Sony A100's RAW and CS2 - Problems - HELP!

brighteyesphotos · Mar 8, 2007

Ok, I got the Sony A100. It shoots in RAW as well as RAW/JPEG. The RAW files are uploaded as .arw files. Photoshop CS2 can't open them. I downloaded a plug-in but that didn't work. Did I skip a step in there somewhere? I installed the plug-in. Was I supposed to do something else?

The camera came with a Image Data Converter program where I can open the .ARW files and save them as jpeg or tiff. The program will allow me to do additional editing in CS2 and convert the .ARW file into tiff to allow me to edit them on cs2. I don't like tiff files.

Up to this point, I had been shooting in jpeg only. Now I'm wondering if the RAW/JPEG option would be best.

So what the heck do I do now? I got a bunch of flower pictures I had taken while messing around with my new lights and I want to open them, edit them beyond what the sony software will let me, and then share them here.

The more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to sign up for that digital color class that is supposed to be offered this summer.

Big Mike · Mar 8, 2007

Did you download and install the Camera Raw 3.5 update? That should give you the ability to open your RAW files with Photoshop.

Working with RAW files is all about workflow, especially when you have a lot of files. You can open/convert them with the supplied software, save then as TIFF or JPEG, then continue to edit them with photoshop. The ease of the workflow will largely depend on the supplied software.

I recommend looking at something like Adobe Lightroom. It is a software that is designed to mark your workflow easy. You can convert multiple RAW files easily and have them saved in TIFF, JPEG etc. so that you can continue to edit them with Photoshop, if you wish.

brighteyesphotos · Mar 8, 2007

I think I have Lightroom 1.0.

The update I downloaded was the 3.7. I'm gonna try the 3.5. Thanks!

brighteyesphotos · Mar 8, 2007

OK, stupid question here. I downloaded it, opened and unzipped it. Just how do I make sure it's installed. Opening it only sends me to CS2. Is that right? How do I make sure the plug in was installed right?