On 8.29.15-
In Photos 1.01 on a MacBook Air, when I attempt to edit a photo and make density and color adjustments, the program inserts blocky digital squares of highly colored pixels into the image area. These seem to be embedded in the original and cannot be removed, even by reverting to original. Luckily I still have the camera originals but this is a pretty fatal flaw in Photos.....
MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)
Welp, it's 2017, and I'm still having these issues with my Sony A7RII running Photos in macOS Sierra on a mid-2015 15" Retina MacBook Pro. I thought I had a problem with the video card, but I guess this is a software issue? One way for me to repair this was to run the image through a Photos extension, like DxO Optics Pro, and there the anomalies disappeared, probably because the processed image in no longer RAW.
Repair the library according to this Apple document: Repair Your Library.
Re-built the library according to instructions but it did not remove the corrupted files. All of the corrupted files are very large RAW files, (43 MB) shot on a Sony A7RII. Perhaps that file size in RAW is too large for Photos to handle.....
Export a couple of the problem RAW files to the Destkop using the File âž™ Export Unmodified Original... menu option.
Open the files with Preview to see if they open without a problem. Once you've confirmed that the files are not damaged try these two tests:
1 - launch Photos with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Import those raw image files and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it?
2 - log into another user account on your Mac, import those same raw files into a Photos library there and again test the edit function to see if the problem is system wide or limited to your account.
OK. Still no solution. I am running Yosemite 10.10.5 and Camera Raw 6.06, which is apparently the latest update. Created a new library in my account and imported the A7RII image files into that library and attempted simple edit. Immediate corruption. Then went to a different account on this computer and imported the pictures into Photos and did an edit adjustment. Immediate corruption.
Earlier today I successfully opened a photo in Preview in my account. No corruption. Tried to adjust size and it was corrupted. Tried to export the picture as a TIF and a JPG. Immediate corruption. Finally was able to export the picture successfully as a PDF (214 MB) and then export it from Acrobat as a JPG of reasonable size. I suspect that the Photos application may be corrupted and need to be re-installed. But I'm not sure why I could not modify the size of the file in Preview without corruption. I think it's unlikely that both applications are corrupted.
Suggestions welcome. Thx. RK
First thing I thought: is your camera supported? Check here: Digital camera RAW formats supported by OS X Yosemite - Apple Support
Second: personally I would never use a 'toy' like iPhoto (previously) or Photos (currently) to 'entrust' my precious RAW files to. In principle (I use Canon, so CR2 files) are stored on an external hard drive and referenced in a RAW-developer of choice (Adobe Camera RAW, Lightroom 6, Aperture 3, DxO OP10.4). Modifications are never made to the file itself, but are located in 'sidecar files' or in the RAW Developer's database. Only when you 'save as' (say, as a PSD in Photoshop) or 'export as' (say as a JPG or TIFF in LR) will the changes be included in the modified file. But the original remains untouched. Which unfortunately does not mean that it cannot get corrupted, but that's a different story.
The Sony A7RII is on the Apple list of supported cameras.
According to Photos Help, the originals are preserved and you can revert at any time:
"When you change a photo, Photos keeps the original so you can always undo your changes and revert to the original look."
However, in my case, the "revert" feature does not function and the original is unrecoverable.
I do agree with you that Lightroom is a better tool; I am using Photos for simple and quick changes that don't require a large toolset.
So, the corruption I am experiencing is still a mystery....
Thx.
RK
<<So, the corruption I am experiencing is still a mystery....>>
To me as well, because iPhoto and Aperture, as well as Photos, leave the original intact and store a modified copy (the format is even different because a RAW cannot be changed as such, with the exception of file types like DNG) in a different folder inside the Library. You must be able to export an "Unmodified Original" as you can see under the File-menu.
Something else must be playing a role...
More experiments. The "revert to original" command in Photos does not have any effect on the corrupted file but if I "export" an unmodified original, that is successful. I can then open that RAW file in Preview and export a TIF file which, although very large, can then be imported into Photos and successfully edited and it will "revert" to original (the TIF). So, all I can conclude is that there is something about the original RAW camera file that neither Photos nor Preview like, insofar as creating the sidecar meta-data files is concerned. Next experiment is to try a different , newly formatted card in the camera and see if the corruption is occurring there, even though the files appear to be perfect. Will update. Thx. RK
Great! At least you know how to get to "The Real Untouched & Unmodified Original" by exporting. 😉
Keep us updated.
Did the test with other newly formatted card and I think I figured it out. The RAW files form this camera are so large (43MB on average) that it takes Photos quite a while to build a complete thumbnail file that is stable. Since there is no visible indicator of the completeness or the stability of the thumbnail file, if you attempt to open the photo before the thumbnail is complete and closed, you run the risk of corrupting the image. However, if you wait long enough, the thumbnail is stable and can be edited without corruption. With smaller RAW files, the time for this to happen is insignificant and so it is not an issue. However, with files this large (and dependent on the processing power of the computer) it may become a factor. This accounts for the random corruption events and the fact that the original files are not corrupted and the fact that it will not "revert" because the thumbnail that represents the unmodified original is already corrupted. Apple could also fix this problem by having Photos build a new thumbnail from the original when you hit "revert" but this would slow things down a bit. Thanks for the good questions. RK
Excellent finding. Glad I could assist, but you yourself actually did the job.
edit corruption
