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I have a question regarding the handling of RAW Files by Apples Photos and Nitro. I’m using an M4 Mac mini running OS 26.5, and Photos 11. I’ve been shooting RAW files with a Nikon Z5 which has a Monochrome picture control applied to the RAW File. I notice when I import the RAW Images into Photos, the first thing I see is the colored RAW file thumbnail which eventually switches to the monochrome image. However not all the RAW files switch over to monochrome (or any of the other picture controls I might use). Since Nitro uses the Photos Library, it displays what is seen in Photos…most but not all of the RAW files display as monochrome, some remain as the color RAW version. If a RAW file remains colored in Photos, the same file is displayed as color in Nitro. Any one else see this behavior? Could it be a bad SD card? Is there any reason why all the files aren’t displayed as Black&White?
I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask such a question.
Ed
This sounds reversed from the behavior I would expect. If you set the camera to Monochrome, the thumbnail should be monochrome. Then when you open it in Nitro or Photos (or Preview), the image should revert to color. That’s because, in general, Apple does not attempt to apply picture styles / picture controls to raw images.
I suggest this test:
Shoot an image with monochrome
Connect the camera or the card to the Mac, but don’t import into Photos
Instead, copy the image(s) to the desktop.
Look at the thumbnails – they should be monochrome, and if you open them in Preview they should be color.Thanks for your reply and suggestion. Just as you said, I copied a RAW file from an SD Card to my desktop. The thumbnail for that file is in Black and White. Opening that file in Preview shows a color image. What I see immediately after importing RAW files into Photos, all the images appear first in color. Then it appears they are processed somehow and turn to Black and White, as if Photos applies some processing to the RAW File in order to display the images in Black and White. This doesn’t happen to every file, some remain as the color version. I thought I understood all about RAW files. Oh, one other thing… I noticed that when I look at these RAW files in Nitro, they are displayed in Black and White, if they are displayed as Black and White in Photos. When I go to edit these files, the RAW file displayed is in color as soon as I hit the edit button. I just want to be sure things are working as they should.
Thank you for your patience.
EdIt sounds a bit weird. When you enter edit, if the image is color, then that is correct behavior (and matches Preview). If the images are black and white outside of edit, then that also makes sense, if Photos is just using the embedded JPEG. Starting in color and going to BW and then going to color again is weird. That’s harder to explain unless the camera is being inconsistent about what thumbnails it’s writing (there are usually two or three thumbnails in the RAW).
Hi Nik,
What you describe is exactly what I see. Once I begin to edit a photo whether in Photos or in Nitro, I see the original color RAW File, and that matches what I see in Preview. I think things are working correctly. Whatever tag Photos uses to create a B&W thumbnail from the RAW just doesn’t get applied to each RAW file imported. At least all the RAW’s are intact an untouched, which is the important thing. For awhile it looked to me that I couldn’t get back the original RAW files.
Thanks again for your help.
Ed
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