Adobe DNG Profile Editor

As I've mentioned, CS4 Camera RAW 5.2 gives you some additional Camera "Profiles" in the Calibration tab. Still in beta, Adobe has the DNG Profles Editor which lets you take a DNG file, presumably converted from a native RAW file format, and make very specific adjustments to how it is rendered. You can then import that "recipe" right into the Camera RAW "Camera Profiles" menu.

Here is the Adobe Labs site, with some good instructions and links to the Editor.

Fun with Automator- Convert RAW to DNG (very nerdy)

Here's what I wanted. I want to download my card to my Desktop and have the RAW files inside processed to DNG for my backup. Automagically.

It really seemed simple enough, but I was thinking the "Hot Folder" approach, making a folder that, when you drop stuff into it, it activates a program. This required more skill in scripting than I have, or at least will admit to.

Ben Long, however, has put together an Automator action that starts up Adobe DNG Converter, and that is where we start. Automator is a free Apple program that allows guys like me to work with scripting as a drag-and-drop interface. They say it's all easy and stuff, but I found it pretty mystifying. Here's a walkthrough on how I made an Automator Application. Using this, I can simply drop my folder on the application icon and it does what I want- well, mostly.

Let's start with exactly what I want to do. I want to plug my card in to my computer and download the files to my desktop. I then want to drop those files onto something that will crank out DNG files and leave my original RAW files alone. Then I can just collect my files and store them away.

The first step is to go to the site with the Automator Action, that's here. Download it, open the .zip file, double-click on the "Convert Raw to DNG.action" and it will ask you if yo want to install it. Say "Install".

Now go to Automator. (Applications>Automator) You'll get this window, select Custom.



Here you have what is described as an intuitive interface. Uh. Maybe it is to some, I didn't really get it right away. On the left you have Actions, or things you can do. You grab them and assemble the Workflow on the right. As far as what I know how to do, the Actions aren't editable, so you get what you get. Ben Long, obviously, knows how to make and edit them... Here I've selected Photos, then I see Ben's Action. I've selected it and dragged it to the right side.



This Action is actually running Adobe DNG Converter, so you have to control it with the fields here. I've set up a folder for receiving my files, called DNG Out, and selected it here. If you leave everything else alone it will not rename or move your files.



The thing nobody really spells out is how you run this thing. Well, first you have to tell it what to run, so we're going to add a folder. Go back to the left side of Automator and pick Files and Folders, and select and drag Find Finder Items to the top of the right side. Now tell it where to look. I made a "RAW in" folder on the desktop and pointed it at that. (Select "other" from the pulldown.)

I also told it to look for .CR2 files, my camera's RAW files. Here's the whole window.



Now. If I go File>Save As, I get this window. If you select "Application" in the dropdown, rather than "Workflow", you'll get a neat little application icon.





All you have to do to use it is to drop your new camera files (usually in the default folder, 100CANON, in my G9's case) into the"RAW in" folder, grab the whole "RAW in" folder and drop it on that icon. Your original files will be sitting in the camera folder, your converted DNG files will be processed out to the DNG out folder. Now I just have to move the files into my storage folders... depending on how I've set that up, of course.

Hopefully this is enough of a tease to get you going using Automator a bit more. It's really kind of, er, fun (total nerd, I know...), and I went on to make a process that makes a new dated folder and duplicate my original RAW files into it to help me file the stuff away... but that's enough for now.

The Automator site is here, with all sorts of help.

For what it's worth, here's my little application, and here's the fancier one. I'm presuming you need Ben's Action installed for this to work, and I take no responsibility if it makes your computer disappear in a puff of smoke. You can open them in Automator and see what makes them work.

DNG Petition, Call for camera support for DNG

Please show your support for Adobe's development of the DNG format as a universal, open file, and for camera manufacturers including DNG as an option for shooting and storing files, by clicking this link: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/dng01/petition.html .

From the Adobe DNG site: ( http://www.adobe.com/products/dng/ )

Raw file formats are becoming extremely popular in digital photography workflows because they offer creative professionals greater creative control. However, cameras can use many different raw formats — the specifications for which are not publicly available — which 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 even more challenging.

The solution to this growing problem? The Digital Negative (DNG), a publicly available archival format for the raw files generated by digital cameras. By addressing the lack of an open standard for the raw files created by individual camera models, DNG helps ensure that photographers will be able to access their files in the future.

It is time that the major camera manufacturers, in particular, Canon and Nikon as industry leaders, acknowledge and support Adobe's initiative as an industry standard, for the good of the photographic community.