Apple ProRaw is lousy and not a raw file

Converting RAWs (DNG) to HDR-HEIC Hello. I'am using iPhone 14 Pro Max. There is no way to get the full 48MP-resolution without using the RAW format. OK, I'am using it. RAWs are huge and even 1TB storage fills up very quickly. So, RAWs should be converted to a lossy-format, I thing HEIC is best choice. This can be done by using batch processing with Shortcuts-commands, but there are two problems. When I converting RAW to HEIC the dynamic range is dramatically reduced. In Photos I use the "True HDR" setting and after DNG→HEIC-convertion via Shortcuts I have a faded washed copy of the original image. If I take a HEIF-photo of same place ("True HDR" is on, "RAW" is off) – it has a good quality and full range: it looks like a RAW copy, except a half resolution. But DNG→HEIC-convertion spoils everything. Many other convertion tools, like a ImageMagick or converting apps, produce the same faded washed copy of the DNG-photo, so I didn't find any way to properly convert DNG to HEIC, without losing dynamic range. I can show an example if needed. Second problem is edits. On many RAWs I did some croping and color modifications. And if I make a DNG→…-convertion, the edits will applied and the ability to edit the photo in the future will be lost. OK, I've found another hard way: 1. make a duplicate of the edited RAW-photo, 2. roll back all it's edits, 3. convert the copy to HEIC, 4. copy edits from the original, 5. paste edits to the HEIC-copy. This works, but dynamic range is lost (first problem above), and there is no way to copy crop settings from the RAW-original to the HEIC-copy. I'am tried sending the edited RAW via AirDrop to Mac (including the metadata in the transfer settings) but I get a JPEG instead of DNG-file. Thus, I can't convert RAWs properly event using a Mac or PC. The question is: how convert RAW to HEIC, keeping the HDR-range, edits and crops? I have about a 4000 RAWs which takes up about 700 GB of storage space. And I want co convert them to HEIC, but can't do it right.

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Apple Photos incorrectly processes RAW files from Fujifilm X-Trans sensors I am trying to process raw files from my old Fujifilm X-T10 in Apple Photos. I usually shoot raw+jpeg pairs so I'm able to compare in-camera and external processing. Attached are two crops, one is from a jpeg file, the other is from a raw file processed by Photos. As you can see, there are quite a lot of green/magenta artifacts in the processed image. To my understanding it looks like Photos does not take X-Trans sensor structure into account and applies incorrect demosaicing algorithm. Even when the processed images have no obvious artifacts they still look noticeably blurrier even with sharpening applied which indicates that some high-frequency details have been lost due to unnecessary debayering stage. The Fujifilm community has been dealing with this issue for quite a long time and there are multiple software solutions of varying quality and price point that correctly process X-Trans RAF files, but I'd like to be able to use iCloud Photos as my sole photo processing and organizing tool -- for example, it's very convenient to import new images from SD card right from the iPhone with camera connection kit straight to the photo library and get them on all devices within my iCloud account without extra steps. I am able to provide this raw+jpeg pair to the software engineering team for the purpose of refining the algorithms, please contact me directly if needed. And yes, I know there are ways to convert RAF to correctly demosaiced DNG files before importing them to Photos. I don't want to do this because it introduces an extra step in the process and works only on the Mac and not on the iPhone or iPad.

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Horrible RAW photos from iPhone 14 Plus There's either something really wrong with macOS RAW processing nowadays or with my new iPhone 14 Plus RAW engine. I use several third party apps (Filmic Firstlight, Halide, ProCamera, ProCam) and they've all delivered fine results before, whether I've opened / processed the RAWs in Photos, Affinity Photo, Photoscape X, Darktable or RawTherapee. I've used many iPhones from 7 all the way to this 14 Plus. I also had 13 Pro Max previously and RAW was working great. There never were real surprises when I viewed the RAW after taking. To be stressed, I never open / edit them in iPhone after taking but import them to Mac. There are many subjects I photograph but the most important are photos of my oilpaintings, and I need those for my online gallery and social media platforms. When I take the RAW on iPhone 14 Plus the preview shows it properly, no reasons to worry. However, opened in Photos or any of the mentioned apps the images are awfull: highlights washed out beyond rescue, often even blacks are crushed, sometimes colors are completely off and behave strangely when adjusting. RAW editing is completely useless, it's like trying to alter a severely blown out JPG... I can't even check whether the terrible oversharpening issue plagues RAW files as well as JPG and Heic. I hope this looks better than on my preview here... But the point is, the iPhone 7 RAW was taken before buying 14 Plus and before Ventura and the image reflects the original painting nicely. I just wanted to test whether I'd get an even better image with the 14 Plus. Even the iPhone 7's image is unnaturally sharp and shows the canvas grain and color gradations too crudely but I can live with that until I get a dedicated DSLR. Makes me angry as I paid 1100 euros to get better images than from my work phone, iPhone 7. But as you can see from the samples above, it's quite contrary. I included a comparison of shots with iPhone 14 Plus Heic and iPhone 7 edited RAW. The latter, in this case, is a bit soft, as there seems to have happened some change in the RAW processing pipeline of Ventura—a RAW of this painting came out sharper when I shot it before buying the 14 Plus. Now the unprocessed RAW was kind of greyish and unsharp which would suggest to me that macOS applied a different RAW processing routine to all RAWs after it noticed the new 14 Plus. Anyone had similar findings / thoughts? I still prefer the iPhone 7 RAWs to the 14 Plus' Heic files although the dynamic range and color representation are not that bad. The problem is the horrible oversharpening: my painting looks like a can of worms! The surface is not smooth, for sure, and there are slight "ridges" from the gesso but nothing like this. It's what people are complaining about Apple's latest image processing choices. I've seen face shots of my friends with pores looking like craters and wrinkles like rivers, taken on expensive iPhones. As a long time user of Apple products—Macs from 1988 Mac Plus and iPhones since iPhone 3—this is sad... The complaints have been there for years already but Apple doesn't seem to care (?). They have their "vision" of unnatural looking photos and we users should just stop complaining. I didn't mind as long as I had my freedom with RAW format but this is going insane if I can't control even that anymore. Between, I still love iPhone video quality and like ios way more than Android. Also otherwise I think 14 Plus is a very satisfactory phone. But please, fix the RAW issue at least! (Sorry for such long post and thanks for any real answers that don't fall under category of "learn how to take better photos".)

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Apple ProRaw is lousy and not a raw file

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