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Image Conversion

Convert DPX to PSD — Free Online Converter

Convert Digital Picture Exchange (.dpx) to Photoshop Document (.psd) online for free. Fast, secure image conversion with no watermarks or registration...

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How to Convert

1

Upload your .dpx file by dragging it into the upload area or clicking to browse.

2

Choose your output settings. The default settings work great for most files.

3

Click Convert and download your .psd file when it's ready.

About DPX to PSD Conversion

DPX (Digital Picture Exchange) is the SMPTE 268M cinema standard for film scanning and VFX, storing 10-bit or 16-bit per channel imagery with logarithmic color encoding, extensive metadata headers, and frame sequence support. DPX is native to Nuke, Flame, DaVinci Resolve, and Baselight. PSD (Photoshop Document) is Adobe's layered image format, the standard for detailed image retouching, compositing, and finishing in Photoshop.

Converting DPX to PSD creates editable Photoshop documents from cinema-grade frame data. This conversion enables detailed retouching work that VFX compositing applications are not optimized for — beauty retouching on film stills, poster art creation, book cover design, and promotional material finishing. PSD's extensive layer, mask, and adjustment layer capabilities provide a different editing paradigm than node-based VFX tools.

Why Convert DPX to PSD?

Film productions routinely need Photoshop work on DPX-sourced stills. Movie poster creation starts with DPX key frames that are retouched, composited with typography, and finished in Photoshop. Key art for streaming platforms, Blu-ray covers, and press materials all require Photoshop editing of film-originated images. PSD's layer-based workflow excels at the detailed compositing, color manipulation, and typography integration that poster and key art demand.

Beauty retouching on film frames — for promotional stills, actor headshots from film footage, and magazine features — is almost exclusively done in Photoshop. Converting DPX frames to PSD provides the high-quality starting point for frequency separation, dodge-and-burn, and color grading techniques that Photoshop's tools are specifically designed for.

Common Use Cases

  • Create movie poster art from DPX key frames in Photoshop with layered compositing and typography
  • Perform beauty retouching on DPX film stills for press kits and magazine features
  • Design streaming platform key art and thumbnails from DPX graded frames in Photoshop
  • Produce Blu-ray and DVD cover art from DPX source frames with Photoshop finishing
  • Create high-resolution marketing materials by combining DPX film stills with graphic elements in PSD

How It Works

The DPX file is decoded with log-to-linear color space conversion. For 16-bit PSD output, the conversion preserves maximum tonal range from the DPX source. For 8-bit output, standard tone-mapping is applied. ImageMagick creates a PSD file with the converted image as a single background layer in RGB color mode. The PSD conforms to Adobe Photoshop 3.0 specification. Canvas dimensions match the source DPX resolution (typically 2048x1556 for 2K Academy, 4096x3112 for 4K). The file is ready for immediate editing in Photoshop with additional layers.

Quality & Performance

At 16-bit mode, the PSD retains significantly more tonal range than 8-bit, preserving subtle gradations in shadows, highlights, and skin tones essential for beauty retouching and color work. The log-to-linear conversion quality depends on the LUT used. PSD's lossless internal storage ensures no additional quality loss during editing — Photoshop saves without recompressing the pixel data. The full 2K or 4K spatial resolution is maintained for large-format output.

SHARP EngineFastMinimal Quality Loss

Device Compatibility

DeviceDPXPSD
Windows PCPartialPartial
macOSPartialPartial
iPhone/iPadPartialPartial
AndroidPartialPartial
LinuxPartialPartial
Web BrowserNoNo

Tips for Best Results

  • 1Use 16-bit PSD for beauty retouching to prevent banding during aggressive color adjustments
  • 2Apply your show LUT before conversion for color-accurate starting material in Photoshop
  • 3Set Photoshop's color profile to sRGB or your production's working space when opening the converted file
  • 4For poster art, work at full 4K resolution and downscale only for the final delivery format
  • 5Save incremental PSD versions during complex editing to maintain a recoverable work history

DPX to PSD conversion enables Photoshop-based finishing workflows on cinema-grade source material. The output provides the highest-quality starting point for poster art, beauty retouching, and marketing material creation from film-originated images.

Frequently Asked Questions

16-bit for beauty retouching and color-critical work — it prevents banding during aggressive color adjustments. 8-bit for general editing and smaller file sizes.
PSD can store linear or sRGB data but not logarithmic Cineon encoding. The conversion applies log-to-linear transformation. Work in Photoshop's linear light mode if you need to maintain a linear pipeline.
4K 8-bit PSD: 40-60 MB. 4K 16-bit PSD: 80-120 MB. With multiple editing layers added during work, files can grow to several hundred MB.
You can export from Photoshop back to DPX, but the color space has already been converted from log to linear. True round-tripping requires careful color management.
Nuke excels at VFX compositing (tracking, keying, 3D). Photoshop excels at retouching, typography, and detailed pixel manipulation. Use each for its strengths — convert DPX to PSD when the task is Photoshop-native work.

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