P: Support for HEIC file format (Windows)

[ebigmac]

Support for HEIC file format was included in Lightroom CC but still is needed in Lightroom Classic.  When will it be added?

[HEIC image support was added to LR 7.4 (for Mac OS 10.13 or later) and LR 7.5 (Windows 10).  (We're now at LR 8.2.1.) See https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/kb/heic-files-support.html.  

- John Ellis]

[jays85562904]

Victoria, That is a very valid point and there is a rationale (or so I believe):

So think about the barriers to voting for the feature on Adobe's web site:
1) you have to be a lightroom user
2) you have to be using the latest version of iOS (most iOS users are)
3) You have to be someone that, in addition to other formats like RAW (camera specific), you also take photos with your phone/ipad
4) You have to understand your issue and root cause (that took quite some time)
5) You may try to call - I was on hold for 1.5 hours for this problem and finally gave up
6) You have to know 1 - 5 above, and search for HEIC in google
7) You have to sign up for this group
8) now you get to vote ... significant time lost for something that is important as many photos are being taken by iOS devices

My gut is there are many people, well above 101 that have this issue and if you can strip many of those layers away - it can make "voting" for this change much easier.  Thus I created this: https://www.facebook.com/groups/255453151688912/  to knock down those barriers ... lets see ...it only took 30 minutes to create and - no doubt people who call will have a great deal of free time to try to solve their problem (to which there is no current solution)...

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

A member of staff already said they're working on it, so the number of votes here or elsewhere is now irrelevant...

[jays85562904]

I have seen that - and I also owned a company that built software so I know that most
of those requests are logged but never acted upon.  Thus, it is important to remain relevant, if not the need keeps falling to the bottom of the list.  Below is the twitter response I received after giving up on their phone support - just as an FYI - they usually respond in a day or two if you tweet @AdobeCare - include Lightroom in the first part of the sentence ... images also help...




    

[jays85562904]

Victoria, thank you for that clarification - I did not understand what was happening and that makes sense.

[jays85562904]

I see your point John, it is valid for some folks but I use non destructive editing for a purpose - the JPEG is not a solution, but merely a workaround.  Non destructive editing is the core reason I use and pay for lightroom.

[ProDesignTools]

Hi Jay,

I can absolutely confirm that Adobe has been and is working on this, as stated by others previously, and that it is coming to Lightroom.

In the meantime, you said above "it was not my intention to spam," but your continued torrent of posting on this forum could be interpreted otherwise by some of us here. Thanks.

[john beardsworth]

HEIC is still a lossy format, isn't it, and LR edits to JPEGs are non-destructive. Shooting DNG with the LR Mobile camera offers you a lossless option. You may find that you get more out of your money by experimenting with it.

[jays85562904]

That may be true.  However: 
High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF, often pronounced heef)[1][2][3][4] is a file formatfor individual images and image sequences. It was developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and is defined by MPEG-H Part 12 (ISO/IEC 23008-12). The MPEG group claims that twice as much information can be stored in HEIF image as a JPEG one of the same size, even in better quality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Image_File_Format

[john beardsworth]

Sure, it is supposed to save file size relative to JPEG. It's still lossy, and if non-destructive editing is the "core" reason, shooting lossless DNG is the logical choice.

[_Edouard_]

Photo/video management has become a joke since I now have to store the HEVC videos and portrait HEIC pictures (in order not to lose the depth information on portrait photos) in separate folders while I integrate JPEG files in Lightroom (converted from the HEIC files for non-portrait photos). It's a hassle and a shame.

[jays85562904]

I could not agree more.  Skylum's Luminar deals with the HEIC format but does not keep the master images in a operate location from the catalog - or so I was told by Skylum's support.  The is a real challenge if you use a laptop in the field and then come home and connect to a RAID to store the images permanently.  Two things you can do 1) Vote at the top of the page (important) 2)Consider joining this FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/255453151688912/requests/

[Butch_M]

ProDesignTools –  Are you officially representing Adobe and speaking on their behalf on this matter? 

I'm quite sure that there are a myriad of items that the Lightroom team has been working on and are eventually 'coming to Lightroom' ... the question is when is this capability arriving?

If you find Jay's 'torrent of posting' troublesome ... simply don't read them ... That's what I do when I see topics or comments that are of no interest to me. I try not to speak for 'some of us' ... I prefer to allow others to speak for themselves.

[ProDesignTools]

Adobe said it was OK to let people know they are working on adding HEIC support throughout the Lightroom ecosystem... But as a rule, the company (as with most software developers) doesn't give specific future release dates, and never has. 

[john beardsworth]

In this very thread an Adobe representative has already said that they "are working on the same.[HEIC support]. We will update you soon."

[Mr. Dmitry]

It's a shame to work on such small feature for such a long time. You should consider to hire more qualified developers.

[_Edouard_]

I already did subscribe to the group 🙂
The master files *have* to be kept, else it’s a fake support.

[_Edouard_]

Don’t worry, they’re probably very qualified and absolutely not working on this feature that they deem non essential. Ignoring us and lying to us basically.

[john beardsworth]

It's perfectly sensible that Adobe wait to see if their customers actually bother using this new format before addressing the technical and legal/licensing issues involved in supporting it (just like Microsoft appear to have done). You aren't forced to use this format, and have quality alternatives on the same devices. They have said they will support it soon, yet that somehow amounts to "ignoring" and "lying". Right....

[garyrowe]

Damn right, John, who do these paying customers whiners think they are!

[garyrowe]

ProDesignTools - having worked in a software development house for 30yrs, I beg to differ; no delivery dates for 'maybe' features, but we gave firm dates for features that actually *were* planned. Therefore, I take fuzzy promises as just that - fuzzy and unclear, that may actually never be delivered on.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Pretty frustrating and disappointing by Adobe. I only just discovered that all my photos I was importing and carefully storing in LR were imported with a lossful conversion and that there is still no support for HEIC format. 😞 I am seriously starting to consider stopping my subscription and moving to an alternative tool.  

[Travisimo73]

Cancelling my Adobe Photography subscription because of this blatant oversight in Lightroom Classic.  For now, using ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac, which is actually pretty decent for viewing and managing photos.  Will probably use Luminar when they add the asset management feature.  Lightroom hasn't worked well for me for a long time anyway with lots of bugs and lag, and on a high end iMac.

[_Edouard_]

Alright, I have just stopped using Lightroom for the management of all my new photos, as handling separate folders in parallel for HEIC and HEVC doesn't cut it. I will be using Apple Photos from now on, despite its weakness in editing because I can't spend three hours every time I want to empty my phone.

[msp_guy]

With respect, comments to the effect of "they said they are working on it" are irrelevant. No paying customer needs to be quiet about pain points they are encountering. People who hate the new Macbook keyboards are very vocal and they voice their opinion daily and continually. If D850 shooters (or name your camera) didn't have file format support for *10 months* post the release of that camera, I'm sure they wouldn't just ask once and then sit silently and wait. I can't even imagine the outcry. I have heard there is a decent-sized LR update coming this month. We'll see if Abode deigned to make this part of the cut.

[msp_guy]

With respect, comments to the effect of "they said they are working on it" are irrelevant. No paying customer needs to be quiet about pain points they are encountering. People who hate the new Macbook keyboards are very vocal and they voice their opinion daily and continually. If D850 shooters (or name your camera) didn't have file format support for *10 months* post the release of that camera, I'm sure they wouldn't just ask once and then sit silently and wait. I can't even imagine the outcry. I have heard there is a decent-sized LR update coming this month. We'll see if Abode deigned to make this part of the cut.