A NEF file I've worked on in adobe rgb raw has dissapeared after I pressed 'Done' ! All I can find are two blank files - one being an ACR file which I cannot open anywhere ! Can anyone help please?
Can you post a screenshot of how these two files look in Windows Explorer or Bridge? Do you have file extensions visible in Windows, so that it's possible to see what file type? If not, turn it on under "View" in Windows Explorer.
It sounds like maybe file associations for .NEF are broken. This is also fixed in Windows.
Raw files that use sidecars - like NEF - are never written to by ACR. All adjustments are stored in the sidecar .xmp file. ACR never touches the original raw file, it just reads the content.
Hi. Thank you for your speedy reply. I have been travelling - apologies for the tardy reply. Yes I have the extensions visible. They are .acr and .xmp. The .acr file has a defaulf LRC icon on the file and the .xmp has a default PS. When I click on the xmp it brings me to the PS homepage but nothing happens. Thank you. D
The .XMP file is a text file with development instructions. You can view the content in a text editor. The .acr file is also a sidecar file and contains masking information from Adobe Camera Raw.
ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
Clicking on an XMP file or the ACR file is not expected to do anything. To open the raw image file click on the NEF file that is stored with them. That should open Photoshop with Adobe Camer Raw which will then use the information in teh ACR and XMP files to 'develop' the raw file.
So you should have the unaltered NEF and alongside an XMP and ACR file which tell Adobe Camera Raw how to process teh information in the NEF.
If clicking on the NEF does not open it in Photoshop, then right click it and choose Open With and select Photoshop - then click Always.
Hi Dave. Thank you. I understand now. Only thing is that when I right click on the NEF and open and choose 'regular' photoshop 2023 it automatically opens in Adobe RGB. I just want to give the image a general clean up in PS and save as a NEF. Thank you.
I'm going to assume you mean the file automatically opens in Adobe Camera Raw (not that it opens in "Adobe RGB", which is a color space and not a problem at all).
And that's how it has to be. Photoshop cannot open, process or save raw files. It's a file structure Photoshop doesn't understand.
So that's why we have the Camera Raw plugin. It can open and process raw files, and then it encodes that into a rendered RGB file that Photoshop can understand. At this point, it is no longer a raw file, but an RGB file.
An original raw file cannot be overwritten under any circumstances. It is strictly read-only. You can open it, process it, and save it as an RGB file, but you cannot save over the original raw.
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