How Apple Photos handles RAW files: When Photos imports RAW files from my camera it renames the files as a JPEG but doesn't convert them. When I export to Luminar my editing software...

eadler

When Photos imports RAW files from my camera it renames the files as a JPEG but doesn't convert them. When I export to Luminar my editing software it sees the file as a JPEG rather than the RAW which in reality it is and the edit proceeds as a JPEG edit. Anybody have an answer other than using Luminar as an extension within Luminar

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

eadler wrote:

When Photos imports RAW files from my camera it renames the files as a JPEG but doesn't convert them. When I export to Luminar my editing software it sees the file as a JPEG rather than the RAW which in reality it is and the edit proceeds as a JPEG edit. Anybody have an answer other than using Luminar as an extension within Luminar

Are you sure about all those details? It all sounds annoying. Adobe products seem to work flawlessly on my Dell Win 10 PC.

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

eadler wrote:

When Photos imports RAW files from my camera it renames the files as a JPEG but doesn't convert them. When I export to Luminar my editing software it sees the file as a JPEG rather than the RAW which in reality it is and the edit proceeds as a JPEG edit. Anybody have an answer other than using Luminar as an extension within Luminar

I cannot duplicate your situation. If I import a NEF (raw) file into photos, then export the original, it's still a NEF. If I edit in Photos, then export to Luminar for more editing, I must choose a different format (e.g. JPEG). I suspect that Photos does not create an XMP file for changes to the RAW file.

eadler

The Luminar help desk responded by saying that the way Photos works. I'm going to reach out to Applecare to see how they respond

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

eadler wrote:

When Photos imports RAW files from my camera it renames the files as a JPEG but doesn't convert them. When I export to Luminar my editing software it sees the file as a JPEG rather than the RAW which in reality it is and the edit proceeds as a JPEG edit. Anybody have an answer other than using Luminar as an extension within Luminar

Sorry to disappoint, but renaming a file does not change the contents... raw is raw....JPG is JPG.... all raws contain several JPG previews. The data is arranged according to the standard definition for the file, so changing the extension does not convert the contents.

A raw file, even if renamed with a JPG extension, will not be opened and displayed in a viewer that cannot read the contents and decode it properly.

What I suspect you may be seeing is that Photos imports your raw files, and CREATES jpg versions of the raw file. Your original raw file is still there hiding under the covers somewhere within the photos database structure.

The screen shot below displays what can be found by looking into the photos library in Finder - you will need to right click on the library file and select "show package contents" to get into the file structure contained in the package file....

Examine carefully, don't change things you do not understand ;)

(Download)

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

eadler wrote:

When Photos imports RAW files from my camera it renames the files as a JPEG but doesn't convert them. When I export to Luminar my editing software it sees the file as a JPEG rather than the RAW which in reality it is and the edit proceeds as a JPEG edit. Anybody have an answer other than using Luminar as an extension within Luminar

One of the drawbacks to Photos is there really is no easy way to add an external editor to it, unless the editor has hooks into Photos, but since the MacOS has its own raw engine built into the OS Photos can deal with raw images and allow basic editing within Photos, but you can add a plugin to Photos that gives you access to more controls using Apple's raw engine, making Photos more Aperture like....It might be worth your time to take a look at it.

https://gentlemencoders.com/raw-power-for-macos/

eadler

You are correct. Photos does not change the RAW file to JPEG. What it does is label it JPEG. When Luminar imports that file that's what it "sees" and the edit is a JPEG edit.
An advisor on Applecare came up with a work around. More steps but Luminar gets a RAW file to edit.
1. Import photos to Image Capture rather that Photos
2. Move those file to a folder say on the desktop
3. Use Luminar to import the files for edit.
4. After editing export the file to a folder of your choice

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

After you have clicked "Edit" in Photos, select "Use RAW as original" under the Image menu. When you close the edit session, the thumbnail will now show "R" on the stack instead of "J", and the raw version will open the next time you edit that photo.

Gregorian Loc: Georgetown, Ky

Sorry should have been a “quote reply” (see quote reply to Dngallagher)

Gregorian Loc: Georgetown, Ky

Dngallagher wrote:

One of the drawbacks to Photos is there really is ... (show quote)

What a great app for $4.95! Thanks Dngallagher for sharing. Raw Power app is very powerful and easy to use. I use the Raw app “Manual” for my iPhone 7+ and take photos on my iPhone when I don’t have my camera with me. I also edit my photos on my 10.5 iPad Pro using Afinity for iPad, when I don’t have my MacBook Pro handy. The fact that it saves the photo back into photos on the cloud is so convient. No importing and exporting from the cloud.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

One way of telling is to check the file size. My camera manual claims the pixel depth to be 14 bits, so a 6,000 pixel by 4,000 pixel image should be 6000x4000x14/8 bytes in size. The 42 MB is actually the minimum file size as the file header contain other information. Any file size that is less than the calculated minimum can not be a RAW file.

leftj Loc: Texas

eadler wrote:

When Photos imports RAW files from my camera it renames the files as a JPEG but doesn't convert them. When I export to Luminar my editing software it sees the file as a JPEG rather than the RAW which in reality it is and the edit proceeds as a JPEG edit. Anybody have an answer other than using Luminar as an extension within Luminar

You have a problem. I load my files into Photos and the filename indicates they are RAW files. I also edit with Luminar and Luminar also treats them as RAW files.

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

leftj wrote:

You have a problem. I load my files into Photos and the filename indicates they are RAW files. I also edit with Luminar and Luminar also treats them as RAW files.

Agree. Same here.

eadler

Applecare came up with a work around which solved my problem. Rather than import images to Photos I use image capture

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

eadler wrote:

Applecare came up with a work around which solved my problem. Rather than import images to Photos I use image capture

The "Image Capture" app is a very handy app to import pics from several sources including cameras, media cards, iPhones, etc. It's included free with every Mac OS.