Lightroom Mobile and Raw files in Camera Roll

[IdahoTerri]

I made a new collection in Lightroom Mobile.  I tried to add some files from my camera roll.  The raw files in my camera roll do not show up when I click on the Add from Camera Roll button.  Is working with raw files in the camera roll not an option in Lightroom Mobile?  My NEF files from my mac have synced over just fine.

[john beardsworth]

That's how it's designed to work. You get the raw files into LR Desktop, sync the collection, and LR Desktop then sends smart previews to the cloud, which is what the iPad reads. It's not designed to directly import raw files.

[IdahoTerri]

Thank you, John. I can see now why it would have to work that way. I was hoping I could use it to do preliminary edits of photos I take on vacation, but it won't work for that.

[ISeward]

I am trying to see the rational behind using lR Mobile except for some niche application.  Looks more like a marketing "tablets are cool - look LR works on an iPad". 

I had to laugh at the promo video at Photoshop World for LR Mobile where they showed a guy with a desk top under his arm.  Haven't Adobe heard of laptops?  Surely a Mac Air would at least enable you to actually edit the photos?  Perhaps it is just my British sense of humour 🙂

Seriously, if you have alraedy downloaded them onto your desktop the urgency is gone and you could have exported jpg's to any tablet or laptop to show a client the photos.

[Tom Hogarty]

FYI, here are my thoughts on raw ingest on iPad and the Field Triage opportunity:

http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2014/04/the-field-triage-opportunity-for-lr-mobile.html

Regards,

Tom Hogarty

Adobe Systems

[tunney_moriarty]

The iPad does not support raw files  and any photos you do have in Camera Roll are jpeg files....

[sandy_mc]

tunney moriarty wrote:

The iPad does not support raw files  and any photos you do have in Camera Roll are jpeg files....

It's not correct that "any photos you do have in Camera Roll are jpeg files"- the iPad can and does store raw files in the Camera Roll. What it can't do is to process those raw files at full resolution; it can only display the embedded thumbnails. However, you can use third party apps, e.g., PhotoRaw, to process the stored raw and export to JPEG at full resolution.

[tunney_moriarty]

I just spent the last 30 minutes talking to a Apple Senior Tech about the ipad. The Camera Roll only displays "JPEG" files. Nothing else. Any photos thatI take with the ipad are jpeg. Any files that I have sent with an attachment are jpeg files and stored in Camera Roll. So they ARE JPEG files. This was again confirmed by a Senior Tech Advisor for Apple. So why are my photos not being imported into LightRoom Mobile. I get an error message that the ? of files failed to import.

Tunney

[sandy_mc]

The iPad's Photo's App can and does store raw files. What is displayed for them is the embedded JPEG thumbnail. Really. I'm the author of PhotoRaw - I have very good reason to know exactly what iDevices can and can't do.

Message was edited by: sandy_mc - clarified

[tunney_moriarty]

Well there certainly is a difference of opinion between yourself and the Senior Tech for Apple. Well if your correct, I got about 100 shots on my Camera Roll which are all raw.... even though I made jpeg files to put into the Camera Roll and took photos with the ipad, which you say are all raw. Between Senior Apple Techand yourself, you have completely lost me. I have tried a good 50 or more files, some of which were taken by the iPad directly and some of which were transferrred from LightRoom as jpeg files, all of which will not import into LightRoom Mobile. I am totally confused and don't know who to believe or wherfe to get proper advice as to how to get the files imported into LightRoom Mobile..... How about Adobe giving us a little bit of advice on solving this problem please. Are you lurking on the sidelines Tom? One other thing here and that is the Apple Senior Tech says the ipad cannot store or use RAW files. So now what???

[sandy_mc]

If you want to know whether your iPad contains raw files, then just download PhotoRaw Lite, which is free. If there are files that PhotoRaw Lite can import, then they are raw. But be aware that there are file formats that are neither raw or JPEG that might also be on your device. E.g., TIFF, PNG, etc, etc.

[tunney_moriarty]

OK. I just d/l PhotoRaw Lite and it says that ALL the photos in the camera Roll are not Raw. Secondly, I went through each shot  (over 100)  and all are jpeg files. So that substantiates what I just reported from the Senior Tech advisor for Apple.  And that is only JPEG files are supported are in Camera Roll and that is the only type of file you will find in it. Secondly I only have jpeg files. So now to my original question and that is  "Why is it not importing ther jpeg files from Camera Roll to LightRoom Mobile when I have done exactly the procedure needed to bring them in. Again, when you go from the Camera Roll to LightRoom Mobile and wait for the photos to appear, you get a little notation, underneath the 3 dots "Failed to import ? photos". We are back to square one again. Are there any Adobe people around that can answer this or anyone that can shed some light on this? Thanks for your imput and help.

[IdahoTerri]

I was able to import a raw photo with the camera connection kit into the ipad photo app, but it only showed up into the imported photo album, not the camera roll.  I was able to bring it into PhotoRaw Lite and also into Snapseed.  I could not bring it into Lightroom Mobile.  I did some edits in Snapseed and saved the file.  I'm assuming it saved it as a jpeg because it then showed up into my Camera Roll and was imported automatically into Lightroom Mobile.  So the ipad can work with raw photos, but it does seem that they don't go into the camera roll or Lightroom until they have been saved as a jpeg.  I am happy to know what I can and can't do.  I guess the few photos that I do want to edit for sharing on social media while I am on vacation will be done with PhotoRaw or Snapseed.  I would probably never do a serious edit on my ipad anyway.  It's good for me to learn the mechanics of how this all works.  I don't know why Apple has made it so confusing by having both a Camera Roll and a Photo Stream.

[cytan01]

Actually all the photos when syncing from LR to LR Mobile goes thru creative cloud which produces thumbnails previews in jpeg. Any editing you will be doing will sync back to the LR Library are actually RAW forms.

Apple Photo Library on all their iOS devices supported imported in RAW formats it is just the generation of thumbnail previews are in jpg. but what is stored inside your device is still in RAW forms. These are not things you can get explanation for the senior apple tech but those actual apple software engineers who designed the iOS.Maybe asked the software engineers are a better choice.

Hope this can help explain your doubts.

[wombat47]

You are correct I have just imported 5 raw files into camera roll and they show up in Photos and PhotoRaw.

[rdbaron]

Wombat, it appears there are different types of raw files.  What is the extension (filetype) of yours?  Mine are .dng and the iPad will not acknowledge their existence in the card reader.

[wombat47]

Sorry rdbaron my raws are NEF (nikon) and work great

[biron66590]

‌what's your workflow for transferring iPad stored raw files to your desktop after? How do you do it? Does Photoraw duplicate files on the iPad?

[wombat47]

I use Photo Transfer App and download to any HDD and folder I wish then

import into Lightroom

[sandy_mc]

biron66590 wrote:

what's your workflow for transferring iPad stored raw files to your desktop after? How do you do it? Does Photoraw duplicate files on the iPad?

PhotoRaw stores a copy of the image. However, that copy is in PhotoRaw's own internal format, not in the form of the original file. So in order to keep raw files on your device, you need to keep them stored on the device's camera roll.

[wombat47]

Out and about I take my iPad Mini with my camera equipment. I bring my

photo's in the iPad via a Lightning to SD card camera reader which makes

them available in Photos app. I can then use Photo Transfer App to export

them to any HDD and folder I wish. This app works with Mac, Windows and

Android and can be got on each OS app store. I only use PhotoRaw very

rarely to find raw files which is not really necessary as I know they are

raw files because I only shoot in raw.

[cforcalvin]

‌so basically the solution to processing and editing RAW files in camera roll ...   is to not use any Adobe apps, is that correct?

[wombat47]

Never said I process the files in the iPad. When I finally transfer the files to my HDD I use Lightroom to process them. Taking my iPad Mini out with me is easier than carrying a laptop. I don't like imaging software on the iPad yet.

[ronb27377241]

cforcalvin wrote:

so basically the solution to processing and editing RAW files in camera roll ...   is to not use any Adobe apps, is that correct?

Unfortunately, yes.
On an upcoming trip I want to leave the laptop at home and copy raw images from DSLR camera to iPad then edit and share them in Lightroom Mobile

I just got the camera connection kit, and it looks like:

1. I can import my Raw photos into Camera Roll - where I can edit it & share , or

2. I can use Snapseed to edit and share. (It looks like it may actually process the raw image, not the embedded jpg)

3. Lightroom Mobile will only import jpg's from Camera Roll not raw, which is a total pain!

I think for the upcoming trip I will use iPad to offload images as storage, and use Snapseed to edit & email a few of them. Lightroom Mobile will not be part of the workflow.

[coolhandchuck]

ITs weird because both PS Express and PS Fix, recognize RAW files but Lightroom doesn't.