Apple ProRAW Camera Profiles and DNG Post Processing Support

[Michael X]

First off, does anybody know what camera profiles are available for the new Apple ProRAW image format? In Lightroom Classic I DO see "Apple Embedded Camera Profile" as an additional option.

My limited understanding so far is that "Apple ProRAW" is just another DNG file taken with an iPhone 12 camera.

Secondly, while Apple touts the "nueral image processing steps" involved in creating an Apple ProRAW image ON the iPhone, are the "steps"actually incorporated into existing headers in the DNG image specification and are they thusly available for post processing in applications such as Lightroom Classic OR are they only available to be post processed by Apple apps? So is this Apple marketing hype or new processing options to be supported by third party apps in the future?

This is not intended to minimize the new format or the new camera as both are awesome imo.

-Michael

So

[D Fosse]

The whole point of a raw file is that it is not processed in any way. It's just a data dump from the sensor. The processing is done in the raw converter.

So if they talk about "neural image processing" it's either marketing nonsense, or it's not a raw file.

Although the lines have been blurred a bit lately, with built-in lens profiles that cannot be turned off in Lightroom.

[defaultsdiv7l5tiyzb]

My understanding is that ProRaw is not a raw (despite the name) in fact; it is already demosaiced and processed partly using varous computational algorithms. This is documented (see e.g. the second part of this article : https://petapixel.com/2020/12/21/understanding-apple-proraw/).

[Michael X]

Thank you for this great information from PetaPixel!!! It explains everything about Apple ProRAW. It was partly as I thought, new headers in the DNG File Specification incorporating some of the new processing steps. I still wonder about Camera Profile support for ProRAW in Adobe.

[defaultsdiv7l5tiyzb]

I believe Adobe is stil lworking on it, from the information I've read on Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/Lightroom/comments/kk7x8k/over_exposedbright_proraw_files/). One guy there mention too that the alpha version is already working and that they plan a release in firs quarter of 2021. I'm like you, I try to look for all the information I have, as I own an iPhone 12 pro max since few days and I am wondering how to process the images at best. What I can tell you is that the JPEG is embedded at full size in the DNG and that it does not look like the DNG file that I opens either in AVR or Lightroom (LR) : the JPEG is clearly tone mapped for some of my pictures, while the DNG is not, even if this information is stored in the DNG file (but apparently is not accounted for in LR, although this is possible on other images softs that are only dedicated to the mac platform)