Photoshop CS RAW plugin

[chorleyjeff]

Is there a plugin for CS? If so where can I get it? Googling has not found me anything and the Adobe and Sony sites are not helpful in this respect.
I know CS3 supports Sony Alpha RAW but money is tight!
Cheers
Jeff

[01af]

Is there a plugin for CS?

Yes, there is. It's called Adobe Camera Raw 2.4 (ACR for short). The version 2.4 is the latest Photoshop CS can use; later versions are for CS2 or CS3 only. You can download it for free from Adobe's website.

I know CS3 supports Sony Alpha Raw but money is tight!

CS2 does, too. If you must get along with CS then download the latest Adobe DNG Converter (which currently is 4.1) from Adobe's website. It's free, too. It comes bundled with ACR 4.1. Throw away ACR 4.1; you cannot use it with Photoshop CS. Use the DNG Converter (which is a stand-alone program) to convert your ARW files into DNG files. DNG files are still raw but in a standardised format. Then you can open and process the DNG files with Photoshop CS and ACR 2.4.

ACR 2.4 cannot process Sony's ARW files directly, but it can process DNG files created from ARW files.

If you have a legit copy of Photoshop 7.0, CS, or CS2 then you are entitled to upgrade to CS3 at reduced cost. You won't really need Photoshop CS3 but along with it come two goodies that are worth the upgrade cost: Bridge CS3 and ACR 4.1. Bridge replaces and extends Photoshop CS's file browser, and ACR 4.1 is much improved upon ACR 2.4 but can be used only with Photoshop CS3 or Photoshop Elements 5.0.

-- Olaf

[David Kilpatrick]

You can also just use Elements (fairly low cost) for conversion, and then go back to CS for main editing.

Here is a great and little-known raw editing program which is A100 compatible - LightZone. It's on a free 30-day trial download and it looks as good as LightRoom or Aperture, plus many editing features and superb image quality. It will not size images above the native camera resolution:

http://www.lightcrafts.com/

About the best-kept secret for a high profile venture funded software company I have ever come across, thanks to an email they sent to Eric Hyman at Bibble, which he accidentally forwarded to his press review contacts. Talk about shooting in foot...

David

[chorleyjeff]

O1af
many thanks for your advice which I have now sussed out how to apply.
I can now work on RAW files in CS - brilliant.
Cheers
Jeff