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.

RAW PIPELINE in Shutterbug

Date: November 4, 2008 10:20:10 PM EST
To: ted@teddillard.com
Subject: Shutterbug

Hi Ted,
CONGRATULATIONS!!! I just looked at the new Shutterbug and The Raw Pipeline is listed as one of the top digital books to get. Way ta go!
Cheers
Cole

The Shutterbug Book Review site is here. (nothing up yet...)

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.

Compact Cameras that shoot RAW

Canon:
PowerShot 600
PowerShot A5
PowerShot A50
PowerShot Pro 1
PowerShot S30
PowerShot S40
PowerShot S45
PowerShot S50
PowerShot S60
PowerShot S70
PowerShot G1
PowerShot G2
PowerShot G3
PowerShot G5
PowerShot G6
PowerShot G9
PowerShot Pro70
PowerShot Pro90 IS

Nikon:
Coolpix 5000
Coolpix 5400
Coolpix 5700
Coolpix 8400
Coolpix 8700
Coolpix 8800

Fuji:
FinePix E900
FinePix F700
FinePix IS-1
FinePix S100 FS
FinePix S20 Pro
FinePix S5000 Z
FinePix S5200/5600
FinePix S6000fd/S6500fd
FinePix S7000 Z
FinePix S9000/9500
FinePix S9100/9600

Olympus:
EVOLT E-300
EVOLT E 330
EVOLT E-400
EVOLT E-500
EVOLT E-510
C-5050 Zoom
C-5060 Zoom
C-7070 Wide Zoom
C-8080 Wide Zoom
SP-310
SP-320
SP-350
SP-570 UZ
E-410
SP-500UZ
SP-510 UZ
SP-550 UZ
SP-560 UZ

Leica:
D-Lux 2
D-Lux 3
Digilux 2
Digilux 3

Panasonic:
DMC-L1
DMC-LC1
DMC-LX1
DMC-LX2
DMC-FZ8

Smart Objects and RAW files

Very briefly, a Smart Object is a sweet new device that allows you to get back to all the original qualities of the original file. You can use it for all sorts of files, but we are going to use it for RAW files.

It’s really pretty simple. The Smart Object sits as a Layer in your image. You get to it by double clicking the icon, and it re-opens the Layer as the RAW file it was originally. Here’s how to do it.



Open a RAW file. When Photoshop opens it, it will open the Camera RAW dialog. At the very bottom of the Preview window you’ll see what looks like a webpage link… that is the button to your workflow options. Click it.

There you will see the box “Open in Photoshop as Smart Objects”. Check it.



Now, when you hit OK and go back to the Camera RAW screen you’ll note that the “Open Image” is now saying “Open Object”. Hit “Open Object”.

You will be transported to Photoshop’s main screen, where, with your Layers palett open, you’ll see your image with this cute little icon. Double-click that icon, and you are right back to Camera RAW and your RAW adjustments.
How cool is that?



The Smart Object workflow is actually a huge subject. Basically, they are Layers and you can do anything to them that you can do to any other adjustment or image layer. My book on it is due out shortly following this one… Yes, a book on Smart Objects. For now, though, I give a more detailed explanation and examples of workflows in my book “Raw Pipeline”.

For Steve: the Forward from Raw Pipeline

Forward

This whole thing really started when I sat down to play with an image I shot on the way to work. It was one of those images that I really thought I had no idea how I wanted to print. I shot it at dawn, and it had all the rich magenta, blue, yellow and peach hues, and a fairly large contrast range. In truth, the vision was there... as it always has been, I just was not used to the tools yet.

I did a quick conversion from RAW and played around. After a series of test prints, I finally got a print that I was happy with but when I looked at the many adjustment layers I had made to get there I realized I had hacked up the file pretty severely. I reprocessed the RAW, this time very deliberately for the values and tones I saw in my final test print file, and when I printed that file, a little light flipped on in my head. The print was remarkably richer and deeper. There were colors and transitions that simply had been missing. The first reprocessed print looked as I had visualized it when I shot it.

The entire process started coming together: The implications of the RAW file, Adobe’s release of Camera RAW, a 16 bit Layered workflow, Adjustment Layers, Image Layers and Masking, linking the Histogram display on the camera to printing the Step Wedge...

On reading my chapter on the Histogram and the Step Wedge, a friend said that, for the first time since he started working with Photoshop, he realized we still needed Ansel Adams and the Zone System.

I couldn’t have put it better.