About the digital negative (dng) format – Adobe Photoshop CS3 User Manual
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PHOTOSHOP CS3
User Guide
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Using Bridge, you can apply, copy, and clear image settings, and you can see previews and metadata for camera raw
files without opening them in the Camera Raw dialog box. The preview in Bridge is a JPEG image generated using
the current image settings; the preview is not the raw camera data itself, which would appear as a very dark grayscale
image.
Note: A caution icon
appears in the thumbnails and preview image in the Camera Raw dialog box while the preview
is generated from the camera raw image.
You can modify the default settings that Camera Raw uses for a particular model of camera. For each camera model,
you can also modify the defaults for a particular ISO setting or a particular camera (by serial number). You can
modify and save image settings as presets for use with other images.
When you use Camera Raw to make adjustments (including straightening and cropping) to a camera raw image, the
image’s original camera raw data is preserved. The adjustments are stored for each image in either the Camera Raw
database, as metadata embedded in the image file, or in a sidecar XMP file (a metadata file that accompanies a camera
raw file). For more information, see “Specify where Camera Raw settings are stored” on page 104.
After you process and edit a camera raw file using the Camera Raw plug-in, an icon
appears in the image
thumbnail in Bridge.
If you open a camera raw file in Photoshop, you can save the image in other image formats, such as PSD, JPEG, Large
Document Format (PSB), TIFF, Cineon, Photoshop Raw, PNG, or PBM. From the Camera Raw dialog box in
Photoshop, you can save the processed files in Digital Negative (DNG), JPEG, TIFF, or Photoshop (PSD) formats.
Although Photoshop Camera Raw software can open and edit a camera raw image file, it cannot save an image in a
camera raw format.
Note: In Photoshop, the Camera Raw dialog box is automatically suppressed when you use a batch of files for a web photo
gallery, picture package, or contact sheet.
As new versions of Camera Raw become available, you can update this software by installing a new version of the
plug-in. You can check for updates to Adobe software by choosing Help > Updates.
For up-to-date documentation for Camera Raw, go to the Adobe website at
.
Different camera models save camera raw images in many different formats, and the data must be interpreted differ-
ently for these formats. Camera Raw includes profiles for many camera models, and it can interpret many camera
raw formats.
Note: For a list of supported cameras and for more information about Camera Raw, see
About the Digital Negative (DNG) format
The Digital Negative (DNG) format is a non-proprietary, publicly documented, and widely supported format for
storing raw camera data. Hardware and software developers use DNG because it results in a flexible workflow for
processing and archiving camera raw data. You may also use DNG as an intermediate format for storing images that
were originally captured using a proprietary camera raw format.
Because DNG metadata is publicly documented, software readers such as Camera Raw do not need camera-specific
knowledge to decode and process files created by a camera that supports DNG. If support for a proprietary format
is discontinued, users may not be able to access images stored in that format, and the images may be lost forever.
Because DNG is publicly documented, it is far more likely that raw images stored as DNG files will be readable by
software in the distant future, making DNG a safer choice for archival storage.