Apple Photos and E-M1 Mk2 RAW - can't access?

[Ledgem]

Greetings all!

Looking for a bit of assistance with this one... I shoot with an Olympus E-M1 MkII in RAW+JPEG mode, and import both. Used to use Aperture, but currently using Photos for asset management while waiting to see what MacPhun's rumored DAM software looks like.

Here's the problem: I recently wanted to edit a photo in-depth, possibly just doing adjustments in Photos but possibly using macOS High Sierra's new Photos and tie-in with Pixelmator... but I couldn't get Photos to switch over to the RAW. I checked instruction sites, which state to select the image, then go to the Image menu and choose "Use RAW as Original" (similar to Aperture, I suppose)... but that option is greyed out. Photos clearly recognizes the linked RAW, because if I export unmodified originals then I have a JPEG and ORF (Olympus Raw Format) file. I can even view the ORF, so I know my system properly has support for the E-M1 MkII's files. So what gives? Anyone else run into this issue, and know how to resolve it?

 

[robgendreau]

I assume you mean by "switch over to the raw" that you want the RAW seen. I take it the pairs in the grid view have that J showing, not the R, right?

AFAIK the "Use RAW as original" works once you put the image (the JPEG of the pair) into Edit mode. Then use the command. When you leave the edit module, you should see the little R, not the J, as confirmation. You might also see the image change in Edit as you switch to raw or back.

Not sure if there's a way to do that in bulk, but this process confused me with a couple of old RAW/JPEG pairs I had (and reminded me why I stopped doing such pairs).

 

[kenoh]

When you are viewing the raw, is t not just shoing the embedded jpeg preview inside it?

I just looked on apple support and you need version 10.12.4 for EM1 mkii support.

Are you up to date on OS updates?

 

[Ledgem]

Thank you for the replies. This is on the latest version of Mac OS (10.13.0). The suggestion to go into editing mode and then select "use RAW as original" seems to work. Why they decided to hide it that way is really beyond me… I could understand it if they wanted to prevent people from doing it accidentally, but I would think that anybody selecting to use RAW knows what it is and knows what they are doing, and thus there is no need to hide it like that.

So just to summarize, for anybody who might find this thread with a similar issue, the solution at present is to select to edit an image, at which point you can choose to use RAW from the "image" menu.

 

[robgendreau]

Thank you for the replies. This is on the latest version of Mac OS (10.13.0). The suggestion to go into editing mode and then select "use RAW as original" seems to work. Why they decided to hide it that way is really beyond me… I could understand it if they wanted to prevent people from doing it accidentally, but I would think that anybody selecting to use RAW knows what it is and knows what they are doing, and thus there is no need to hide it like that.

So just to summarize, for anybody who might find this thread with a similar issue, the solution at present is to select to edit an image, at which point you can choose to use RAW from the "image" menu.

Yeah, took me a while to find it too. I seem to recall they also had an icon in Sierra that would show RAW or JPEG. But overall the RAW workflow in Photos is kinda meh, and using JPEGs with RAW (and with the JPEGs that Photos also generates) is gonna require some thoughtful workflow. I haven't tried to see if say using the raw and/or jpeg as referenced images changes anything, or makes it easier.