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.

[robgendreau]

There's a solution for RAW, iOS and synching these, and it even works  with Lr: Mylio.

Mylio passes nondestructive RAW edits FROM iOS to desktop (and Lr desktop) and back the other way.

The workflow is a bit more awkward going from iOS to Mac OS (or Windows) given the hassles of getting RAW into an iPad (CCK). But once in the camera roll, you use the iOS Mylio app to import the camera roll. It's basically read-only referencing, like Lr uses. Mylio can then sync the original, a thumbnail, or a preview of that RAW on your iPad to your desktop (or NAS or other device). If you sync the original, it sends the RAW to your desktop. If you edit on either the desktop, those edits (metadata or adjustments to the image itself) are passed to all devices that sync that image.

But wait, there's more. If you use Lr you reference the same folder on your desktop that holds the synched RAW from the iPad (say ~/Pictures/Mylio/ipad library). So now you see the RAW in Lr. That's nice, but it gets better: if you edit in Mylio on iOS, that gets passed to the desktop; now write those adjustments/edits (like say B&W conversion and captions) to the file. Do a "read metadata" in Lr, and boom, now Lr has the B&W captioned RAW image.

And so in Lr you could reset the image to color, add keywords and maybe a new title, and then those changes get sent all the way back to Mylio in iOS on your iPad.

And it can now do Lr faces, BTW.

WAAAY more useful than Lr Mobile IMHO.

[Guitarfish64]

Good point that PS Express / Fix can already deal with RAW. I struggle to understand why it's such a big leap to build the same processing in to LR mobile.

My key requirements are to shoot RAW, then triage and add metadata in the field; to score, flag, tag and add descriptions while things are fresh. I need to end up with this info sync'd to the RAWs on the desktop back at base where I expect to do any serious 'post' editing.

First choice would be a direct flow of uploading RAWs via CCK, adding metadata on the iPad and then syncing these to desktop (ideally over the home wireless network). I can live with the import being slow - just set it off overnight...  Photosmith came close for me, but was never reliable enough - I always seemed to lose a couple of images in the import process that neither I or the Photosmith tech support guys could explain.

The minimum viable product for me could just import the embedded low res jpeg to do the tagging and then later  import the RAWs directly to the desktop and merge the metadata there (if there were a well designed batch function that made it reliable and relatively low effort).

I'd be content with minimal editing capabilities for the RAWs, or even just to publish selected jpgs back to the camera roll to use other editing apps for short term /local use in Facebook etc.

[robgendreau]

Guitarfish64 wrote:

My key requirements are to shoot RAW, then triage and add metadata in the field; to score, flag, tag and add descriptions while things are fresh. I need to end up with this info sync'd to the RAWs on the desktop back at base where I expect to do any serious 'post' editing.

First choice would be a direct flow of uploading RAWs via CCK, adding metadata on the iPad and then syncing these to desktop (ideally over the home wireless network). I can live with the import being slow - just set it off overnight... Photosmith came close for me, but was never reliable enough - I always seemed to lose a couple of images in the import process that neither I or the Photosmith tech support guys could explain.

The minimum viable product for me could just import the embedded low res jpeg to do the tagging and then later import the RAWs directly to the desktop and merge the metadata there (if there were a well designed batch function that made it reliable and relatively low effort).

I'd be content with minimal editing capabilities for the RAWs, or even just to publish selected jpgs back to the camera roll to use other editing apps for short term /local use in Facebook etc.

That describes Mylio. Except for the part about having to use the embedded JPEG in the RAW.

Import RAW via CCK into iPad.

Because iOS only allows Camera Roll to receive such images, import Camera Roll into Mylio.

In Mylio, set those imported camera roll pix (or a subset thereof, or just one photo) to synch the original to the desktop (you could also do previews or thumbnails). Make it B&W, crop, add a caption and keywords, rate, add color label and/or flag.

At home, fire up Mylio desktop. Synch over LAN. RAW (original) comes over with all those changes.

Import into Lr. Lr sees that it's B&W, cropped, rated, flagged, etc.

[Jao vdL]

>The minimum viable product for me could just import the embedded low res jpeg to do the tagging and then later  import the RAWs directly to the desktop and merge the metadata there (if there were a well designed batch function that made it reliable and relatively low effort).

Guitarfish, this is already possible and is described above by john beardsworth. The Syncomatic plugin allows you to do this. Just shoot raw+jpeg. Import the jpegs on your mobile device and tag/edit. When you get home to your main machine your jpeg should be synced up. Just import the raws and use the plugin to sync the settings to the raws.

Right now if you have a raw workflow I think you are better off with an ultralight notebook such as a MacBook Air or a Microsoft Surface Pro than with a iOS or Android device if you want to save some weight. You go from 1 to about 2 lbs for the device but gain enormous flexibility.

[Dash_]

Hey Everyone,


Since the start of this thread years ago, many updates for both iOS and LrM have occurred.

Here's where I and my gear in question stand:

iPad Air 2: iOS 9.3.1

LrM: v2.2.1

D7100 & D610: didn't check firmware 

After shooting RAW, I pop the SD card in an iOS card reader, dump the files into the photos app. Works 100%. Files open in the app, sync to iCloud, appear on all my iCloud enabled devices, etc. They are shared fine to iCloud photo sharing albums. However, if you make any edits, it converts the file to a JPEG and is irreversible. (Unlike what you're used to with the native camera files and "reverting to original" after editing.) Understandably so. Just an FYI.

Now the problem arises (as many have stated) when attempting to import into LrM from photos.

Somehow,  has allowed camera RAW but Adobe is slacking in LrM. At least I'd love it to just open the embedded JPEG to access the editing power of Lr on the go (similar to the native iOS photo editor).

I really hope Adobe is reading this thread. This would be a game changer to my on-the-go work flow.

HOWEVER: I will say there is a tiny upside. This kink has forced me to get more correct in-camera while shooting on the go. I'll shoot RAW+JPEG and dump the JPEG SD in my iPad. Having exposed and composed better, LrM is now just a final touch-up before sharing, rather than an image overhaul.

+1 for discipline...? 

For professional work and stuff I plan to print however, I just suck it up and haul the MacBook Pro. Even if the iPad could could read RAW, LrM just isn't going to cut it... yet.

(You hear that Adobe? I still have faith in you... Dont let me down... Or else... I'll be unhappy... Still paying you tons of my hard earned cash... But under protest.... I have a very intimidating serious face..Ya hear me?!)

[robgendreau]

Dash_ I'd suggest you direct your wishes as much to Apple as Adobe.

As we noted earlier in the thread Apple's implementation of RAW on iOS and issues with file storage make it tough for apps to have a camera to iPad to desktop workflow. It always involves work arounds. Even with Photos. I think Adobe is correct to concentrate at this time on a desktop to mobile workflow, rather than the other way around. The iPad just isn't ready for a workflow going the other way except for the occasion image or two.

I'd suggest you go elsewhere, but the only realistic RAW mobile workflow is with laptops, or hybrids like the Surface Pro.

Or use Mylio. It can at least do it, although the file transfer is a bit of a pain due to iOS.

[Dash_]

True, I agree. However, Adobes overall app suite marketing campaign is sold on the "start from mobile, finish on desktop" theme.

From the way things work now on iOS, it seems Apple has done its part.

The device can in fact open and share (and event edit and convert to JPEG) the RAW files I put into it.

LrM is where the issue begins: it won't import.

But you are correct: For now, the heavy lifting is for full machines/hybrids. (...Thanks Obama.  ::Sarcasm::)

This thread will still be going on for years to come, I presume.

[robgendreau]

Hmm. I hadn't noticed any "start from mobile" language, nor did I see RAW mentioned. But I used an iPad before Lr Mobile was written, and was well aware of the iPad's limitations as a photography tool for RAW through my struggles with Photosmith and a couple of other apps (not many even touch RAW, and now there are even fewer).

But you could do it now with Mylio. So a solution does exist if you choose to use it. It's way better than Lr Mobile.

My RAWs are getting so large and processing more intensive so I rather doubt that an iPad will ever be suitable for any kind of major work. I've moved on to a Galaxy Tab, which at least allows me to WRITE RAWs back to a microSD for backup purposes. I can't even do something as simple as that with an iPad. It's fine for JPEGs though.

[Neil_Pearson]

sandy_mc is quite right. I regularly use my ipad as a temporary dumping ground to free up a SD card. Even if I've set my D800 to save only RAW I can still see all the photos in the Camera Roll (presumably I'm actually seeing the JPG thumb embedded in the RAW). I can also import them all from the ipad onto the imac and they are all still original RAW (NEF actually) files.

[antkn33s]

TThis is a pretty simple debate. Take an ds card with only raw files on it, stick it in to the iPad ds card reader. You can then import the raw files in the camera app or iPhoto app and some other third party apps.

maybe it converts them to JPEG when it imports?

what is weird is that those files that were imported can not be seen by Lightroom mobile.

Also, as a mobile solution, lr mobile really needs to be able to read a sd card. I carry around my iPad because I don't want to lug around my laptop. Being able to view the photos on the bigger iPad screen would be very useful.

[Jao vdL]

Lightroom mobile as written currently depends on the scaled down lossy dng files (or jpegs in some cases I guess) as raws are way too big to sync over the cloud. The iPad has no clue how to convert raw files into scaled down lossy dng for use by Lightroom. Adobe could probably include code to do that but as there is currently so much more missing from Lightroom mobile (no key wording is a real big omission) I would doubt Adobe would include this anytime soon. But I have been wrong before about Adobe's strategy. Right now, and likely for the foreseeable future, you are better off taking a MacBook Air or an equivalent PC "ultra book" instead of an iPad if you need on-the-road editing at little weight. Lightroom mobile is sort of fun, but completely dependent on a traditional PC to supply the files and quite limited in what it can do.

[sudheer]

I too use ipad as temp storage of my RAW+jpg photos to free up my SD card when on travel. usually I dump them back to my PC once I return. It looks like Lightroom mobile can only process jpgs, which basically defeats the purpose of having an editor on ipad. Now sure how many of us would want to edit photos which are already on the PC with an ipad. Does not look like Adobe understands how most people use their ipads.

[JayHawks]

The iPad will import your RAW photos using the Camera Connection Kit along with the JPG's.  It'll even display them in the Apple Photos app.  The problem as I understand it is that Apple has the iPad on lock-down and doesn't allow other apps access to RAW photos - at least before iOS 8.  That's why LR Mobile hasn't been able to see them yet - but fingers are crossed that it'll change soon.  Apple Photos on iOS 8 now will upload your RAW images to it's iCloud over wifi so maybe that means that it's changed it's API's to allow other apps access to the RAW files.  If so, I'm sur that Adobe will be updating it's app because that would be a huge feature - dumping all your raw images onto your iPad while out and about and seeing them magically appear on your desktop when you return home.  Let's just hope smart collections will be able to sync to the mobile app soon.

[nickerjo]

This reply may seem a bit old, but I  just started using Lightroom (Desktop and Mobile) this week. I do a good bit of international shooting

(four continents thus far). So I am always looking for ways to improve what I do - especially keeping images safe in the field.

I am shooting with a full frame DSLR and Have and IPAD Mini 3 with 128 Gb

From my experimentation I can tell you the following:

1. You can import raw files to an Ipad using the camera connection kit. Either direct from camera or using card reader.

2. The images show up in the IPAD camera roll, but what you are really seeing is the embedded jpeg from the raw file.

3. There are other APPS that can read these - I currently use PHOTOGENE (I have nothing to do with the company, just a customer) It allows me to do basic edits as well as ad watermarks prior to sending images to Social Media etc.

My theory on Lightroom Mobile and Ipad:

Lightroom mobile syncs your edits between you collection on your Ipad and you Collection on your desktop via WIFI. All of this is done

with "smart"  Previews. These are very small and take very little bandwidth.

I would imagine the syncing between the Ipad and Desktop is handled much like "copying edits" on your desktop in Lightroom. As an example - You have two different images of a dog in Lightroom on your desktop you pull up the first and increase brightness and then increase saturation. You can then choose to copy those edits - pull up the second dog image and paste the edits - and magically the second dog image has increased brightness and saturation.

So, when you are editing a Collection that started on your Desktop in Mobile on you I pad - Lightroom isn't syncing by sending the entire edited image it actually is doing a long distance cut and paste of the edits you perform (very little bandwidth).

For this to work with a RAW file that was just added to and Ipad in the field - the whole Raw image would have to be sent first. (My raw images are 23- 27 meg). So you can see the problem. As a serious photographer that sells my work, I would never consider doing final edits on Lightroom Mobile - Since I use Lightroom on my desktop in conjunction with Photoshop CC, OneOne Suite 9 and Photomatix

The reason that Photogene works is that it is only manipulating the embedded Jpeg file from Raw file. It never has to export the raw file.

DON'T DISMISS THE IPAD/Lightroom Mobile AS A VALUABLE TOOL FOR PHOTOGRAPHY - HERE ARE A FEW REASONS.

Backups in the field. When on a trip where I will be filling many cards, I don't believe in pulling a cared in and out of the camera. I leave a card in the camera until almost but not completely full. At that point I connect the Camera via USB to the Ipad Camera adapter and plug that into my I pad. I then download all images. I then remove the card and store it in a case.

I can now view my images on the bigger and WAY better Ipad Retina Screen. If I have some I want to share before I get home I can make some basic edits to the Jpeg with Photogene and send those via email, Facebook, etc.

I am not secure with on one backup of my card - So I carry a Small Ravpower unit. ($40.00 on Amazon, etc. The Ravpower serves as a backup charger for my Idevices - But most importantly it has a CF clot and a USB port. I place a cf CARD in the slot and/or a thumbdrive in the USB port. (since the Ravpower holds a charge you can also plug in a portable Drive via USB (like a WD Passport)

Using the free App for the RavPower unit I can then set up a private WIFI network between my Ipad and the Ravpower unit and copy the raw files to it. (it takes a while so I usually start this just before turning in and have both the Ravpower and the Ipad connected to charging cables. So now I have my raw stored on the card, the Ipad and whatever I hooked to the Ravpower.

Another great use of Lightroom Mobile and an Ipad is to share you images using Apple TV. My wife doesn't like to sit around the PC fpr long periods of time. So I create collections Using Lightroom Desktop and then pull them up on Lightroom Mobile and send via Apple TV and AIRPLAY as a slideshow on our large screen TV.

Hope some of the above is useful to someone.

j. Nickerson

Leaning Palm Studio

jnickerson-imagery.com

.

[reneeb97669200]

Thank you for your thorough reply.  I am considering buying an ipad so that I  view and cull images in the field. I so not want to travel with my heavier laptop.  But I am CONFUSED! I understand the part about the smart previews that are built from the RAW files.

I don't understand the workflow from camera card to ipad.  Will Lightroom for Mobile read my RAW files from the SD card and download only the smart previews into the Photos folder on the ipad so that I can view and cull them in Lightroom for Mobile?

I would really appreciate any help you can give me.  I have researched this all day!

Thank you!!!:-)

[Jao vdL]

As far as I know Lightroom mobile on the iPad will NOT read the raw files. You need a real computer to get your raw files from the card either by using a full Lightroom installation or by using a web browser and uploading to creative cloud Lightroom. You can also do the trick using the plugin described above where you work on jpegs shot using raw+JPEG. Those jpegs will be ingested in Lightroom mobile and you can edit those. Then back home you load the raw files into Lightroom and let the plugin synchronize the settings from the jpegs you edited in Lightroom mobile and sync those automatically to the raws. Somewhat of a kludge but might work for you. So really the only way to edit raw files (actually the smart preview proxies but that's a detail) in Lightroom mobile is to have a real computer somewhere in the chain where you load the raw files.

Sent from my iPad

[reneeb97669200]

Thank you!!!!

[Clive_Blair]

"Then back home you load the raw files into Lightroom and let the plugin synchronize the settings from the jpegs you edited in Lightroom mobile and sync those automatically to the raws"

How do I automatically sync the editted jpeg file to the raw file? I can only see a way to one-by-one sync the settings by viewing the jpeg file, going to the raw file and using "sync previous". But I don't fancy doing that with hundreds of files.

[john beardsworth]

Jao didn't mention the plugin - it's one called Syncomatic and I describe the method here.

[Clive_Blair]

Thanks!

[rdbaron]

I've read this thread to date, I've communicated with Apple tech support and I'm confused.

I took some shots with my Leica M, which saves them as raw files in the .dng format.  I put the sd card in the Apple Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader and hooked it up to my latest version iPad Air, which gave no sign it recognized them.  Apple tech support this is as it should be, since this raw file format is not recognized.

This seems to be counter to statements in this thread to the effect that raw files can be imported into the iPad camera roll.

So, who's right? 

[Jao vdL]

So, who's right? 

rdbaron, you can't import those raw files to your iPad camera roll this way. It simply doesn't support them. The trick mentioned above assumes that you should jpeg+raw on your camera not dng. You import the jpegs into your camera roll and then into Lightroom mobile. Now you do all your changes in Lightroom mobile on your iPad on the jpeg proxies. These changes get synced to Adobe's cloud and ultimately to your real computer where your jpegs will show up automatically. Now on your real computer you import the raw files from your sd card. Then you can sync sync your changes on the jpegs that you made on Lightroom mobile that came in through Adobe's cloud services to the raw files using the syncomatic plugin. This is quite a convoluted workflow but as good as you can currently get. Again, you can't readily ingest your raw files ion your iPad.

[rdbaron]

What you say seems to be the case, but it is a disappointment.  I don't want to shoot raw+jpg just so I can use the iPad to view my files when I'm away from home, much less to make use of the apparently rather early days Lightroom Mobile. I am also disappointed that when Apple says I can put raw files on the iPad it isn't true, but so it goes.  I'll just keep using my Macbook Air on the road until the iPad grows up.

[biron66590]

Seems the iPad Mini 3 has the storage capacity to store raw files when "on the road", along with the camera connection kit  Seems unbelievable  LR Mobile can't use this iPad for "on the road" raw file storage  / viewer / minimal editor.  If it's an Apple implementation issue, doesn't Adobe has enough clout for Apple to listen to suggestions from them? My workflow would be to import the day's raw files into the iPad Mini 3, view with LR mobile, delete the memory  card for a  new day, then move everything to the desktop when home.

[Jao vdL]

Unfortunately that doesn't work that way yet. You can store raw files from most cameras on your iPad but LR/Mobile will not take them in. This is mostly a Adobe limitation I think as I was surprised to learn that the Lightroom web interface allows you to upload raw files which will be converted by Adobe's server to smart previews that will be synchronized to an ipad but the mobile app doesn't do this. So you need a real computer with a non mobile browser to do that. If you want to only use an iPad you need to shoot raw+JPEG and work with the jpegs in LR mobile. So you would need to not delete the raw files from your memory cards.

A complete mobile ingesting workflow is not here yet unfortunately.