Importing raw photo files to Lightroom

Bill Dunnuck · Apr 11, 2019

I have a H Plus and don’t know how to use the raw files. Photos taken in raw and JPG. Using Sand Disc supreme sd. Transfer file via Lexar card reader to iPad. Raw file will not open. Message Unsupported Raw File. JPG works just fine. I think raw photo file has to be opened to move photos to Lightroom mobile?
How do you open raw files? How do you process. I understand from this site that I will get better photo results in raw.
Steve Carr expained the three file lines. JPG, Raw and thumbnail. Thanks you Steve.
Bill Dunnuck

AH-1G · Apr 11, 2019

@Bill Dunnuck
I use LR,
When you open LR go to Library, click and drag Raw image into Library.
Wait a couple second then on the bottom right click on import. once imported click on the picture.
Then on the top right click on develop. Then you can start correcting the image.

AH-1G · Apr 11, 2019

Here is an example I just did in a hurry.
My camera was on before I took off.
RAW

LightRoom, then I sved it through Photoshop as a jpeg.

AH-1G · Apr 11, 2019

this same Raw image went through AirMagic then through Photoshop convert to a smaller file then to jpeg.

Bill Dunnuck · Apr 11, 2019

Thank you. I am using iPad only. The photo in raw does not come up when you try to open it on the iPad. So if it won’t open how do I get it over to the iPad? Don’t think you can drag on iPad.
Is there really a big difference between Raw and JPG. I don’t think JPG is too bad after using Lightroom.

Bill Dunnuck · Apr 11, 2019

Forgot to mention, your photos are really nice.
Bill

DoomMeister · Apr 11, 2019

I just went to my old version of LR (v3.0) on my PC and it is able to import the Yuneec DNG files. The iPad version has even a wider range of cameras and lenses in the Adobe RAW (DNG) codec that it uses. The only thing I can figure is that they have to be imported.

You should be able to open LR and point it to the external SD card and import directly. Working with RAW is a bit time consuming, but you can really do a lot with it. The JPEG files are very lossy by comparison.

here is a good video to show the differences achievable between JPEG and DNG.

AH-1G · Apr 11, 2019

@Bill Dunnuck
Yes big difference, and depends how you want to use the finished pic?
For customers that aren't to concerned I use PNG of TIFF.
for here I sometimes use JPEG.
Raw is a very large file as you probably know, I'm not familiar with iPad

Bill Dunnuck · Apr 11, 2019

Right. That’s the problem. How to import? Easy when you have a photo in JPG. No photo in raw file.

Eagle's Eye Video · Apr 11, 2019

Bill did you try my suggestion in the other thread, trying to use a free image conversion program to create a file format that your iPad can read... such as an uncompressed TIFF?

Bill Dunnuck · Apr 11, 2019

I don’t know how to do that. What is TIFF?
Sorry to be so dumb.

Eagle's Eye Video · Apr 11, 2019

No, no, no, no, no... no apologies... we are all here to learn. TIFF is Tagged Image File Format... one of many different image formats. The biggest reason to use TIFFs is that it is a "lossless" image format... you do not lose image quality when making this conversion.

To make this conversion you need a separate program to do that... there are several online image converters or you can download a standalone product, such as the one I use:

Pixillion

First thing I would do is go to the Hubble Space Telescope website:

Hubble Space Telescope

an excellent source for downloading images in TIFF format... download one of those to your iPad, and see if it opens. If it does, you know that you can use TIFFs as an alternative to the DNG files... even if your iPad does not recognize the DNG files to open them, the files will still be able to be imported into Pixillion (or uploaded to an online converter site).

NorWiscPilot · Apr 11, 2019

Bill,

Tiff is just another file format for images. [Ed: as @Eagle's Eye Video pointed out while I was crafting this reply.]

Question: Do you have Lightroom already installed onto your iPad? If not, that should be your next task.

Once you have Lightroom, you should be able to "import" your raw image files into Lightroom.

Note: You should be able to "copy" all your images from your memory card to a folder on your iPad, without "opening" any files first. This is just a straight copy. Once in your iPad folder, from there it is just a matter of running Lightroom, selecting "import..." and finding that folder to which you copied your images.

Once you get the hang of this procedure, then you can start thinking about actually working with the images. There are all kinds of tutorials regarding the use of Lightroom. Remember - once in Lightroom, it does not matter what produced the images. It does not matter if it was a fancy DSLR, a point and shoot, a phone, or a drone that captured the image. Hence any of the tutorials should apply.

Good luck!

Jeff

Bill Dunnuck · Apr 12, 2019

NorWiscPilot said:
Bill,

Tiff is just another file format for images. [Ed: as @Eagle's Eye Video pointed out while I was crafting this reply.]

Question: Do you have Lightroom already installed onto your iPad? If not, that should be your next task.

Once you have Lightroom, you should be able to "import" your raw image files into Lightroom.

Note: You should be able to "copy" all your images from your memory card to a folder on your iPad, without "opening" any files first. This is just a straight copy. Once in your iPad folder, from there it is just a matter of running Lightroom, selecting "import..." and finding that folder to which you copied your images.

Once you get the hang of this procedure, then you can start thinking about actually working with the images. There are all kinds of tutorials regarding the use of Lightroom. Remember - once in Lightroom, it does not matter what produced the images. It does not matter if it was a fancy DSLR, a point and shoot, a phone, or a drone that captured the image. Hence any of the tutorials should apply.

Good luck!

Jeff

Many thanks to Eagle’s Eye and to Jeff for taking their time to help me out. You are both very helpful. I’m kinda asking myself, what don’t I stick with JPG and LR for any corrections? Many have said that shooting raw is so much better so I will push forward. Thank you.
Bill

Bill Dunnuck · Apr 12, 2019

Bill Dunnuck said:
Many thanks to Eagle’s Eye and to Jeff for taking their time to help me out. You are both very helpful. I’m kinda asking myself, what don’t I stick with JPG and LR for any corrections? Many have said that shooting raw is so much better so I will push forward. Thank you.
Bill

Forgot to mention, checked on Pixillion and it’s not available for iPad.
Biil

Bill Dunnuck · Apr 12, 2019

So, I tried moving DNG unsupported file to Dropbox and it worked. Now how do I get it to LR? Step by step I guess. I tried moving file from Dropbox back to my camera roll. Big file still downloading. Not sure that is going to work.
Bill

AH-1G · Apr 12, 2019

Every 5 minutes of video is 1.75GB at 30fps 4k. Depending on how many raw pics you took could also be enormous?

Bill Dunnuck · Apr 12, 2019

Bill Dunnuck said:
So, I tried moving DNG unsupported file to Dropbox and it worked. Now how do I get it to LR? Step by step I guess. I tried moving file from Dropbox back to my camera roll. Big file still downloading. Not sure that is going to work.
Bill

Working with me is like pulling teeth one at a time to find the bad one. ? So, I figured out how to export the DNG file from Dropbox to LR then doctored it up to the best of my ability. A lot of file space but it does look good. Yikes.
Bill

Eagle's Eye Video · Apr 12, 2019

Yep, the potential from a JPG created from the original DNG is very good. The problem has always been the really crappy settings the Yuneec engineers used for the specifications of the C23 original JPGs.

Clearly demonstrated here:

JPG vs DNG direct comparison - C23