subscribe 0330 333 1113 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 5 October 2019 21
Technique
Adobe
DNG converter
The Adobe DNG converter is free software
that’s easy to use and allows you to convert
your raw fi les to the more standardised
Digital Negative format, which is claimed
to be a more future-proof fi le type that’s
suitable for archival purposes.
DNGs are generally smaller in size than
manufacturer raw fi les thanks to the lossless
compression they employ, and they also
allow you to select ‘fast load data’ which
stores a preview in the DNG for faster
loading. Other features include the ability
to select the version of Camera Raw the
DNGs are compatible with, which means
that raw fi les from current cameras can
actually be used with much older versions
of Photoshop.
If you use Lightroom or Adobe Camera
Raw in Photoshop, then you can use these
to convert your raw fi les to DNGs rather
than downloading the DNG Converter. In
order to download the DNG Converter, visit
helpx.adobe.com/uk/photoshop/digital-
negative.html.step is to decide which images to keep,
which to process and which ones you don’t
want or need and should be deleted. The
latter may sound extreme since hard
drives and storage, in general, are less
expensive than ever before, but the point
here is to remove images that you would
never use and that would ultimately slow
down your workfl ow and potentially your
software too.
Working out which images to keep
or delete couldn’t be simpler using star
ratings and colour labels. Lightroom
provides the ability to apply a fl ag for ‘Pick’
and one for ‘Reject’, which may be useful.
But the label itself is quite small so you
may fi nd it more productive to use star
ratings for images you’d like to keep, and
diff erent colour labels to signify tasks such
as delete image, image processed, image
to print or any other task within your
personal workfl ow. For images that have
been selected for processing, you can
also add keywords that can be used to
search for images within the raw-editing
software, and that will be maintained
when raw fi les are exported into other
formats such as JPEG, TIFF, and so on.Future-proofi ng fi le formats
There’s long been concern among some
photographers that as raw fi le formats
are dropped by camera manufacturers,
software companies will follow suit and
remove support for these obsolete fi le
types. As it stands, raw fi les from the
Canon EOS 5D released in 2005 are still
supported, for instance. It’s impossible
to say which raw formats will succumb to
obsoletion, but what can you do to ensure
raw fi les remain compatible with editing
software in the future?
One option is to convert your camera’s
proprietary raw fi les to DNG. The Digital
Negative fi le format is open source and
was created by Adobe to provide a
standardised raw fi le format with the
intention of maintainingDeciding which images to keep and process, and which to delete, is easy when you use star ratings
The DNG converter allows you to convert your
raw files to the Digital Negative formatKeeping copies
of your files on
multiple hard drives
helps protect them
against accidental loss© JAMES ABBOTT