Can edits made in Photos be saved to RAW files?

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Level 1

4 points

Can edits made in Photos be saved to RAW files?

I actually have two questions:

1) Will edits made in Photos be automatically saved to the xmp or DNG RAW files?

2) If not, is there a way to either set this as a preference, or to perform a "mass save" of metadata to RAW files?

3) If neither of these is possible, does Photos monitor changes to RAW files, and update its images accordingly (i.e. can I make changes in Lightroom, save the metadata to RAW there, and then see those changes reflected in my Photos library?

Given the number of iOS devices in our household (and my non-professional photographer status), I am tempted to switch from Lightroom to Photshop as my main editing/sharing/viewing tool. However, I want to be sure that all of the edits I do can be (someday) saved back to the RAW files ... so that I can pick up where I left off in other (more advanced) photo editing programs. Does anyone know if this is (currently) an option within Photos?

Also, on the flip side (and especially if the answers to my above questions is "no"), does anyone know if Photos continuously monitors the RAW files that get imported, and adjusts its images accordingly? Specifically, if I can't use Photos as my primary editor, then can I use Lightroom (being sure to save metadata to RAW files after edits, and not just leave it in Lightroom's catalog file), and see changes in the images in my Photos library?

Thanks for any information/help you can provide!

--Ross

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), Photos for OS X

Posted on Apr 15, 2015 1:55 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,621 points

Apr 15, 2015 2:27 PM in response to Rossford31

1) Will edits made in Photos be automatically saved to the xmp or DNG RAW files?

Photos does not modify the original RAW files. Edits will be saved the library in the edited versions. Writing to the RAW files is not supported. Photos supports a lossless edit, where the original image files are kept as they originally were, end edits will be accumilated in the description of the edited versions.

When you want to export your RAW from the Photos library, you can ether render the edited image file as JPEG, TIFF, or PNG, or export the original RAW file with a sidecar file. This sidecar file does not contain the edits, only metadata tags like titles and keywords. If you store the photos in iCloud Photo Library, the original RAW files with the description of the edits to create the edited versions will sync between the devices.

However, I want to be sure that all of the edits I do can be (someday) saved back to the RAW files ... so that I can pick up where I left off in other (more advanced) photo editing programs. Does anyone know if this is (currently) an option within Photos?

That is not possible in Photos. The best you can do in Photos is export the original RAW and to render your edited images as TIFF, to have a high quality edited version.

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