RAW/JPEG Pairs

[BobKresek]

Nick,

I love the new 3.0 version, but have a few question on how it handles RAW/JPEG pairs in a Photos Library.

I assume when I edit a Pair in RAW Power that I am editing the RAW version, which is the opposite of Photos where the JPEG is the default?

Is there anyway to separate the RAW and JPEG versions in RAW Power, and to edit the JPEG version?

Lastly, when I do a Batch Auto Enhance, is RAW Power enhancing both the JPEG and RAW versions of each pair, or just the RAW (I assume with JPEG only photos, that RAW Power does enhance the JPEG)?

Please correct any bad assumptions and let me know any other advice you might have on handling Pairs.

Thanks,
Bob

[Nik Bhatt]

Hi Bob,

Glad you love the new version.

As you have found, R+J is not handled consistently through the ecosystem. Most apps (like Photos) edit the JPEG. RAW Power chooses to edit the RAW. There isn’t a way to edit the JPEG version right now. I plan to add a control to let people decide (this has always been true, but many people have suddenly started asking this same question). It’s technically possible to split the R+J apart, but it’s complicated to do it correctly because the only real way to do it is to import a new RAW and new JPEG asset and then delete the old one.

Batch Processing follows the same rule – it edits the RAW only. That’s one of the complications of offering an R+J switch. Batch Processing would either need to prompt or use a preference. However, I don’t know if either is a good solution.

[BobKresek]

Thanks Nik. When I edit a Pair in RAW Power, I notice that the thumbnail Icon in Photos shows that I am viewing a JPEG. Is RAW Power editing the RAW and then replacing the original JPEG with a modified JPEG, or is Photos just displaying the last Icon it used?

I also notice that when I modify a photo in RAW Power the controls in Photos to Use JPEG or Use RAW as the original (and change the Icon of the photo I am looking at from R to J, or visa versa) seem to stop working. The only way I can get those controls to start working again is to Revert to Original and then I can switch back and forth between R and J again. How do I tell what I am looking at back in Photos when I modify something in RAW Power?

Maybe I just need to shoot in all RAW or JPEG rather than pairs. Even though the product is called RAW Power, with the ratings and batch capabilities is seems to be a great product too for those who just shoot JPEG.

Lastly, is there anyway to turn off the “Allow RAW Power” to modify this photo?” message when saving a photo back to Photos?

Thanks,
Bob

[Nik Bhatt]

Hi Bob – sorry I didn’t see this message until just now.

JPEGs are shown in the thumbnail strip for performance reasons. Photos will edit the JPEG, while RAW Power will edit the RAW. The next version of RAW Power will have the ability to choose between the RAW or the JPEG.

When you edit the RAW in RAW Power, the original is “locked” into place as the RAW. You are looking at the results of the edit you did in RAW Power. Switching is disabled by Photos because that would change in the starting point of the adjustment data. In addition, if it let you switch to the JPEG, then what would happen to the RAW Power adjustments? Photos has no way to apply the RAW Power adjustments, so it would have to delete them. Any time you are looking at an image in Photos that was edited by RAW Power, you are looking at a JPEG created by RAW Power.

Yes, I agree 😉 The app has many valuable features for JPEG shooters.

Right now there is no way to avoid the Allow RAW Power dialog – it’s displayed by the system), but I’m looking into a way to delay that so that all edits can be written to the library at once (e.g., when the app quits).

[Erik Brammer]

Hi Nik and Bob,

I‘ve come across this thread after I recently made a strange observation upon importing new images to the Photos iCloud library.

Here is my usual workflow concerning my Fujifilm X-Pro2 on my iMac27 2020 running the latest version of Mac OS:
1. Copy the jpgs from the SD card to a folder on the Mac.
2. Use Raw Power to screen them and delete those I don’t like.
3. Download the corresponding raws of the keepers to a different, i.e. parallel folder to the jpg folder.
4. Rename jpgs to a “speaking” name incl. date and event, using the Finder batch rename with index.
5. Rename the corresponding raws using the same naming scheme, of course ending up with the raf Suffix rather than jpg.
6. Drag & drop first only the jpgs into PhotoS to add them to the library.
7. Drag & drop the raws into Photos to add them to the library.
8. Add the jpgs to an album for that event.
9. Add the raws to a raw album per year.

Is my understanding and typical observation correct that this sequence of actions will NOT create raw+jpg pairs? This is what I want as I don’t like raw+jpg pairs.

I recently followed this workflow for images from my Fujifilm X100V. The Apple raw engine doesn’t support the raws from that camera yet, hence I shouldn’t have imported those raws to Photos in the first place. But I apparently did. The interesting bit is that Photos suddenly showed raw+jpg pairs, indicated by the “J“ in the upper right corner. No error message from Photos. Then I wanted to edit a first image in Raw Power, and rightly so Raw Power gave me an error message.

Any idea of how that behaviour can be explained?

And by the way, once the Apple raw engine will support the raws from the X100V and import those raws into the Photos library, can I safely assume Photos will NOT try to match those raws to the already existing jpgs to create raw+jpg pairs? That would be a nightmare for my way of managing assets in Photos.

Thanks,
Erik

[Nik Bhatt]

Hi Erik,

Is my understanding and typical observation correct that this sequence of actions will NOT create raw+jpg pairs? This is what I want as I don’t like raw+jpg pairs.

Yes, that is correct.

I recently followed this workflow for images from my Fujifilm X100V. The Apple raw engine doesn’t support the raws from that camera yet, hence I shouldn’t have imported those raws to Photos in the first place. But I apparently did. The interesting bit is that Photos suddenly showed raw+jpg pairs, indicated by the “J“ in the upper right corner. No error message from Photos. Then I wanted to edit a first image in Raw Power, and rightly so Raw Power gave me an error message.

Any idea of how that behaviour can be explained?

Well, if you imported the RAW+JPEG at the same time, then it makes sense because Photos uses the file extensions to decide when to pair things. However, if you imported the JPEG and RAW separately, then I would not expect that to happen. I just tried that myself and got two different items in the photos grid (I dragged a JPEG to the Photos icon and then I dragged the corresponding RAW [for a Fuji X100V]).

Photos will allow you to import unsupported images, and they should become supported automatically (you will want to quit and relaunch photos for that to work, I believe).

[Erik Brammer]

Hi Nik,

thanks a lot for your response. I will certainly pay attention to what happens when importing raws vs jpgs in the future separately – pairs should not be created. What’s new to me, and thanks for pointing that out, is that Photos allows the import of unsupported raws. I will also try out that one with all the raws from the X100V – if they will only be supported later (hopefully when Big Sur is released), that’s fine with me.

Best regards,
Erik

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