The DNG convertor and Lightroom are designed to handle Camera Raw files. Photoshop raw is a different format altogether and is a very basic image file format with minimal header info. It will not be handled by Lightroom or DNG convertor.
Raw file formats are popular in digital photography workflows because they offer greater creative control. However, cameras can use many different raw formats, the specifications for which are not publicly available. This means that not every raw file can be read by a variety of software applications. As a result, the use of these proprietary raw files as a long-term archival solution carries risk and sharing these files across complex workflows is challenging.
Digital Negative (DNG) is a publicly available archival format for raw files which are generated by various digital cameras. This addresses the lack of an open standard for raw files created by individual camera models and ensures that photographers easily access their files.
Hundreds of software manufacturers such as Apple and Google have developed support for DNG. And respected camera manufacturers such as Leica, Casio, Ricoh, Samsung, and Pentax have introduced cameras that provide direct DNG support. To learn more, see Camera Raw.
In addition to the Digital Negative Specification, Adobe provides the free Adobe DNG Converter (Windows Mac OS), which easily translates raw files from many of today's popular cameras. Software developers and manufacturers can download the complete DNG Specification (PDF, 742 KB). DNG is supported by the following software versions: Photoshop CS to Photoshop, Photoshop Elements 3 to Photoshop Elements 12, and all versions of Lightroom.
For photographers:
For hardware and software manufacturers:
The Profiles SDK provides resources for creating enhanced profiles introduced in Lightroom Classic CC 7.3, Lightroom CC 1.3, and Camera Raw 10.3.
Download the specification, which describes a nonproprietary file format for storing camera raw files that can be used by a wide range of hardware and software vendors.
The DNG SDK provides support for reading and writing DNG files as well as for converting DNG data to a format that is easily displayed or processed by imaging applications. This SDK can serve as a starting point for the addition of DNG support to existing applications that use and manipulate images or as an aid to the inclusion of DNG support within cameras. Download: Mac, Win
The DNG Profile Editor is a free software utility for creating or editing camera profiles.
Read more (PDF, 3.93 MB)
Download: Mac, Win
(Valid for Adobe DNG Converter 5.4 and later)
Adobe® Lens Profile Creator is a free utility that enables the easy creation of lens profiles for use in the Photoshop family of products, such as Photoshop, the Camera Raw plug-in, and Lightroom. A lens profile describes the types of optical aberrations that exist in a particular lens and prescribes how to correct the lens distortions in an image captured from the same lens. For more information, read the user guide (PDF, 1.64 MB). Download: Mac, Win
Note:
As of 1/1/2018, the Adobe Lens Profile Downloader is no longer developed and is unavailable for download. Adobe's development team adds new lens profiles every release. You can also request for specific lenses here.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom software is essential for today's digital photography workflow. Now you can quickly import, process, manage, and showcase your images — from one shot to an entire shoot. World-class correction tools, powerful organizing features, and flexible printing options help speed you along. With Lightroom, you spend less time in front of the computer and more time behind the lens.
Edit, manage, and showcase your images in Lightroom and roundtrip back to Photoshop for pixel-level editing and compositing. Together, Lightroom and Photoshop offer the most complete digital photography solution.
The Adobe DNG Converter, a free utility that converts files from more than 600 cameras to DNG, enables you to easily convert camera-specific raw files to a more universal DNG raw file.
Digital Negative (DNG) Specification patent license
Adobe is the publisher of the Digital Negative (DNG) Specification describing an image file format for storing camera raw information used in a wide range of hardware and software. Adobe provides the DNG Specification to the public for the purpose of encouraging implementation of this file format in a compliant manner. This document is a patent license granted by Adobe to individuals and organizations that desire to develop, market, and/or distribute hardware and software that reads and/or writes image files compliant with the DNG Specification.
Grant of rights
Subject to the terms below and solely to permit the reading and writing of image files that comply with the DNG Specification, Adobe hereby grants all individuals and organizations the worldwide, royalty-free, nontransferable, nonexclusive right under all Essential Claims to make, have made, use, sell, import, and distribute Compliant Implementations.
“Compliant Implementation” means a portion of a software or hardware product that reads or writes computer files compliant with the DNG Specification.
“DNG Specification” means any version of the Adobe DNG Specification made publicly available by Adobe (for example, version 1.0.0.0 dated September 2004).
“Essential Claim” means a claim of a patent, whenever and wherever issued, that Adobe has the right to license without payment of royalty or other fee that is unavoidably infringed by implementation of the DNG Specification. A claim is unavoidably infringed by the DNG Specification only when it is not possible to avoid infringing when conforming with such specification because there is no technically possible noninfringing alternative for achieving such conformity. Essential Claim does not include a claim that is infringed by implementation of (a) enabling technology that may be necessary to make or use any product or portion thereof that complies with the DNG Specification but is not itself expressly set forth in the DNG Specification (for example, compiler technology and basic operating system technology), (b) technology developed elsewhere and merely incorporated by reference in the DNG Specification, or (c) the implementation of file formats other than DNG.
Revocation
Adobe may revoke the rights granted above to any individual or organizational licensee in the event that such licensee or its affiliates brings any patent action against Adobe or its affiliates related to the reading or writing of files that comply with the DNG Specification.
Any Compliant Implementation distributed under this license must include the following notice displayed in a prominent manner within its source code and documentation: 'This product includes DNG technology under license by Adobe.”
No warranty
The rights granted herein are provided on an as-is basis without warranty of any kind, including warranty of title or noninfringement. Nothing in this license shall be construed as (a) requiring the maintenance of any patent, (b) a warranty or representation as to the validity or scope of any patent, (c) a warranty or representation that any product or service will be free from infringement of any patent, (d) an agreement to bring or prosecute actions against any infringers of any patent, or (e) conferring any right or license under any patent claim other than Essential Claims.
Reservation of rights
All rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.
For many of us, an upgrade of one element in our tool kit comes with many unforeseen consequences and additional expenditures. Just as a new camera body can necesitate the need for larger memory cards, hardware upgrades can also come with software upgrades. The reason? Camera file formats! As camera vendors develop new proprietary formats for their raw file formats (CR2 for Canon and NEF for Nikon as the two predominant players in the game), the need has always existed to update your software to accommodate the new formats for body upgrades.
The best example of this was when I did my upgrade of the Canon XT to the Canon 40D just last year (or was it two years ago now?)…at the time I was using Adobe Photoshop CS2 to process my files. Well CS2 development stopped as CS3 development started. My Canon 40D was stuck in between application life cycles, and as a result, I was no longer able to process my CR2 files from the 40D natively in CS2. Granted, I did upgrade to CS3 because of my interest in the field, but for those that either may not be interested in the software upgrade, or cannot afford to upgrade, there is a free alternative from Adobe – the Adobe DNG converter.
This is a really cool utility and it gets updated on the same schedule as the Adobe Camera Raw utility that is unique to the image-editing applications of all Photoshop applications (CS4, LR, etc.). The Adobe DNG stands for a Digital NeGative so it may help to think of this as a way of preserving your original data, yet still making it accessible, regardless of what other developments happen in the software world down the road. I know, we all think that Adobe will be around forever, but the same was also thought of Kodak 20 years ago – and now those Kodak CD’s are becoming difficult to manage. With that little nugget, it may be useful to consider the Adobe DNG option. Additionally, the Adobe DNG negative has been submitted to the ISO standards setting organization for acceptance as a universal conversion utility, and are releasing it under the GNU licensing, so it will hopefully always be available for anyone.
With the stage set then, for those who are not able to or not interested in upgrading, here is a brief tutorial of the Adobe DNG converter (in it’s current iteration as of 4/27/09), with screenshots. If your folders of images look like this:
Then the Adobe DNG Conversion Utility may be for you. It starts pretty easily…you can download the Windows or Mac versions of it from here:
Once you download and install this utility (did I mention it’s free?), start the application to get this screen:
First off, specify the path where the images are that you want to encapsulate into the DNG format. You can specify one folder, or you can specifiy a folder and all its sub-folders (in case you want to convert an entire library or set of images at once). Then specify the output folder and naming convention you want to use. Once that’s been decided, it’s time to select your preferences for how you convert your images.
Click on the “Preferences button” to specify how you want to conversion to occur: Do you want full size conversions or do you want to reduce the image resolution sizes for smaller storage requirements? (I always choose full size for maximum flexibility.) What about compression? Adding compression can further reduce the footprint that each DNG file has on your hard drive. (It’s a judgement call, but I choose not to compress, again to maximize flexibility down the road.) What about conversion methods? You can convert to a linear format, but I don’t like this option because it’s a one-way street (you can’t go back). Last but not least, what about inclusion of the original raw file? In most cases I would actually recommend that. It may increase file size, but this way you have access to the original raw date if your software needs ever change and you have access to software that can better handle the raw data you currently may not be able to manage. All these are things to consider. Hopefully, this short explanation of your options and the pros/cons will help in deciding how to proceed.
From here it’s pretty straightforward – you’ve specified everything from your input folder to your output folder, naming conventions, and conversion preferences, so now, simply click the button on the lower right to start the conversion process. You will get a dialog window showing you the progress:
If you like, you can always click the button in the lower left to stop or abort the conversion process in case you specify the wrong folder or for some other reason. Once the process is complete, the window will show all converted images. Simply click “OK” to close the DNG converter utility from that window, as shown below:
Finally, open the destination folder, and voila! Your image files will now have thumbnail previews again:
There you have it, your files are now prepped for one of the easiest, simplest, and most cost effective ways (did I mention this is free?) for both management, archiving, and accessibility – 3 very important things to consider in your image management workflow.
Granted, as with anything else, the Adobe DNG converter utility is not for everyone, as we all have work flows that call for different approaches. So, what approaches do you use? Feel free to share your own thoughts, processes, and suc in the comments or via email. Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!