What is your best practice for a RAW Workflow in Photos? I am thinking of consolidating all my photos, including the RAWs from my SLR, into Photos as I can use the iCloud library to manage storage space. Is this practical? Can I edit RAW lossless in Photos and/or does it make sense to use external editors like Luminar or Lightroom with RAWs from a Photos library?
MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
Hi
I use raw from Panasonic in photos.
Yes, you can do lossless editing, and you can use iCloud, and it is very practical. Photos doesn't do a great job of managing raw/jpg pairs if you shoot both, so I stopped, and only have raw files now.
I also use Luminar as an external editor for when I need it. The only issue with external editors, is when you complete an edit, the edited file is returned to photos as a jpg. You still have the raw original in photos, but you can't go back to the external editor and resume editing where you left off using the edit history. Instead you basically have the previously edited jpg as a new starting point for further edits. If you want to undo somthing you have to go back to the original raw.
Hi
I use raw from Panasonic in photos.
Yes, you can do lossless editing, and you can use iCloud, and it is very practical. Photos doesn't do a great job of managing raw/jpg pairs if you shoot both, so I stopped, and only have raw files now.
I also use Luminar as an external editor for when I need it. The only issue with external editors, is when you complete an edit, the edited file is returned to photos as a jpg. You still have the raw original in photos, but you can't go back to the external editor and resume editing where you left off using the edit history. Instead you basically have the previously edited jpg as a new starting point for further edits. If you want to undo somthing you have to go back to the original raw.
Hello fivetonine,
Thanks for that info and for choosing the Apple Support Communities. If we understand correctly, you are wondering about RAW files and the Photos app on your Mac. The good news is Photos can handle and work with RAW files and here are some resources to help get you started:
How the Photos app and iCloud Photos handle RAW images
Use a RAW file as the original in Photos on Mac
Cheers!
You do know that the iCloud Library is not an off computer storage facility. It's a syncing service so that your local Photos Library is the same as the iCloud Library and the Photos Library on any other Mac or mobile device that has the iCloud Library enabled, right?
So any files in the iCloud Library are mirrored locally in your library.
Working with RAW in Photos
