Is it possible there are RAW files somewhere?
September 17, 2018 5:52 PM   Subscribe

So I got back from a round the world trip where I took a lot of photos. Normally I shoot RAW but as I'm going through all the pics now on my mac in Photos they're showing up as JPGs. And there's no option to edit in RAW. It's possible I reset the camera and it went back to a raw default but I don't think so. Is there anywhere else these shots would be in RAW form on my computer?
posted by rileyray3000 to Technology (4 answers total)
 
Do you still have the SD card the pictures were on? Usually you can just plug that into your computer and browse it. If the RAWs are there you'll see file000.jpg and file000.raw. I have accidentally set my camera to JPG only without realizing it before, it sucks.
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:59 PM on September 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


I'm not quite clear on what you're asking. If you shot with your camera set to record in JPEG, JPEGs are all you get. There's no RAW in that case. Perhaps you set it to JPEG to take a few quick snaps that you didn't intend to (or want to) bother editing, and then forgot to set it back? I've done that more than once.

If you shot in RAW+JPEG there will be RAWs somewhere, unless you deleted them without noticing or remembering. Possible, but sounds unlikely.

If you shot in RAW only, you would have had to manually export the files as JPEGs either in-camera or on your computer, or else you would not have JPEGs at all. This seems very unlikely, I think you would have remembered doing that.

I think most likely you shot in JPEG without noticing, and JPEGs are what you're stuck with, unfortunately.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 6:01 PM on September 17, 2018


Does a spotlight search for "kind:raw" show up anything (...in the relevant date range)?
posted by pompomtom at 6:29 PM on September 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


The new Photos app tends to show the Jpeg as default, in my experience. There's probably a better link, but this was the first search hit: How to Switch to RAW Files in Photos for OS X.

I'd try this first, then check the SD card to see if RAW was recorded. If you've already wiped the card, then start digging around in the filesystem.
posted by mikeh at 6:35 AM on September 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


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