a raw image from the sensor, with which you can adjust and apply settings as you want. Then you want to convert your RAW files into .Tiff files, which you then take into PS Elements to edit further.

When you have spare time, and providing you have plenty of spare storage available, convert your .NEF RAW files into .DNG files for safe keeping, use the Adobe DNG Droplet for this. If you plan on editing certain photos in PS Elements, you are far better off using a .Tiff file, as Jpegs will deteriorate rapidly and lose their original quality.

but i find picture project which came with the D40 dreadful..... ok i'll give it another go. :Grimmace:
 
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Which version of Elements do you have? I know with older versions you would need to do an Adobe update on them. I know with my Canon 30D's .CR2 Raw files, Photoshop CS2 wouldn't read them, so i had to get an update and it fixed the problem.
 
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You might also look into Aperture. There is a demo from Apple's website. I'm not yet shooting RAW, but I find it an indispensable tool for cataloging and correcting my photos.
 
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i have elements 4.

i only have a macbook so want to avoid something big like aperture but i do need a way to store, organise and retireve photos..... the biggest frustration at the moment is 'finder' does not 'thumbnail' the pic file like windows.

mighty impressed with what i've done with mac i never even tried to do with windows..... don't get me wrong.
 
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What version of OS X are you running? I bought my Mac over two years ago now and I can do thumbnail images... and I'm sure even the G4s can do that =\
 
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What version of OS X are you running? I bought my Mac over two years ago now and I can do thumbnail images... and I'm sure even the G4s can do that =\

10.4.10

sometimes pics thumbnail on the desktop when they come out of photoshop as they do in folders but not out of preview.

176119539-M.png


see what i mean here in a folder?
 

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