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How to import DNG files from iphone camera roll to LR mobile with edits

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JohnShore

New Member
Premium Classic Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2019
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4
Lightroom Version Number
LR Mobile3 v 9.1.1
Operating System
  1. Windows 11
  2. iOS
When I import raw (dng) photos from my iphone camera roll to LR Mobile, edits I have made on the iphone are not carried over (i.e., LR Mobile imports the original raw photo). Is there any way to import the edited version, either as an edited dng or even as an edited jpg?
 
Edits in Apple Photos (assuming that is what you used) are non-destructive edits like Lightroom uses, but these kind of edits are not compatible. I suppose you could save them as jpeg (which will burn the edits into the pixels), but why don't you make all your edits in Lightroom if you are ging to import the photos anyway?
 
Thanks Johan. It's good to know that I can't do it because of the incompatibility of raw edits.

As for why: I often edit on the iphone in order to use photos immediately (e.g., social media), but later edit in LR Classic (after syncing with LR Mobile via the cloud). If I get the edited dng, that would give me the option of using (or improving) the iphone edits as well as starting from scratch.
I've since discovered another way to do this, namely to connect the iphone to my desktop (via USB) and then import directly from iphone storage into LR. If I've edited the dng on the iphone, two versions appear in iphone storage - the original dng, and a jpg resulting from the edited dng. Although I can't then edit the original dng starting with the iphone edits, having a jpg with the iphone edits gets me what I need in many cases. This process has the additional big advantage that it's much faster than waiting for the LR Mobile to sync with cloud storage and then for LR Classic in turn to sync with cloud storage.

Thanks again.
js
 
Maybe this is an idea: use the built-in camera app of Lightroom mobile to shoot photos on your phone, not Apple’s camera app. I do that and it couldn’t be easier. My phone photos are in Lightroom mobile from the moment I took them. I can edit them in Lightroom mobile and use them right away for things like social media, and they will automatically sync to Lightroom Classic when I get home.
 
As for why: I often edit on the iphone in order to use photos immediately (e.g., social media), but later edit in LR Classic (after syncing with LR Mobile via the cloud). If I get the edited dng, that would give me the option of using (or improving) the iphone edits as well as starting from scratch.
I prefer Lightroom Mobile on the phone for quick edits and sharing. If using the Photos camera, you can set up a Lightroom Album to auto import from device photos. Otherwise use the Lightroom Camera. Do what edits you wish in the Lightroom mobile app, Share the results to social media and let Lightroom sync to the Adobe Cloud and from there down to LrC. All of your iPhone Lightroom edits arrive with the image file. No need to import later, the images sync to LrC from the Adobe Cloud, could not be more convenient.
 
Johan and Cletus - using the LR camera works great as you describe, but in my case I don't want to forgo advantages of the apple photos app (browsing features, album structure, icloud sync, auto-selection of favorites to display on iphone widgets, etc.). Yes, I can export from LR Mobile to apple photos, but I don't want to go to the error-prone trouble of maintaining full or even partial parallel album structures.

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to make the suggestion.

js
 
but I don't want to go to the error-prone trouble of maintaining full or even partial parallel album structures.
About 16 years ago I went from being a Microsoft computer user to totally Apple. This happened shortly after I retired, no longer needed Windows for work, and Got my first iPhone. The. I realized how kludgy working in iCloud Photos was on a Windows machine, and how well things integrated in the Apple world, I bought my first iMac. Currently I have the latest iPhone, two iPadPros, Apple Watch and a Mac Studio. My wife has an iPad, iPhone and a MacBookPro. I've used Lightroom since v2 and it is my only Image manager. I tried making the Photos app on work for phone photos on my Mac but this created as many problems as it solved. Eventually, I decided that you can have only one image management to manage your images. I find that the Adobe Cloud can do that for me and Lightroom mobile, Lightroom classic, Lightroom for the Web and Adobe Portfolio can do everything where iCloud can only do some of the things that I want to do with my photos. The Lightroom Environment is my only image management environment. To that end I have eliminated iCloud and any Apple Photos app from my workflow, removed the Photos app and camera from my iPhone home page. My iCloud Photos storage area remains empty. I am only suggesting that you consider a non iCloud option,
 
High Cletus. Thanks for taking the time to summarize your experience. I have no doubt that taking an Adobe-only approach works very well. Unfortunately, there are some features of the Apple photo ecosystem (especially on the phone itself) that I use and don't want to give up, so Adobe-only isn't an option for me. But I think I've figured out to have a hybrid approach that's still a good workflow.
 
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