Photoshop won't open RAW

[apappas]

Hi! I'm a beginner photographer and just started shooting in RAW. I just own a Canon Rebel T5i and use Photoshop CS5. I wasn't aware that CS5 won't open RAW images from my camera. So my question is is it pointless for me to shoot in RAW if I just have to convert each image to JPG before editing? Am I decreasing the quality of the image by doing this? I open each image in Preview (Mac) and export to JPG from there. Will the JPG my camera shoots be of better quality than the RAW file I export to JPG on my computer? I didn't shoot in RAW/JPG to save room on my SD card. Thanks so much for any advice!

Just in case, this is the message I receive from Photoshop when attempting to open a RAW file:
"Could not complete your request because the file appears to be from a camera model which is not supported by the installed version of Camera Raw. Please visit the Camera Raw help documentation for additional information."

 

[The_Traveler]

Rather than use a degraded and lossy file (which is what a jpeg is) you could use a free raw converter such as RawTherapee Blog
That produces TIF files which are loadable by CS5

 

[apappas]

Amazing! Thanks so much for your help!

 

[The_Traveler]

buy more sd cards
raw files are essentially undeveloped full resolution records of what the sensor 'saw'.
jpegs are reduced in size and irrevocably lose information according to the setting you make in the camera.
unless you are shooting in a controlled situation where you've got the exposure nailed, the dynamic range is ok or need lots of images fast, shoot and edit raw.

buy more sd cards

 

[weepete]

Or possibly convert to DNG, looks like Adobe have a converter for that.

 

[KmH]

Yes. Adobe 's DNG converter is free.
CS 5 Camera Raw can open DNG files, so there is no need to add and learn how to use another program, like RawTherapee, to your computer.
DNG is an Adobe image file format that Adobe made royalty-free and published a license allowing anyone to exploit DNG.
Adobe has also stated there are no known intellectual property encumbrances nor additional license requirements for use of the DNG file type.

 

[apappas]

I appreciate everyone's help so much! And I'm buying more SD cards!

 

[Tinderbox (UK)]

Try This.

Camera Raw plug-in installer

John.

 

[wfooshee]

Adobe Camera RAW is able to work with those files, just not with CS5. The last ACR version for CS5 was 6.7. The T5i was added to ACR in version 7.4.

Adobe's DNG converter supports it, though, so you can work with DNG files, giving you the same capabilities as the CR2 files from your camera.

 

[NCspotter]

When you purchased your T5i, did it come with a CD with an editing program on it, such as the ViewNX 2 my Nikon came with? It allows me to shoot in RAW but convert the images to JPG very quickly and conveniently.

 

[KmH]

Yes.
Canon cameras come with Canon's - Digital Photo Professional (DPP) software.

 

[willMayger]

Try updating photoshop or RAW on your computer.

 

[NCspotter]

I'm not sure if your T5i has photo editing abilities on the camera (I would assume so), but I just stumbled upon this. On my D3300, when I shoot in RAW, I have to copy the files into a folder on my computer, then open ViewNX 2 and convert the RAW files to JPEG (ViewNX 2 enables you to convert every single RAW image in the specified folder to JPEG at the click of a button). However, I discovered that by editing the photos - however small the edit is - it saves a copy as a JPEG file. I'm not sure if a Canon would do the same or not, but I'm guessing so. Of course, this wouldn't be practical if you have thousands of images that need to be converted, but for one or two it might prove a little more convenient.