EXPORTING RAW FILES WITHOUT DEVELOP DETAILS?

singalis  wrote A private client has asked for a RAW file and I'm happy for him to purchase this, but I don't want the modifications I made to date to be visible to him.  I have a feeling that might be impossible, or is it?  I don't want to give him the original completely unedited RAW file.

If he is willing to PAY for the original RAW files I see no reason not to give him a copy of them. You have already been paid for the work and I guess you will be getting an extra payment for the unedited RAW files. Even if this request is not for an extra payment. He paid for the work already.

I don't see the problem. As long as you retain a copy of them.

I must be misunderstanding some of the answers above.

If you just send the client a copy of the RAW image, none of your edits are contained in this file. (Do not send the xmp file) The edits are never written to the RAW. No virtual copies or exports are needed here.

If he wants RAW files just send him a copy of the originals. It doesn't matter whether a modified date shows in them. Any and all adjustments you have done are stored in the LR Catalog file and without that specific catalog file none of the adjustment will show up. And even if you write change to XMP and you send them with the files he would need the same version of LR and or ACR to see what edits you did.

You can check the file modification date (of the Raw): only if Lightroom has been writing back changes to the Raw file itself, will that have changed to reflect this. Most commonly, even if LR HAS been writing back changes, that will have been not into the Raw file but into an accompanying sidecar (XMP) file.

You would then simply avoid sending that accompanying file; the recipient will only have the untouched Raw that you send.

The only possible exception, is if the Raw file is in the form of a DNG whereby edit changes may have been written directly into the file by LR (or else not). Again, the file modification date and time will tell you for sure.

You may then be faced with a DNG to which edits have been written, which you now want to clean back out for sending purposes.

A DNG can contain two forms of edits: latest settings - just those, no prior History - and Snapshots.

You should remove any Snapshots if it's a DNG, AND if those have been written to file, AND if you mind the recipient seeing these. Virtual copies could (if desired) be first made which contain the specific editing involved in those snapshots. And you'd need to write back to file the "removal" of these Snapshots.

As to the current editing, one way would involve making a Virtual Copy, resetting the editing of that virtual copy, switching Copy and Master, writing edits to file, then later switching things back.

Probably easier to make a virtual copy, reset the editing of this virtual copy, then Export this unedited image version choosing "Original" as the filetype option. This will save a new copy of the Raw file, within which the "latest" editing shown, is in fact the reset state of the image with all your individual edits effectively wiped.

If you have made some developments to the appropriate RAW file you can create a virtual copy. For this copy you can reset all your modifications that you have done in the development modul. Then you can export this file.

Axel