Cannot export un-modified DNG without horrid color modifications

[dantaylr]

I have years worth of shots that I am attempting to migrate out of my Lightroom library into Apple Photos for organizational purposes. In order to be able to edit the RAW files in another app if need be I reverted the edits to the original settings and attempted to export a DNG. No dice. Some of the photos are straight up pink, and others have horrid amounts of contrast that when opened in another RAW editor, doesn't go away.

 

Below are two prime examples of the victims of this. Today I tried converting all the photos to 16-bit TIFF files which works but each file nears 100 megs as a result. Stripping the edits and re-exporting as DNG doesn't solve this. They open fine in anything Adobe, but no other app can deal with them. 

Any idea what I can do? I feel like my RAW files have been slimed. 

I've attached two of the victims from different cameras. Try opening them in any camera raw app vs trying to preview it in Mac finder.

 

[Rob_Cullen]

Export the "Original" (your RAW version).  Or simply copy the raw file with Finder to another folder that will be accessed by Apple Photos App.

Edits in a DNG file will only be recognised by Adobe Editing Apps, so not worth worrying about DNGs.

[dantaylr]

I wish I could do this, however upon hearing that DNG didn't lose any data, I converted all of these to DNG awhile back to avoid losing my lightroom edits when importing them into another app. 

At this point I can revert back to the original settings in LR or Camera Raw just fine but opening the "reset" or edited file in any other app results in those unusable colors. 

Is there anything I can do to repair the files I currently have so they can be used in other apps?

[GoldingD]

And, did hou keep the RAW files?

[dantaylr]

Nope. Didn't have the space to do so and I didn't see any downside to converting to dng. Given that I can revert the settings only in an Adobe app I'm assuming the information is still buried in there. 

[Rob_Cullen]

The color problem is a strange one! So just "grasping at straws" with my comments 😞

"I wish I could do this, however upon hearing that DNG didn't lose any data, I converted all of these to DNG awhile back to avoid losing my lightroom edits when importing them into another app."

A DNG will not have any Development data if you have not 'Saved metadata' to the file.

Try this procedure with one photo -

1) Develop to [Reset] the photo

2) Save metadata to the photo [Ctrl+S].

3) Exit out of Lr-Classic, (or select the photo in Grid view and [Show in Finder] )

4) Make a COPY of the file

5) Try the import of the COPY to Apple iPhoto again.

Colors still a problem?

(Development metadata saved into a DNG is useless for any editor Apps, except for Adobe's Lr, CR, Br, Ps. )

I wonder if Exporting a DNG file as a DNG is causing the problem! Hence my sugestion to "Export Original" (Referring to exporting what is NOW the 'Original' DNG file!)

[dantaylr]

I really appreciate the suggestion. I just tried this today with no success.

Additionally I tried removing any flags and ratings attached to the photo. Most of my catalog is rated, so I wondered if that did anything. That also didn't work.

In addition I tried:

• Exporting the "Original"
• Exporting a DNG with and without the original file "embedded"
• Exported a DNG with and without a JPEG preview
• Exported with Lossy Compression which results in an empty file in Mac's Preview app that says "Locked"

[Jao vdL]

Can you post one of these files on a dropbox link or somesuch so we can take a look at it? I can't reproduce this myself.

Also try exporting as dng from your files in Lightroom and importing those exports into Photos.

[dantaylr]

Two of the files are attached to the original post (not the screenshots). You can try those. I'll need to try the LR classic trick next time I'm on a computer with it. I've been using just LR and camera raw to do this. 

[Jao vdL]

There are only two jpegs attached to the original post. No dng files 

[dantaylr]

Ah it seems as though it converted them on upload. Here's a Dropbox folder with them. 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iyy9mrtdxw0jk6c/AAD5ACwDE3l0pOjnskhCDSdQa?dl=0

[DS256]

"They open fine in anything Adobe, but no other app can deal with them" Can you maybe expand on this point? Do you mean the exported file appears ok in any Adobe product but not others?

[Rob_Cullen]

Following this thread-

You do know that your DNG files ARE "RAW" files? (Even with editing metadata embedded.)

Not all photo editors or Apps can interpret RAW data.

I took the liberty of downloading your two files and this is what I see in Windows-10:

1) Extracted from the Dropbox ZIP file and shown in Windows File Explorer-

(And these views would be showing the embedded 'Preview' JPG within the DNG file.)

2) The photos shown in a freeware Photo browser- XnView-

3) The photos as seen in Adobe Bridge-

4) One photo as 'opened' in the Windows "Photos" App-

My conclusion is that you need an App or Editor that can interpret DNG RAW data. Exporting to DNG filetype does not guarantee a photo will display correctly in all Apps.

[dantaylr]

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to do all this. Unfortunately I'm getting the same result as what you see in your freeware browser when I open the photos in Apple Photos, Mac Finder, Darkroom, and Pixelmator Photo. So either all of these apps lack some sort of RAW interpretation capability despite being RAW editing apps, or something in Adobe's DNG code has beef with anything remotely related to an Apple device. 

Can you make adjustments to photos in the windows photo app? If so, do they revert to the oddly colored ones?

[Rob_Cullen]

"in the windows photo app"- It 'looks' OK! (But I know it is editing an embedded JPG preview in the DNG file and not the RAW data because [Save a Copy] creates a very small dimension JPG.)

"...something in Adobe's DNG code has beef with anything remotely related to an Apple device."

Highly likely!

I use Nikon and have converted all NEFs to DNG for some time, and Nikon's NX-Studio (Great software for NEFs, JPGs, TIFs!!) will simply NOT open DNG files, it simply says "There is no file to display" on a folder of 8 DNG files.

Sorry, but I think you are "Up the Creek...." with the DNGs for the Apple Apps. Give Apple Apps away and organize only with LrC.

[dantaylr]

Yikes. At this point it feels like you're right.

Given this, the other option I was considering was converting them all to TIFF (or some other lossless format) and then back to DNG. The reason I would want to convert back to DNG is so that other apps would recognize them as "RAW" files. The issue is a TIFF converted into a DNG doesn't seem to preview at all and the size goes up considerably. Can you think of any other options to accomplish something like this?

I understand your idea to ditch Apple apps and stick with Lightroom. However that means this applies to my interest in experimenting with, Darkroom, Afterlight, Pixemator Photo, and others, which are all affected by this. At this point if feels like the other way around, where I'd like to get out of the Adobe goo if this keeps happening.

[Rob_Cullen]

Just a point- A TIFF saved as a DNG is not a RAW file!- It is simply a TIFF inside the DNG 'Wrapper'.

Leave the TIFF files as TIFF.

If you have the camera proprietary RAW files- Do not convert to DNG RAW. (Having done so is a problem).

Export to 'best quality' JPG would be smaller than TIFF (but keep the RAWs).

[Ian Lyons]

This isssue is not new and is not unique to Apple iPhone images converted to DNG then viewed in non Adobe apps. See this thread https://community.adobe.com/t5/camera-raw-discussions/dng-files-have-pink-cast-in-preview-thumbnails...  There are other similar threads...

The most recent post in above linked thread suggest the issue can be fixed by not using 'Embed Fast Load Data' when converting to DNG. However, having tried disabling it on your images when exporting a new copy from LrC doesn't appear to help. That being said, it may be that the offending code is already baked into the DNG you uploaded to Dropbox. Can you try exporting the original Apple file as DNG again but leave Embed Fast Load Data unchecked in Export > File Settings as shown in below screesnhot. 

[Michael J. Hoffman]

I've also seen this with raw files from my Canon EOS-R, converted to DNG in Lightroom and then viewed on my MacBook in other applications (I first noticed it in Luminar, but it appears in Finder and some other apps as well). This applies not only to exported DNGs, but to DNGs that I converted on import with Lightroom.

As Ian pointed out, the workaround is to deselect the option to "Embed fast load data."

[Jao vdL]

Weird. I can't get my exported dngs to have this issue whether I select embed fast load data or not. I don't have an EOS-R though and perhaps this is camera model specific for some strange reason.

[Ian Lyons]

> perhaps this is camera model specific for some strange reason.

If you look at the thread I included in my earlier post you'll see that multiple vendors and camera models are mentioned.  Also, like you, I've never been able to reproduce it with my own images from various Canon EOS cameras. However, with images provided by others using the same models I could reproduce it with ease.

Again, if look at the linked thread you'll that 'Adriana Ohlmeyer' from Camera Raw QE team was looking into the issue. Unfortunately, I think the 'Embed Fast Load Data' came long after the original issue was raised. I think I'll drop her a PM referring to this thread.

[Jao vdL]

I see that now. Very strange!

[Jao vdL]

Took a look at your dngs and I think the issue is that these files were originally shot using an iPhone7 plus and an iPhone12 Pro Max. Were they originally shot in the photo app as HEIC and then converted to dng in Lightroom? Or were they originally shot in the Lightroom app as dng? I can't reproduce the behaviour with my iPhone 12 lightroom app shot dngs. They all look normal in Photos.app. Also, every raw file from my DSLRs and mirrorless cameras when converted to dng import normally in Photos, so I am guessing this has something to do with the origina being a iPhone somehow. What app did you use to shoot these originally?

Also, embedding fast load data or not has no effect on the display of my dngs at all in Phots. They all work fine.

[dantaylr]

All of the photos affected seem to have been shot using iPhones. At one point I was shooting with a Lumix but I don't see any of those photos in here. The most recent, which don't show up pink but instead show up with too much contrast, were shot with an iPhone 12 Pro Max. All photos were either shot as RAW files from the standard iPhone Camera app or shot using Lightroom's built in camera app. They were then converted to DNG and exported from Lightroom back into Apple Photos. 

[Rob_Cullen]

Thanks to @Jao vdL  @Ian Lyons  and @Michael J. Hoffman  All who obviously know more about the problem than I, so I leave the discussion to them.