plugin: Adobe Camera Raw
program: Adobe Lightroom
The Problem
So, I got a new computer and installed Lightroom and imported all my photographs to get my new computer up to speed. I was able to view the images in the Library, but when I went into Develop, the viewing screen went gray/blank. This only happened with my original *.RAW/*.AWR photographs. With the JPG exports I had already created when editing the images and imported just now in a subfolder of the original photographs, they would all show up nicely without an issue.
It should be obvious that the *.RAW / *.AWR or whatever proprietary RAW file format your camera makes wasn’t recognized in Lightroom. Obviously this is an issue for most photographers since photographing in RAW is essential for maximum colorspace to be captured.
The Solution
Adobe has a program called Camera Raw. Download can be gathered here. It is a plugin for most of the Adobe suite that provides support for RAW files from your camera.
“Raw files contain the most complete, uncompressed image data but in a form that is not directly usable and must be processed.” ~ Borrow Lenses
Take special note of the note at the top:
For older Adobe applications, substitute with the Camera Raw 10.5 installer below.
There are pretty clear steps on the Adobe site and which installer you should choose there.
Hope this helps!