Nikon raw files in Photoshop CS question

[jc77]

I have Photoshop CS (the original.. not cs2 or 3...) and I have never shot in raw before.. I thought I'd try it out the other day. I shot a bunch of portraits of my neices and I cannot open them in Photoshop. It keeps telling me that it cannot complete your request because it is not the right kind of document. It is a NES file. I have camera raw installed in the plugins, so why wont it open the files?
Any help would be so greatly appriciated.

Jamie

 

[jc77]

I suppose I should add that I shoot with a Nikon D50

 

[itznfb]

Each new revision of Camera Raw adds support for certain camera's RAW file. When Adobe releases a new version Creative Suite they drop support for new releases of Camera Raw on their previous version of Creative Suite. So it's possible that either the version of Camera Raw you have installed doesn't support the D50's RAW files and you need up run an update; or the original CS doesn't support a new enough version of Camera Raw to support the D50. You can always convert the RAW files to JPG in ViewNX if you need to retrieve them.

 

[itznfb]

Looks like support for the Nikon D50 was added in Camera Raw 3.2 which is not compatible with Adobe Photoshop CS. Camera Raw 3.2 was the 2nd update in Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Photoshop Elements 3.0.

 

[jc77]

Oh thank you so much for the help! I'll try running updates now and see what happens.

 

[jc77]

Oh shoot.... well I've been wanting to upgrade to the latest version of CS anyways.. guess now's as good a time as any.. lol
Thanks again

 

[itznfb]

If that's a reasonable option for you then go for it. I went from CS2 to CS4 and I thought it was a great leap forward in design and functionality. I've been using CaptureNX2 for the last month or so but I just haven't been able to gain any comfort with the interface and I think I'll find my way back to CS4 very soon.

 

[ann]

you should be able to open your raw files in the program that came with the camera, and then convert them to tiff files to be used in your PS program.

 

[jc77]

Ok, I've got them converted from raws.. thank you so much for your help!

 

[Dwig]

The other option is to use Adobe's free DNG Converter.

First, update the Camera RAW in PS/CS to the v2.4 (must be at least v2.2). Then download the newest DNG Converter (currently v5.5) and install it. The DNG Converter is a batch converter that converts camera specific RAW files, like Nikon's NEF files, into Adobe's universal DNG RAW files. The older Camera RAW (v2.2 or hight) will be able to process the resulting DNG RAW files. The files are still RAW so the full processing capability of Camera RAW will be available.

 

[jc77]

I'll try that Dwig.. I really want to try editing them with the full range of options that the raw files offer.. Thanks so much for the tip