Rolling back to RW2 from DNG

[ashfaque]

Hello RFF,

Can anyone please suggest how I can roll back to .RW2 file format (camera model: Panasonic LX5's native raw format) from Adobe's DNG. I didn't realise when and how a lot of my raw files were converted after I installed the CS6 trial.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Godfrey]

Hello RFF,

Can anyone please suggest how I can roll back to .RW2 file format (camera model: Panasonic LX5's native raw format) from Adobe's DNG. I didn't realise when and how a lot of my raw files were converted after I installed the CS6 trial.

Thanks for your help.

You can only "roll back" to an RW2 if, when the files were converted to DNG format, the option to embed the original raw file into the DNG was chosen. If that wasn't done, and the RW2 files were deleted, there is no way to do it.

The good news is that there's little reason to do so ... the DNG files contain all the same information that the original RW2 contains. It's just been reorganized into the DNG format specification file structure.

G

 

[ashfaque]

Thanks a lot, Godfrey. Could you (and others) please let me know few more things:

1. Just to clarify, there is any no qualitative difference between RW2 and DNG format? However, I'm confused after seeing various options when RW2 files are opened in Camera Raw (within CS6).

2. Additionally from CS6 > Edit > Preferences > Camera Raw, I see few things which I'm not sure what to change. So far I have only changed in Apply sharpening to option from "All files" to "preview images only". I also see under Default Image Settings "Apply auto greyscale mix..." is selected. Should I deselect it? Could someone please explain what other options (cf here) I should choose to keep the source file untouched.

3. Regarding

You can only "roll back" to an RW2 if, when the files were converted to DNG format, the option to embed the original raw file into the DNG was chosen. If that wasn't done, and the RW2 files were deleted, there is no way to do it.
...

How can I save the unedited DNGs (from main RW2) from CS6 (Camera Raw 7) that they do not delete my original RW2 files?

Thanks for your patience.

 

[Godfrey]

Thanks a lot, Godfrey. Could you (and others) please let me know few more things:

1. Just to clarify, there is any no qualitative difference between RW2 and DNG format? However, I'm confused after seeing various options when RW2 files are opened in Camera Raw (within CS6).

A Digital NeGative format file is simply a standardized, publicly disclosed file structure for containing raw data (and other types of data including metadata and other file formats through encapsulation). When you convert a proprietary, native raw format like RW2 files contain to DNG, the translation process reads the original format and outputs it into the DNG structure. The only big difference between native raw and DNG formats, in terms of what they can contain, is that the DNG structure is extensible so can include other metadata (like processing instructions for Camera Raw, IPTC annotation, etc). Native raw format files are considered read-only by Adobe's tools so any additional information about the raw data is written into external .XMP sidecar files when Camera Raw saves the settings you made.

The Camera Raw plug-in in recent versions has many many options for adjusting and manipulating raw, JPEG and TIFF files. The screen you showed in that snapshot is the basic, default interface that allows you to start, showing the Basic tool set and default settings. I can't begin to tell you what to do without writing something of a user's manual... !

2. Additionally from CS6 > Edit > Preferences > Camera Raw, I see few things which I'm not sure what to change. So far I have only changed in Apply sharpening to option from "All files" to "preview images only". I also see under Default Image Settings "Apply auto greyscale mix..." is selected. Should I deselect it? Could someone please explain what other options (cf here) I should choose to keep the source file untouched.

I don't use Photoshop or Camera Raw to do my raw conversion processing these days (and my version of Photoshop is CS5) so on the rare occasion I do use it, I don't want it to do anything. So I leave all the Preferences defaults as they were set on installation, just setting "write .XMP sidecar files" and disabling Camera Raw's ability to edit TIFF and JPEG files.

3. Regarding

Godfrey:
You can only "roll back" to an RW2 if, when the files were converted to DNG format, the option to embed the original raw file into the DNG was chosen. If that wasn't done, and the RW2 files were deleted, there is no way to do it.

How can I save the unedited DNGs (from main RW2) from CS6 (Camera Raw 7) that they do not delete my original RW2 files?

Far as I can tell, the only way I can output a .DNG file from a .RW2 directly from Camera Raw is to click the "Save Image" button in the lower left after making some edits to an image:

That presents me with this dialog:

where the two significant things to look at are the image format and the option to include the original file into the DNG if you've chosen DNG as an output format. When I clicked the Save button in this dialog, it created a DNG file alongside my original .ORF raw file in the original directory. If I'd made any adjustments to the image in Camera Raw, it would write those adjustments as parametric metadata alongside the raw image data inside the DNG file, so the next time Camera Raw or Lightroom opened the DNG file, it would look as I last left it in processing.

I don't know how PSCS6 and CR7 differ from this and am not sure how you converted .RW2 to DNG files.

I never use this mechanism to output raw files to finished images anyway, even when working in Photoshop. When I finish editing in Camera Raw, I click "Open Image" and the file is transferred in RGB component form to the main Photoshop editor, from which I output to TIFF or JPEG.

I suspect the best advice is for you to look up a Photoshop/Camera Raw tutorial video or instructional book. There are many many of them, start on the Adobe website. Local community colleges and art institutions often provide workshops to help you get started with this information too.

Personally, I use Lightroom 4.3 (4.4RC at latest) to manage and do most of the raw processing on my image files nowadays. I only go into Photoshop with exported TIFF files to do the very few things that Lightroom isn't capable of or doesn't have the best way to get done. I use PS so rarely now I saw little real reason to pay for the upgrade to PSCS6, I've stuck with PSCS5 for the present.

G

 

[ashfaque]

Dear Godfrey,

I'm grateful for your detailed explanation. Thanks again for your kind effort. I use LR as well. But I thought why not try CS6 whilst I'm away from work!

FYI, I still can't figure out how many RW2 files were converted to DNG. So if someone knows the reason (possible oversights), please write here for novices like me.