Do I Have RAW File OCD?

[KmH]

The DNG format was Adobe's hope (and probably still is) that all camera manufacturers would settle on a universal, agreed-upon RAW format. Thus far it is still proprietary file formats across the board.

It's not across the board. Several camera makers offer DNG as their Raw capture file type, instead of using a proprietary Raw file.
Casio, Leica, Pentax, Ricoh, Samsung, Sinar to just name a few.

DNG has been an open source format for some time now.

Increasingly, professional archivists and conservationists, working for respectable organizations, variously suggest or recommend DNG for archival purposes.[SUP]

[/SUP]

 

[GnipGnop]

Totally agree. There will always be some sort of freeware or shareware available to open/read/convert almost any type of file extension.

 

[BekahAura]

Thanks everyone for the input! I do have a really old version of Photoshop and Bridge I'm using CS2 and I also do have pretty new Nikon (D7000). I'm not ready to update just yet... CS2 works just fine for me. I use CS4 at the studio I work at and I don't see any real difference in the tools I use (although I do love the clone stamp preview...) that would justify an upgrade right now. I don't need to view the NEFs right now because the DNGs are working just fine... I was just wondering if I might need to go back to them in the future.

A few of you suggested embedding the NEF within the DNG... I didn't even know the converter did that. I figured out how to change the preference... but can anyone tell me how I would go about extracting the embedded file? That's definitely an option...

 

[JeremyDueckPhoto]

I personally download NEFs and work with them in LR3. NEF files are modified and saved as jpegs or PSD files for printing/uploading/archiving/burning to disc etc... That way I have the original files in a folder for backup and a sub-folder(s) with all the edits.

 

[JClishe]

I personally download NEFs and work with them in LR3. NEF files are modified and saved as jpegs or PSD files for printing/uploading/archiving/burning to disc etc... That way I have the original files in a folder for backup and a sub-folder(s) with all the edits.

Do you guys save copies of your JPG's that are edited exports from Lightroom? I typically either just create a snapshot and label it "Uploaded to Flickr 4.2.2012" or whatever, or create virtual copies and stick them in a collection. Either way, I delete the JPG as soon as I'm done with it. I don't like leaving JPG's laying around when I've got a snapshot or virtual copy of the RAW in the LR catalog.

 

[JeremyDueckPhoto]

I personally download NEFs and work with them in LR3. NEF files are modified and saved as jpegs or PSD files for printing/uploading/archiving/burning to disc etc... That way I have the original files in a folder for backup and a sub-folder(s) with all the edits.

Do you guys save copies of your JPG's that are edited exports from Lightroom? I typically either just create a snapshot and label it "Uploaded to Flickr 4.2.2012" or whatever, or create virtual copies and stick them in a collection. Either way, I delete the JPG as soon as I'm done with it. I don't like leaving JPG's laying around when I've got a snapshot or virtual copy of the RAW in the LR catalog.

There are many ways to skin a cat, but I like to have copies of jpegs in case I want to do a simple edit (like a re-size or to add a watermark) of them later. For example, flickr, e-mail, my website, or Facebook might be well suited for different files. I often save the same photo in 3 different sizes/parameters/quality etc.... If I save them as "hard copies" I can pull them up with other viewers also...

thats just me