Export or save cropped RAW file to new RAW file

[JDaveyJr]

I have a RAW file (CR2) that I have cropped, and now I would like to save that to a new RAW file. Not a virtual copy. I want the cropped image as a new RAW file so that I can import it into another editor.

I tried exporting to a DNG file, but that takes the whole image, not the cropped image.

It seems that this process should be possible? I can't see how to do it, if it is.

Thanks.           

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

RAW files are always the entire collection of pixels that was created by the camera. There is no such thing as a cropped RAW or cropped DNG where pixels are eliminated from the exported file. (Cropped images from RAW photos are because LrC includes cropping information in its database, or in the XMP in an exported DNG, but all pixels are still in the file.)

[JDaveyJr]

Got it. Makes sense now. Thanks for the reply.

[Keith Reeder · Accepted solution]

"It seems that this process should be possible?"

Absolutely not. As DJ points out, the RAW file is the fundamental source of everything that comes after - the whole point of which is that it remains unaltered under any and all circtumstances.

You gain precisely nothing, in the scenario you describe, from being able to edit your RAW file into something it wasn't: if you want to hand-off  to another convertor/editor, either do all the work in that editor; or give it a (say) tiff file with the Lr edits. 

[JDaveyJr]

Yes, I can see that now. I went with a Plan B. Thanks for jumping in.