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Prevent DNG files in ACR

Community Beginner ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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Hi ~ After making edits to a raw image in Photoshop Camera Raw I want to save the image; perhaps to make further edits at a later time, perhaps not, but either way I do not want DNG files. How do I prevent images  from being saved as DNG files from PS camera raw?  Thank you in advance for assistance ~ 

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Adobe Employee ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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Hey @kdkclickchick

Any edits you make in Camera Raw are completely non-destructive. This means your adjustments are saved in the metadata and can be revisited or modified in Camera Raw at any time. To save your edits, simply click the down arrow in the upper-right corner.

 

Additionally, check out this insightful Live Stream recording by Terry White, where he dives into the features and workflows of Camera Raw: https://adobe.ly/42psSsf


^CM

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Community Expert ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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You can't, that's not how it works.

 

Edits to a raw file are jut stored as text instructions. You cannot overwrite a raw file, you cannot change it in any way - you can only change the accompanying text instructions. A raw file is read-only.

 

If you open that raw file from Camera Raw into Photoshop, it is no longer a raw file. Then it's been demosaiced, processed and encoded into a new RGB file, separate from the original raw file. This can obviously be resaved to any format you like.

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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Sincerely appreciate the inputs!  D Fosse...what I'm seeing throughout my online search about this is that after editing a raw image in camera raw I click 'open' and the image opens in PS and that image is a DNG file.  Then to get a jpg or tiff the DNG has be opened in PS then go to "File" > "Export" > "Export As"  and choose jpg or tiff.  Is that correct or is the information I'm getting not up-to-date? 

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Community Expert ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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It just shows DNG in the title bar because the title bar shows where the file is coming from - not where it's going, that's not known.

 

What you have open in Photoshop at this point is not a DNG. It's no longer a raw file. What you have is a copy that has been processed into an RGB file. Saving this new file (to any format you like) is independent of the original raw file. That stays unchanged in its original form.

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Community Expert ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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You can (batch) save to different file formats directly from within ACR without ever needing to render the raw file into an unsaved Photoshop document.

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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Thank you, Stephen. I do not usually edit images by the batch, but how would I save different file formats directly from ACR as you say? Can it be accomplished one image at a time?

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Community Expert ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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Yes, I put (batch) in parentheses as it works for a single active/selected file or for multiple selected files in the "filmstrip".

 

dng.png

 

It's an old screenshot repurposed from another post, forget that it shows an ORF smart object embedded layer and saving as DNG, there are many other file format options available, including some which are not available from within Photoshop itself.

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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Oh, my gosh, Stephen. I thought that was a download symbol and feared clicking it.  Hahahaha!  So what I've gathered is that DNG is not the only ACR exit file format ... Great to learn. Thank you for the smarts. 

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Community Expert ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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quote

Oh, my gosh, Stephen. I thought that was a download symbol and feared clicking it. 

 

The old 3.5" 'floppy' disk icon may be outdated, but at least people know what it means, even if they have never used such media before. The icon Adobe uses for the save options button isn't clear that it's for saving. I'm sure there are thousands of websites and discussions based around the pros/cons of using the floppy disk icon for modern interface design.

 

quote

So what I've gathered is that DNG is not the only ACR exit file format ... Great to learn. Thank you for the smarts. 


By @kdkclickchick

 

ACR is lossless, so the input file format is retained. For open DNG input, the ACR processing instructions are stored in the DNG as metadata. For proprietary third-party file formats such as CR2, NEF, ORF, etc., the Camera Raw Settings are stored in an XMP sidecar file. So there isn't an "exit file format" as such, however, the raw data can be processed or rendered into standard RGB pixel data, either as an unsaved document in Photoshop or directly saved using the "save options" button.

 

In your original post, although the file rendered into Photoshop had a .dng extension, it was't a digital negative file as they can only be opened in ACR, not Photoshop. The file was an unsaved, processed/rendered file and DNG is not a Photoshop save format.

 

If you have not seen these PDF files before, they do a great job of explaining the differences between raw and rendered data and what happens inside ACR:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/iw6u5b3m4am8r9nnodu7w/AFmuMFntWN6R50TtH1Hubwk?rlkey=i2n6khg0b9dk73exe...

 

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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D Fosse, I did not see your reply ... apologies.  So once the ACR edited image is opened in PS I can simply go to File -> Save As and choose my file type rather than the export process I explained earlier.   What is the XMP file that now appears in the original folder? If I double click that will it open in ACR as the editable image with the masks, etc edits that were already done?

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Community Expert ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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The XMP file is a sidecar file containing the edits you made to the RAW file.  This is what our Dag Fosse spoke about back up the thread.  You can't change a RAW file or overwrite it, which is also what Dag said.  You just change the contents of the sidecar file.

 

If you chose to open the edited RAW file directly into Photoshop, then as soon as you make any changes, it no long has any relationship to the original RAW file.  However, if you use the drop down and choose Open as Object it opens in Photoshop as a Smart Object.  You can double click the background layer at any time to open it back up in ACR to make further edits.  So long as you work non-destructively, which means using Adjustment Layers and avoid working with raster layers (pixel layers) that cover the entire document window, then you retain full access to the original RAW file and its greater bit depth.

 

image.png

 

I am sure you appreciate that using Filter > Camera RAW from inside Photoshop, that is not the same thing, and you are working on raster content which has less bit depth than the RAW file.  You can still do this non-destructively by making the layer a Smart Object.

 

I think I saw reference to DNG files back up the thread.  These are not the same as a Canon CR3 or Nikon NEF raw file and its XMP sidecar file. DNG store edit information internally.  You still haven't changed the original RAW file when you edit a DNG file.  If you return all settiings back to their defaults, you have exactly the full bit depth file you started with.

 

I hope that has not made it even more confusing.

 

 

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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No way to measure how much you all have taught me, given insights to and encouraged me along.

You all are the best! Thank you for the gift of your time, talent and smarts :>)

Blessings ~ 

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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This may already have been said and I still haven't 'gotten' it yet, but...I'm delighted with what I now know about saving jpg and tiff out of ACR, yet, now I wonder how do I save and how/what do I 'reopen' if, like in LR, I want to go back into the orginal editing I did to an image and adjust some of the edits?

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Community Expert ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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quote

This may already have been said and I still haven't 'gotten' it yet, but...I'm delighted with what I now know about saving jpg and tiff out of ACR, yet, now I wonder how do I save and how/what do I 'reopen' if, like in LR, I want to go back into the orginal editing I did to an image and adjust some of the edits?


By @kdkclickchick

 

If the original was a DNG (or CR2, ORF, NEF etc) – then you would open that and make whatever edits, then save a new derivative JPEG or other processed/rendered file from the original raw data which contains all of the previous processing instructions.

 

If you had processed/rendered the raw data into Photoshop, then made edits in Photoshop before saving the JPEG, then you have two choices:

 

1) Reopen and edit the previously saved JPEG or other file (understanding the pros/cons)

 

2) Process/Render the raw data into Photoshop and then manually create the Photoshop edits again and save as JPEG (presuming that you didn't record an action of the edits for that image).

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 24, 2025 Jan 24, 2025

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Have reread more carefully ... and I got it. Many thanks.

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Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2025 Jan 25, 2025

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@kdkclickchick 

I think the issue may have been confused a bit by a lot of information floating around.

 

So I just want to be absolutely unambiguous on the central point: you cannot resave or change a raw file. You can only save out separate derivative copies from the raw file.

 

That's the bottom line that everything here revolves around.

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