Transfering imaghes: I have a IMac and have a remote Hard drive in which i'm transferring files from it to my hard drive as a back up. The files in "Photos are NEF files" when I copy...

supercub

I have a IMac and have a remote Hard drive in which i'm transferring files from it to my hard drive as a back up. The files in "Photos are NEF files" when I copy them to the hard drive by dragging them to the external drive they are no longer NEF files but somehow are converted to JPEG files. I would like to edit some of them in LR classic. Should I not worry that they are not in the original format? Is this something to be concerned with?

I also have a external back up drive connected to the Imac and have back ups using time machine.

I have spent days organizing my photos and did not notice that the format of my photos changed on the secondary drive

Hope this all makes sense.

chevman Loc: Matthews, North Carolina

Just copy and paste them from one drive to the other. they should stay in the same format. I’ve had Macs since 2005 and have no trouble transferring photo files by the copy and paste method. You will have to open your Photos from the location on the hard drive right click the so you can access the file folders within the application. find the folder you want and copy it then pasre it where you want to move it.

tomcat

supercub wrote:

I have a IMac and have a remote Hard drive in whic... (show quote)

I've never heard of a copying method that will change an nef file to a jpeg file. Do you have this pre-programmed in somewhere? I have copied hundreds of thousands of images from my desktop to an external HD and never had this happen. Maybe I don't exactly understand what you are saying?

supercub

Have not done anything other than drag them from imac -pictures to my seagate 1 Tb drive. In pictures folder there were two copies of the same picture one NEF file and one Jpeg. I deleted the jpeg file and dragged the NEF file to my Seagate drive.

tomcat

supercub wrote:

Have not done anything other than drag them from imac -pictures to my seagate 1 Tb drive. In pictures folder there were two copies of the same picture one NEF file and one Jpeg. I deleted the jpeg file and dragged the NEF file to my Seagate drive.

Or maybe you didn't??

supercub

Just double checked and dragged NEF file from IMac photos to my seagate drive. It left as a jpeg and loaded on drive as jpeg. I would not have a clue on how to change these files if you gave me a million dollars i could not do it.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

tomcat wrote:

I've never heard of a copying method that will change an nef file to a jpeg file. Do you have this pre-programmed in somewhere? I have copied hundreds of thousands of images from my desktop to an external HD and never had this happen. Maybe I don't exactly understand what you are saying?

Using Irfanview (Windows), I can do a batch operation that will change from one format to another, but that doesn't include copying the files. Maybe the OP is using a program or setting that changes the format when it copies files.

I didn't read this whole article, but it might help.

https://www.themuse.com/advice/copy-paste-same-formatting-trick-how-to-do-it

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

I too have been using Macs for ages and never seen such a thing happen. I use Carbon Copy Cloner. Not sure why you would manually drag and drop files or copy and paste with all of the backup software out there.
Maybe I’m missing something?

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

supercub wrote:

I have a IMac and have a remote Hard drive in whic... (show quote)

I believe what you have done is dragged images directly out of your Photos application window to the external drive's "Finder" window. I just tried that and got the same result; I imported a raw file into Photos and then from the Photos window selected it and dragged it to my desktop and - voila - it was a JPEG. No doubt Photos does this automatically "for your convenience"; perhaps the thinking is that if you are dragging an image out of Photos it is for the purpose of sharing it and nobody else needs to see the raw file.

No matter - the point is what you were doing is the wrong way to go about the task. Forget about using the Photos program to back things up - just open the original window in Finder and select the image files (raw, JPEG, TIFF or whatever format they may be) and drag those over to the Finder window on the external disk.

ColonelButler Loc: Niagara-on-the-Lake ON Canada

You should consider an automatic back up program to clone your photo files to your external backup drive if this is how you want to implement your scheme (I would also recommend cloud backup of your external drive). I have been using SuperDuper successfully for four years. If you are running a mac, are you also backing up these files with TimeMachine?

JohnR Loc: The Gates of Hell

supercub wrote:

I have a IMac and have a remote Hard drive in whic... (show quote)

It sounds like you are dragging the files from within a Photos app to your backup drive ? You need to find the original NEF files in Finder and then drag the to your drive. Don't have them opened in Photos or other software as that is showing them as jpegs.

chevman Loc: Matthews, North Carolina

The best policy would be to never directly import your photos into Apple photos. Do your own file system the way you’d like it then just add the photos you wish to have in Apple Photos leaving them in their original location where you put them in the first place. I do this with Adobe Lightroom also. That way you are most likely not to loose them in the mess. The same thing with music files and movie files. Do your own filing don’t let some programer do it for you. Then when you want to move something or duplicate it for whatever reason you have full control. For example; on a Mac in the pictures library create a new folder and name it or date it so you know what it is and then put your raw photo files in them. I do mine by date mostly, although some are by name, and I know exactly where to find them. I have these files duplicated on multiple hard drives and multiple computers.

chevman Loc: Matthews, North Carolina

chevman wrote:

The best policy would be to never directly import ... (show quote)

Change where your files are stored in Photos on Mac

When you import photos and videos into Photos, theyʼre copied to the Photos library in the Pictures folder. If you prefer, you can store photos and videos outside the Photos library (for example, in a folder on your Mac or on an external drive) and still view them in Photos. Files stored outside your library are called referenced files.

Referenced files arenʼt automatically uploaded and stored in iCloud, and they arenʼt backed up along with the rest of your files when you back up your photo library—you must back them up manually. To avoid manually backing up referenced files, you can move or consolidate the files into your library.

Store imported files outside the Photos library

G. In the Photos app

on your Mac, choose Photos > Preferences, then click General.

J. Deselect the “Copy items to the Photos library” checkbox.

Now, when you import photos or video, Photos leaves the files in their original location and accesses them as referenced files.

supercub

Thanks I think you nailed it. That is exactly what i have been doing. Long story short to all I am selectively copying my good to what I think are my best photos. I have been shooting since 1964 and am trying to cull out my photos. So far I am just doing my digital files from the first digital days. I bought my first film camera a Yashika back when I was in Viet Nam and ended up with a Cannon AE-1 and finally went digital.I have thousands of photos to go thru. I left the IMac world and am back to a PC. As usual nothing is easy.
Anyway thanks for the help