Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
If you just want to save your changes without opening the file, just click Done to close the
Converter. The next time you open the raw file, the Raw Converter will remember where you
left off.
Converting to DNG
A few years ago, there was a lot of buzz about Adobe's DNG (digital negative) format, and if
you shoot raw, you should know what it is. As you learned at the beginning of this chapter,
every camera manufacturer uses a different format for raw files. Even the formats for differ-
ent cameras from the
same
manufacturer differ. It's a recipe for an industry-wide headache.
Adobe's solution is the DNG format, which the company envisions as a more standardized
alternative to raw files. Here's how it works: When you convert a raw file to a DNG file, it
still behaves like a raw file—you can still tweak its settings in the Raw Converter, and you
still have to save it in standard image formats like TIFF or JPEG to use it in a project. But
the idea behind DNG is that if you save your raw files in this format, then you don't have to
worry about whether Elements 35 can open them. Adobe clearly hopes that all camera manu-
facturers will adopt this standard, putting an end to the mishmash of different formats that
make raw files such a nuisance to deal with. If all cameras used DNG, then when you bought
a new camera you wouldn't have to worry about whether your programs could open your im-
ages.
You can create DNG files from raw files right in the Raw Converter. At the bottom left of the
window, just click the Save Image button, and up pops the DNG Converter shown in
Fig-
ure 8-9
. Choose where you want to save the file, and then select how to name it. You get the
same naming options as with Process Multiple Files (
Processing Multiple Files
), but since
you can only use the DNG Converter to convert one file at a time, you may as well keep the
photo's current name and just add the .dng extension to the end of it.
