# Work Flow Question - RAW Files



## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

I am now taking all my photos in RAW format. The biggest drawback has been I can’t preview them. So to work on a file I open each one individually. When they were jpg’s I could go to a preview view and choose which one to open. 

There has to be a way to do this. 

(I use PS Elements Camera RAW as my processing software in Windows XP.)


----------



## DonaldG (Aug 23, 2007)

I had a similar problem with CS3... I'm not sure if the same applies to Elements but you may need a RAW plugin - check the adobe website.


----------



## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

Here's what I figured out.

Option 1: Buy Adobe Lightroom 
Seems like a very nice program for managing photos and does provide previews of my RAW files. Price: $300 ===> no thank you.

Option 2: From within PSE go to file>Process Multiple Files>Convert to jpg
This give me files I can preview in my windows preview editor. I can always go back and delete them if I choose to. Price: $0 ===> yeah

BTW: My version of Elements is not supported by the current RAW Camera Plug in that's available for download. :sigh:


----------



## proinwv (Nov 11, 2007)

This may be helpful or not. My Canon 450D will shoot in RAW+jpg so I get both each shot. There is more memory usage, but it is not a problem.

I then use the free Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) converter to convert my camera CR2 to a DNG and it can be manipulated there, before going to PS CS2. I just started doing this and find it super.


----------



## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

Thanks proinwv and welcome to TSF and the Photog's Corner :wave:

My older Pentax *ist does not have that feature. The method I came up with seems to work pretty smoothly. I just transfer all of the RAW files to a folder named by the date (e.g. Aug 28) under my main pictures folder, then create another directory renamed "Aug 28 jpg" and do the mass transfer into that folder. I can then preview the pics and since the individual file numbers stay the same, I can easily go back to the RAW folder and open the proper file in PS. They can also be shared on my network this way.


----------

