Photoshop Elements incompatiblility?
October 22, 2014 8:29 PM Subscribe
Photoshop Elements 8 will not import RAW files from my (new) camera, a Nikon D7100. The error message states that they are the wrong type of file. The same file type is imported without trouble from the unit it replaces (Nikon D40). What is causing this?
Response by poster: How do I go about doing that? Would it be simplest to install the newest version of Elements?
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 9:00 PM on October 22, 2014
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 9:00 PM on October 22, 2014
Best answer: Actually I think I'm wrong in that Elements 8 isn't compatible with ACR 7.4 (which apparently needs Photoshop Elements 11).
Yeah, if you can just get the latest Photoshop Elements, that will include an updated raw support too.
I think you CAN download the DNG Converter and manually convert your raw files to Adobe's DNG format, and open those with your old Photoshop Elements 8, but that just sounds like a hassle.
posted by aubilenon at 9:19 PM on October 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
Yeah, if you can just get the latest Photoshop Elements, that will include an updated raw support too.
I think you CAN download the DNG Converter and manually convert your raw files to Adobe's DNG format, and open those with your old Photoshop Elements 8, but that just sounds like a hassle.
posted by aubilenon at 9:19 PM on October 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
The bottom line for what's going on here is that RAW is not really a single file format. It's basically the raw data from the camera's sensor, and different cameras have different sensors. The overall structure of the file format is probably very similar between your two cameras, but if the software doesn't understand understand stuff like the pixel arrangement, color sensitivity, white balance settings, contrast curves, etc, it's not going to be able to give you results that look at all reasonable.
posted by aubilenon at 9:25 PM on October 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by aubilenon at 9:25 PM on October 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
This is an age old grumble with Adobe not so gently encouraging you to update to a newer version of Elements.
There's a compatibility chart here along with links to DNG converter.
The software that came with your camera should also be able to convert your RAW file into a lossless format like TIF which might serve better for archival purposes in the long term and will be read by pretty much anything.
posted by brilliantmistake at 9:41 PM on October 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
There's a compatibility chart here along with links to DNG converter.
The software that came with your camera should also be able to convert your RAW file into a lossless format like TIF which might serve better for archival purposes in the long term and will be read by pretty much anything.
posted by brilliantmistake at 9:41 PM on October 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
Audiblenon is correct. The Raw format is more or less singular to each camera, so ACR has to be updated for every camera it supports, so you need to update ACR. Your camera should have come with it's own conversion software, too, so you can probably use that to convert to tiff or jpeg and then take that into PSE.
posted by doctor_negative at 9:45 PM on October 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by doctor_negative at 9:45 PM on October 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
D7000 and 7100 owner. Really just here to reiterate what aubilenon, brilliantmistake and doctor_negative have said.
The .NEFs from the 7000 and the 7100 are different enough that those from the 7100 broke Nikon's own import software (It's ViewNX2 for both the 7000 and the 7100 - in different versions).
Yet Nikon continued handing out the older version of ViewNX2 on the DVDs that came with 7100s sold until at least January or February this year.
So.. either update Elements or import using an up to date version of ViewNX2 from Nikon's website and convert to TIFF. It's free, and it's worth using for the proprietary high ISO denoise if nothing else.
If you really don't want to update anything, something else worth trying (has worked on a Linux workflow for me, but I doubt it'll work with Elements) is to import using ViewNX2 and then save as .NEF. The output .NEF's seem to be something slightly different again and are more readily accepted by other software.
Make sure the version of ViewNX2 you get is compatible with your OS.
posted by Ahab at 1:11 AM on October 23, 2014
The .NEFs from the 7000 and the 7100 are different enough that those from the 7100 broke Nikon's own import software (It's ViewNX2 for both the 7000 and the 7100 - in different versions).
Yet Nikon continued handing out the older version of ViewNX2 on the DVDs that came with 7100s sold until at least January or February this year.
So.. either update Elements or import using an up to date version of ViewNX2 from Nikon's website and convert to TIFF. It's free, and it's worth using for the proprietary high ISO denoise if nothing else.
If you really don't want to update anything, something else worth trying (has worked on a Linux workflow for me, but I doubt it'll work with Elements) is to import using ViewNX2 and then save as .NEF. The output .NEF's seem to be something slightly different again and are more readily accepted by other software.
Make sure the version of ViewNX2 you get is compatible with your OS.
posted by Ahab at 1:11 AM on October 23, 2014
Response by poster: OK, I don't mind updating - I'll pop out and get PSE 13. Thank you, everyone!
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 7:11 AM on October 23, 2014
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 7:11 AM on October 23, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by aubilenon at 8:42 PM on October 22, 2014