How Can I Import CR2 into Premiere Pro CC?

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
January 29, 2014
4 replies
35311 views

Hi, I have quite a lot of CR2 files that I'd like to import into a Premiere project. It's telling me that the file format is not supported. Is there a good workaround or plug in that anybody could recommend? I'm a little bit of a novice as Premiere is concerned. Any help would be terrific!

Thank you.

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the_wine_snob

Inspiring

Welcome to the forum.

Depending on which Canon camera is shooting the CR2's (those change with the model of camera), and depending on the version of the ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) module one has installed, then Photoshop, LightRoom, or Photoshop Elements, should be able to Open the CR2's, and Save_As (either with, or without processing - though I always do some processing). Jim's suggestion for PNG is a good one. In my workflow, I just stick with PSD's, as I often have many different uses for the files, beyond Video.

Now, Adobe updates the ACR modules, with some frequency, so if your specific Canon is not supported with the latest ACR, it soon will be added. Also, at points in the development of the ACR modules, Adobe will no longer be able to write the modules for older versions of Ps, PsE or LR, so one might have to upgrade the host program. An alternative to the Adobe programs would be the Image editor supplied with the Canon camera, as it should be able to Open the CR2 files, and then Save_As, to a format that PrPro can use. There ought to be a program with a name like EOS Utility, on the utility disc, that came with the camera.

Good luck,

Hunt

PS - as an interesting sidenote, Premiere Elements does allow for the use of ACR modules, and if those are updated, will allow direct Import of the CR2's, or NEF's (Nikon Camera RAW), or similar - so long as the most recent ACR module includes support for that particular version of Camer RAW.

Steven L. Gotz

Inspiring

My RW2 files from the Panasonic come out a little flat, as I imagine the Canon and Nikon files do. That is one reason why managing your images with Lightroom is so handy.

I get that people want to take them directly into Premiere Pro, I just don't get why.

First of all, they are usually way to big for a normal sequence for even a Blu-ray. I understand if you want to pan around them, but if not, setting them up in Lightroom or Photoshop really helps Premiere Pro fly a lot faster.

Besides, Lightroom or Photoshop allow you to work on parts of a photo, whereas doing that in Premiere Pro would take multiple layers.

artofzootography.com

A

Anonymous

There are several options for bringing RAW into PrPro:

1. As Jim pointed out, you can open them up in Photoshop (or Lightroom) and save in your preferred format, be it PSD, TIFF, JPEG or PNG. Keep in mind that PrPro is not colour manageable application, hence you need to make sure your exported files are in sRGB colour space.

2. Instead of Photoshop or Lightroom you can import your CR2 files into After Effects - very handy especially if you're planning to do some compositing or animation. Then you can bring your compositions into PrPro via Dynamic Link or export digital intermediates out of AE and import those DIs into PrPro.

3. Convert CR2 to DNG via Adobe DNG Converter. I didn't test that, 'cos I'm on CS5.5, but I for some reason think that it should work.

4. Use Ginger HDR plug-in. Besides being able to import a lot of various RAW formats natively (the rest can be converted to DNG), it provides very fast playback - real time with Playback Resolution set to 1/2 on 5 years old machine, which is not quite powerful by today's standards.

Ann Bens

Community Expert

I have heard Camera Raw is coming to PPCC in the very near future.

A

Anonymous

That would be nice! I've been hoping Adobe did not discard all the hard work Adobe Labs had invested into developing first CinemaDNG importer, which was based on Camera RAW.

E

excited_Genie16B8

Legend

The only way I know is to open them up in Photoshop first and save them out in a format PP can read. I prefer PNG for such things. They're lossless and fairly small compared to other lossless formats.