Can’t edit Raw files in Photos

[jparkyn]

Hi – I am probably doing something wrong but I have followed instructions and, for some reason, I am unable to edit Raw files in the Photos extension in MacOS.

I’m on Big Sur 11.5.2, Raw Power 3.3.4

Files are from a Panasonic LUMIX S5, which doesn’t currently have native macOS Raw support – I bought Raw Power because of its extended macOS support.

If I open a JPEG + RAW file in Photos and click Edit > … > Raw Power, the Raw Power extension loads, but I see the yellow triangle and there are no Raw Processing tools available.

If I right-click the photo, I cannot select Revert To Original – this is greyed out.

If I right-click the photo and select ‘Use Raw as Original’ then I get a popup saying ‘Switching RAW/JPG masters’ but nothing happens – Photos becomes unresponsive and I have to force quit the app.

I can, however, open and edit Raw images within the Raw Power standalone app.

Is there any way that I can fix the problem with Apple Photos – I would like to be able to edit/process Raw photos via the Photos app, if possible.

Many thanks in advance.

[Nik Bhatt]

I recall seeing a bug with Photos and switching between R+J when the RAW is unsupported. It definitely used to work, but it may hang now. That’s a Photos bug (the extension isn’t loaded, so it cannot be the extension causing the problem).

The key thing to know is that the extension is very restricted in what it can do. It can only edit the image that Photos gives it. In the case of R+J, it edits one or the other depending on the Use RAW Original or Use JPEG Original setting. The extension _cannot_ switch to the RAW on its own (there is no facility for that).

If you are set to JPEG+RAW (that is, viewing the JPEG), then that’s what Photos sends to the extension (only). If you switch to RAW, then it gets that (assuming you have not edited the image in Photos or another extension already).

You might have better luck if you switch to RAW before entering edit, but I don’t know for sure (I’m not at my computer to test this myself).

The standalone app has full access to both the R+J so it can edit either half of the pair as needed.

[jparkyn]

Ok – thanks for taking the time to look into that for me, Nik.

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