I have been having a nightmare of a time trying to open DNG files in Aperture 3 (trial version) and I'm wondering whether to just give up on it in favour of Lightroom or Photoshop. The raw files ...

Are you concerned about the raw photos lost from your camera? Searching for a quick guide to perform a safe raw photo recovery? This article has got you covered.

The file extension on a Nikon RAW file (.NEF) will be different from a Canon RAW file (.CR3), for example. But Adobe created an open-source digital negative format called DNG.

The resultant DNG file is then imported into Adobe Lightroom for minor adjustments before being exported into Photoshop for finishing, sizing and adding watermarks and notes.