P: Ability to export files in the HEIC/HEIF formats

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Now that HEIC is starting to get some reasonable adoption after iOS 11, it’s great that Lightroom Classic CC can import those files. But it would be even better if it could export them too. For various reasons, I end up exporting from Lightroom to Apple Photos.app, and it seems like a no-brainer for me to use HEIC if Lightroom supported them. (Why not save the extra disk space?)

I know I can export to TIFF or some other lossless format and then use a third-party utility to convert them to HEIC, but that’s too much of a pain. Having native support in the Export workflow would be ideal.

[josephbelt01]

I would like to save a RAW photo as HEIF (.heic) format.  The primary option available seems to be 8-bit JPG.  HEIF supports 16-bit color and is much more efficient so that is the preferred export format.  At this point it seems wrong to save images as JPG and TIFF is far too big.

[JP Hess]

At this point, you will have to use the save option to save to whatever formats are available and then use other software to convert it to the format that you prefer.

[bbpan]

3 years already and there's still no sight of supporting Live Photos in Lightroom CC.  Is it really that difficult to be able to back up a Live Photo and be able to export it as Live Photo back to the Camera Roll?

I heard Google Photos was able to do that already.

Note: This conversation was created from a reply on: Lightroom: Support for importing Live Photos (iOS 9, iPhone 6s).

[ewoutt93453776]

But than you are adding compression artifacts twice instead of only once. Or you have to export lossless the first time which results in huge (temporary) files. And it just adds to the overal workflow.

Exporting directly to heif would be a great addition. I would also closely watch the AV1 Image File Format (AVIF), which is based on AV1, fully open source and promises even better compression than heic / h.265.

[JP Hess]

You have no argument from me about that issue. I'm just telling you what is necessary to accomplish the goal right now because the option you are seeking is not available. Since the conversion option you are seeking is not currently available, my suggestion would be to make your request in the forum where the developers monitor much more closely than they do these user to user forums. I might also mention that the feature you are requesting is still not available in the much more robust Lightroom Classic CC. But you can make your request in the following form:

Lightroom CC | Photoshop Family Customer Community

[bbpan]

I was able to backup a Live Photo to Google Photos and restore the photo back to my iPhone just like the original.  I want Adobe to take my money, but I'm going to Google this time.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Please add HEIC export to Lightroom (Classic CC)

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

It's sad that Photoshop or Lightroom doesn't support exporting to new efficient file formats as like as AVIF and HEIF 😞

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Still no sign of HEIC export. In fact, i had hoped that the "big" (cough) yearly update would bring this functionality ... but unfortunately, more or less very minor (not very useful) "updates" were delivered... why are we paying monthly fees?

[Taki_T]

Please add heif / heic exporting to PS/LR/CR.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

When will this happen? In this century? Wikipedia: "The technical development of the specification took about one and a half years and was finalized in the middle of 2015." Well Adobe takes our money (every month) but delivers almost nothing (no HEIC export, no lens profiles for new Nikon glass even though the built-in profiles are of low quality etc etc)

[Jerry Syder]

Is there other software that supports exporting HEIC?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Need HEIF/HEIC export options.  I need this for my workflow, and it's something that needs to happen anyway.  Please Adobe get with the times.

[takit31223266]

Yes there is, Affinity Photo and half a dozen other software...

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

A slightly sinister explanation for why Adobe wouldn't implement HEIC export is that they would have to pay licensing fees - which may mean less money for rich shareholders intended on milking customers (some of whom like me use Lightroom strictly privately)?

[takit31223266]

Except that stuff like this forces loyal customers like you and I to look at other software... 
And to my surprise, there's some pretty darned good photo editing software out there!

[Jerry Syder]

That documents opening or importing, not exporting. Found a tweet from Affinity back in November 2019 but maybe things have changed since then? https://twitter.com/affinitybyserif/status/1198893324817580032?s=20

[michaelk5102444]

Canon's announcement of the R5 and R6 mirrorless cameras today made a big splash.  Now Canon's Flagship DSLR 1D-X Mark III, Flagship Mirrorless R5 and the R6 all support HEIF file type.  It is possible to import these photos into Lightroom Classic, but not possible to export them as HEIF.  Adobe please add HEIF export ability.  Forcing us to use jpg negates the advantages of shooting using HEIF.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Adobe, please please please add support for HEIF export. It's long overdue. This will save precious space on our disks and thus contribute (a little bit) to a better environmental footprint of our photographic activities (if Adobe cares about those things?).

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Please please give us an option to export to HEIF! Sure, it’s still a pain to widely use it as a sharing format, but it’s excellent for storing all my edited photos. At least let us know you’re working on it.

[michaelk5102444]

Canon now has multiple cameras (1DXM3, R5 and R6) with the ability to take photos in HEIF format.  Lightroom is able to import them but when will we have the ability to export those photos after editing back to HEIF?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

whenever I try to export the HEIC photos shot on my iPhone I get the following error:

"some export operations were not performed. The file appears to be unsupported or damaged"

I usually import them in Lightroom on my phone, but when I open/edit and then try to export on my desktop, I get this message.

All software is up-to-date (MAC OS Catalina, iOS 14.0.1)

[Geoff the kiwi]

I have seen this too and thought it may be a hardware glitch with my MacBook and the external drive but like you it is always HEIC files. 
My current work around is to restart Lightroom and they will export then.....

I haven’t any ideas on the cause yet.

I have had on 10.13.6 and Lr9.4

[SteffenB1970]

Version 10 is out but still no support for HEIC export. This means 50% more energy per image exported from Lightroom. I wasn't aware that Adobe actively committed to not contribute to fight climate change...

[trevor98712893]

While Lightroom (regular and Classic) can read and import HEIF images, they cannot export in the format. HEIF has many advantages over JPEG, support for more colors/bit depth and more optimized sizes. It would really be nice to export edited 12 or 14-bit RAW images into a 10-bit format (HEIF) while still maintaining manageable file sizes. 8-bit JPEG is not as efficient nowadays for all instances. While TIF can handle higher bit depths, its large size makes it unmanageable. In anyone can achieve this, Adobe should be able too.