Today’s Question: I recently downloaded photos from my iPhone to my computer and on looking at them realized that all were in the JPEG format and none of the raw [Apple ProRAW] captures came as raw. What did I do wrong and what can I do to get my raw captures?
Tim’s Quick Answer: If you use the Apple ProRAW capture option on an iPhone, you’ll need to use specific workflow options for transferring those captures to your computer to retain the raw capture format.
More Detail: Certain of the higher-end recent models (Pro and Pro Max of Apple iPhone (since the iPhone 12) support shooting in raw via the Apple CameraRAW format, which is actually a variation on the Adobe Digital Negative (DNG) format. However, simply downloading those captures directly to your computer will result in images converted to JPEG rather than the original raw capture format.
One option for retaining the original raw capture format for Apple ProRAW captures is to make use of iCloud synchronization. That will cause the images to appear in the Photos application on your Macintosh computer (assuming both are set to synchronize photos with the same Apple ID). You can then export the original captures from the Photos application on your computer using the menu command File > Export > Export Unmodified Original.
Note that for Windows users, the same workflow above could be used, except that instead of using the Apple Photos application (since it isn’t available for Windows) you can access your photos by signing in using your Apple ID at iCloud.com and go to the Photos app to download the original photos.
You can also retain the raw capture format by sending the ProRAW captures to your computer using AirDrop. If the photo had been edited on your device, it will be shared as a JPEG via AirDrop. In that case you’ll need to first use the Duplicate option on the sharing options, edit that duplicate and choose the Revert command, and then use AirDrop to send the image.
While it could be argued that automatically converting shared ProRAW captures to JPEG represents a convenience, it also represents a workflow challenge for photographers who want to retain the original raw capture format. Fortunately, there are a couple of ways you can transfer the raw captures to your computer without too much difficulty.
