Today’s Question: I process all my RAW files to DNG when I download them. I would like to revert some of my old files to the original DNG without edits. How do I do I revert the file?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You can revert the DNG to the original default settings by using the Reset option in either the Develop module in Lightroom Classic or in Camera Raw if using Photoshop. Also, as long as you had enabled the option to embed the original raw capture in the DNG file, you can extract the original raw capture using the Adobe DNG Converter.
More Detail: An Adobe DNG file behaves essentially the same as any other raw capture format, in terms of being able to apply adjustments with software such as Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw (in Photoshop). With raw processing software you can reset the settings back to the defaults. In Lightroom Classic you can reset the adjustment settings by clicking the Reset button at the bottom of the right panel in the Develop module. In Camera Raw you can hold the Alt key on Windows or the Option key on Macintosh, which will cause the Cancel button to change to a Reset button. Simply click the Cancel button while holding the Alt/Option button to reset the adjustment settings.
If you embedded the original raw capture in the DNG upon conversion to DNG, you can also extract that original raw image, which won’t have any adjustments applied to it. The free Adobe DNG Converter software can be used to extract the embedded raw capture.
After launching the Adobe DNG Converter, click the Extract button at the bottom-center. In the dialog that appears first select the folder containing the images you want to extract the raw captures from in section one. Then select the destination folder for the raw captures in section two. Click the Extract button to process the images, extracting the raw captures to the designated folder.
You can download the free Adobe DNG Converter from the Adobe website here:
https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/using/adobe-dng-converter.html
