Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
The Advantages of Adobe's DNG Format for RAW Photos
Adobe created DNG (an open archival format for RAW photos) because, at this point in
time, each camera manufacturer has its own proprietary RAW file format. If, one day, one
or more manufacturers abandon their proprietary format for something new (like Kodak
did with their Photo CD format), will we still be able to open ourRAW photos? With DNG,
it's not proprietary—Adobe made it an open archival format, ensuring that your negatives
can be opened in the future, but besides that, DNG brings another couple of advantages, as
well.
Step One:
There are three advantages to converting your RAW files to Adobe DNG: (1) DNG files
are generally about 20% smaller. (2) DNG files don't need an XMP sidecar file to store
Camera Raw edits, metadata, and keywords—the info's embedded into the DNG file, so
you only have one file to keep track of. And, (3) DNG is an open format, so you'll be able
to open them in the future (as I mentioned in the intro above). If you have a RAW image
open in Camera Raw, you can save it as an Adobe DNG by clicking the Save Image button
(as shown here) to bring up the Save Options dialog (seen in the next step).
Note:
There's
really no advantage to saving TIFF or JPEG files as DNGs, so I only convert RAW photos.
