Adobe Photoshop for iPad Gaining Support for RAW Images

[MacRumors]

Adobe today announced that Adobe Camera RAW support is coming to Photoshop on the iPad, which will allow Photoshop iPad users to import, open, and edit RAW files. The upcoming feature was highlighted in a demo video that Adobe shared on YouTube, but no details on when it will launch were provided.

According to Adobe, RAW support will work with file types ranging from DNG to Apple ProRAW, which is the RAW file format available on the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro models.

RAW files can be edited like any other image, with users able to adjust aspects like exposure and noise and use Photoshop's non-destructive editing and auto-adjustment tools.

Photoshop for iPad is part of Adobe's Creative Cloud plan. Access is available priced starting at $9.99 per month for the Photography plan.


Article Link: Adobe Photoshop for iPad Gaining Support for RAW Images

 

[FranApple]

I still don't understand where things are headed with the M1 chip in terms of software compatibility. Why are there still "for iPad" versions of ANY apps at this point? Isn't this a dead end for developers? They should be just developing universal apps shouldn't they? One upload into the App Store for iOS and MacOS M1 apps. What am I missing?

 

[NoSoup4U]

One of those stories where my response is, "You mean it didn't already support RAW?"

 

[filmantopia]

I still don't understand where things are headed with the M1 chip in terms of software compatibility. Why are there still "for iPad" versions of ANY apps at this point? Isn't this a dead end for developers? They should be just developing universal apps shouldn't they? One upload into the App Store for iOS and MacOS M1 apps. What am I missing?

The interface of an iPad app has to be different than a Mac, to be designed around touch. That said, we’ll certainly get to a point where there is a lot more fluidity between more desktop and mobile apps.

 

[baryon]

One of those stories where my response is, "You mean it didn't already support RAW?"

Exactly! What exactly were people doing with an app named "Photo" shop then? Drawing pictures?

Also how do you edit large files on an iPad with tiny storage? Can you attach a USB hard drive, or does that only work on the iPad Pro that happens to have a USB port?

 

[poematik13]

wow lmao this whole time it didn't support it?

Marketing ipadOS as some kind of "productivity" platform that can "replace your computeR" is a huge joke

 

[sfwalter]

Still can't hold a candlestick to Affinity Photo on the iPad. They are still missing key features from the raw processor including Curves.

 

[friedmud]

You can tell that all of the current commenters here are not photographers.

RAW is a particular way of shooting that captures "raw" data from the sensor of your camera. This means that there are _tons_ of "formats"... they are essentially different for every camera maker (and sometimes between cameras).

RAW files are _not_ "images". They are _data_. To make an image you have to "develop" the RAW into an image. Traditionally, this has been done using a RAW workflow that first included an app like Adobe RAW to do the original "developing" of the RAW... then you would go to Photoshop to touch-up / add to the photo. It's only been relatively recently that Photoshop on PCs allowed direct importing of RAW files.

Personally, I use Adobe Lightroom for importing all of my RAW files and developing them. It has an iPad version (I won't get into how the new Adobe Lightroom is different from "Classic" - it's somewhat like the debate about FCPX vs FCP) that has worked awesome for _years_ for developing RAW files... and you can open what you develop in Photoshop.

So: there hasn't been a problem with having a RAW workflow on the iPad for a while now. All this is doing is making it so that if you want to go directly to Photoshop with a RAW you can.

Now...

I still don't understand where things are headed with the M1 chip in terms of software compatibility. Why are there still "for iPad" versions of ANY apps at this point? Isn't this a dead end for developers? They should be just developing universal apps shouldn't they? One upload into the App Store for iOS and MacOS M1 apps. What am I missing?

I suspect that Photoshop on the iPad is getting this capability precisely _because_ of the M1 macs. They added it to photoshop on the M1 macs - so it made it easy to add to their iPad app. This same thing has been happening to Lightroom and Photoshop since the M1 macs debuted... the iPad versions continue to gain parity with the Mac versions.

As another poster pointed out: the iPad UI is very different... so there will always be pieces that are iPad only.

One of those stories where my response is, "You mean it didn't already support RAW?"

If you are serious about photography then you already have a RAW workflow - even on the iPad. Photoshop is generally not the first place to start with a RAW file.

The interface of an iPad app has to be different than a Mac, to be designed around touch. That said, we’ll certainly get to a point where there is a lot more fluidity between more desktop and mobile apps.

Yep.

Exactly! What exactly were people doing with an app named "Photo" shop then? Drawing pictures?

Also how do you edit large files on an iPad with tiny storage? Can you attach a USB hard drive, or does that only work on the iPad Pro that happens to have a USB port?

Working on _photos_... which are "developed" from RAW data files in another app (like Lightroom).

wow lmao this whole time it didn't support it?

Marketing ipadOS as some kind of "productivity" platform that can "replace your computeR" is a huge joke

Ridiculous. I've been using an iPad as one of my main photography productivity devices for about 5 years now (since Lightroom came out for iPad). It's actually an awesome platform for photography. Adobe's apps are fast and have a great iPad UI.

 

[poematik13]

You can tell that all of the current commenters here are not photographers.

I shoot branded content for a living lol

ipads are for consumption only. The OS is a joke.

 

[TravelsInBlue]

You can tell that all of the current commenters here are not photographers.

RAW is a particular way of shooting that captures "raw" data from the sensor of your camera. This means that there are _tons_ of "formats"... they are essentially different for every camera maker (and sometimes between cameras).

RAW files are _not_ "images". They are _data_. To make an image you have to "develop" the RAW into an image. Traditionally, this has been done using a RAW workflow that first included an app like Adobe RAW to do the original "developing" of the RAW... then you would go to Photoshop to touch-up / add to the photo. It's only been relatively recently that Photoshop on PCs allowed direct importing of RAW files.

Next time I go to open up a jpg, I’m going to say it’s gotta be “developed” by preview. Literally every file is data.


On the flip side, somebody said they hope for universal apps to be developed. I hope that doesn’t happen since having an app become tough friendly would definitely hurt the functionality and UI experience of using a real computer. The ipad is not a serious productivity device. Sure you can do some basic workflows on it, but for the cost of the keyboard and pen it makes much more sense to get a MacBook Air, which has now become an outstanding thin and light.

 

[friedmud]

Next time I go to open up a jpg, I’m going to say it’s gotta be “developed” by preview. Literally every file is data.


On the flip side, somebody said they hope for universal apps to be developed. I hope that doesn’t happen since having an app become tough friendly would definitely hurt the functionality and UI experience of using a real computer. The ipad is not a serious productivity device. Sure you can do some basic workflows on it, but for the cost of the keyboard and pen it makes much more sense to get a MacBook Air, which has now become an outstanding thin and light.

The difference is that there is a 1-to-1 mapping between the data in a JPG file and the pixels rendered from it. That's not true of a RAW file. It's sensor data that can be interpreted in an infinite number of ways - it's actually the reason to shoot RAW... because it gives you a lot more flexibility.

 

[friedmud]

I shoot branded content for a living lol

ipads are for consumption only. The OS is a joke.

A very broad statement... lots of people find them useful productivity tools - including myself.

Sure - Lightroom works great on PCs... but I actually like the UI better on my iPad. I can _very_ quickly make needed adjustments, and using the Apple Pencil to do finer touch-ups is awesome.

Everyone has different needs (including different types of photographers). It's fine if you don't like iPads but that doesn't preclude them from being useful to others.

 

[TechRemarker]

I still don't understand where things are headed with the M1 chip in terms of software compatibility. Why are there still "for iPad" versions of ANY apps at this point? Isn't this a dead end for developers? They should be just developing universal apps shouldn't they? One upload into the App Store for iOS and MacOS M1 apps. What am I missing?

If one uses an iPad always connected to keyboard with a touchpad, I could see why someone might want the Mac version mirrored as is on the iPad, but for all who use iPad via touch one certainly want the mac version, they want one optimized for touch. And one certainly wouldn't want a Mac app that is completely dumbed down to the limitations of the iPad version. For simple apps universal is possible but for complex apps doesn't make any sense.

 

[TechRemarker]

Most pro users still use Adobe Classic to import and most of the serious editing and organizing and then can sync albums that can be edited in Lightroom or Lightroom on iPad. The problem is one can't import into the Lightroom or Lightroom for iOS and have it sync to classic. Until they fix that, iPad is still majorly limited for pro users. Had hoped the new Lightroom would reach feature parity with Classic sooner than later so that we could all make the switch, but while the new lightroom is slowly getting new features, it's going quite slow and no timeline on when or if it will ever reach feature parity. Right now there are lots of major deal breaking features missing for pro users. Adobe may simply decide their is much bigger market for non pro users so they will focus on them.

 

[jsalda]

One of those stories where my response is, "You mean it didn't already support RAW?"

I have very little reason to import RAW directly to iPad Photoshop, usually, I import to Lightroom and then can roundtrip it to PS if I need to. I would think most photo professionals do the same.

PS on the iPad is pretty useless IMO, Adobe needs to make some major strides to get it to a usable app. Every time I try and use it for paying work, I end up closing my iPad Pro and grabbing my MBP. It’s a shame as my M1 iPad Pro has more power than my Intel based MBP. Hopefully, there’s major updates coming from Adobe at MAX this year.

 

[bradman83]

I still don't understand where things are headed with the M1 chip in terms of software compatibility. Why are there still "for iPad" versions of ANY apps at this point? Isn't this a dead end for developers? They should be just developing universal apps shouldn't they? One upload into the App Store for iOS and MacOS M1 apps. What am I missing?

The source code between apps can absolutely be shared, which is likely why Photoshop and Lightroom were the first apps to go M1 native (because iPad versions already existed). In addition to interface there are certain architectural differences - namely that iPadOS/iOS does not have any sort of virtual memory system whereas macOS does, so developers of heavyweight professional apps need to be conscientious about RAM consumption for their apps to work on an iPad’s smaller and un-expandable RAM footprint.

 

[friedmud]

Most pro users still use Adobe Classic to import and most of the serious editing and organizing and then can sync albums that can be edited in Lightroom or Lightroom on iPad. The problem is one can't import into the Lightroom or Lightroom for iOS and have it sync to classic. Until they fix that, iPad is still majorly limited for pro users. Had hoped the new Lightroom would reach feature parity with Classic sooner than later so that we could all make the switch, but while the new lightroom is slowly getting new features, it's going quite slow and no timeline on when or if it will ever reach feature parity. Right now there are lots of major deal breaking features missing for pro users. Adobe may simply decide their is much bigger market for non pro users so they will focus on them.

The new Lightroom finally got good enough for me to switch to it 100% starting last summer... but with landscape photography, I have a lot fewer requirements than other types of photography. I completely agree that it has taken them _forever_ to get the new Lightroom going but it is finally coming along well now. Now, new features are landing in both Classic and New at the same time (like the AI-enabled "enhance" capabilities that were recently added) and across platforms (Mac/PC and iPad).

My largest gripe is still the lack of export options - especially the lack of ability to create your own presets. It just doesn't make sense. Luckily, I can still get by with the provided options due to basically only exporting two different types of photos: smaller ones for social media and full-res for selling on my website... but damn... it doesn't seem like it should be that hard to give us some more options!

 

[Sean.]

wow lmao this whole time it didn't support it?

Marketing ipadOS as some kind of "productivity" platform that can "replace your computeR" is a huge joke

Both Lightroom and Affinity Photo had this, but Photoshop did not until now.

 

[Sean.]

Just got done editing the whole wedding I photoed recently using only my iPad. All my RAW photos go directly into Lightroom so never had the need for this, but a welcome addition. I love using the Apple Pencil with adjustment brushes and the flexibility to switch between mouse & keyboard when I want.

 

[drcre8tive]

I'm curious about how Photoshop on the iPad will handle editing / saving the RAW sidecar .xmp file... is it all only cloud-based, or saved locally on the device? One shortcoming (I've found) is that iOS has no real usable file/folder hierarchy.

 

[cupcakes2000]

iOS has no real usable file/folder hierarchy.

Of course it does. What are you referring to?

 

[poematik13]

Of course it does. What are you referring to?

Probably the fact that theres no master local/native file explorer like Finder on macOS. All the apps are sandboxed into their own account/cloud BS or you’re forced to use icloud drive or dropbox which is slow and less responsive because everything is getting uploaded/downloaded and processed constantly

I cant natively drag and drop files from my camera’s SD card over to the internal ssd- there’s no destination, its just apps letting you access the files from the device thru a context menu

ipadOS doesnt offer the full fat freedom that macOS does, and it never will, because its designed around individual apps and not a cohesive environment

 

[cupcakes2000]

Probably the fact that theres no master local/native file explorer like Finder on macOS. All the apps are sandboxed into their own account/cloud BS or you’re forced to use icloud drive or dropbox which is slow and less responsive because everything is getting uploaded/downloaded and processed constantly

I cant natively drag and drop files from my camera’s SD card over to the internal ssd- there’s no destination, its just apps letting you access the files from the device thru a context menu

ipadOS doesnt offer the full fat freedom that macOS does, and it never will, because its designed around individual apps and not a cohesive environment

Clearly written by someone that doesn’t use the OS it it’s potential then.

All of what is written here is completely possible. It’s a different system - yes. It may require a different workflow even. You even may need to relearn stuff! But all perfectly possible and completely usable. Easy even.

It’s not the same as macos. Did anyone ever say it was? Does anyone expect it to be after years of iPhone?

I don’t know what to say, either you’re guessing and/or just relying on what ‘you have heard’, or else you don’t have the abilities and/or patience to problem solve your way to a different system. Or you don’t want to - in which case don’t worry about it!

 

[friedmud]

Probably the fact that theres no master local/native file explorer like Finder on macOS. All the apps are sandboxed into their own account/cloud BS or you’re forced to use icloud drive or dropbox which is slow and less responsive because everything is getting uploaded/downloaded and processed constantly

I cant natively drag and drop files from my camera’s SD card over to the internal ssd- there’s no destination, its just apps letting you access the files from the device thru a context menu

ipadOS doesnt offer the full fat freedom that macOS does, and it never will, because its designed around individual apps and not a cohesive environment

I'm starting to wonder if you've even used an iPad (or even iOS) in the past four years or so.

The `Files` app is a real thing - and presents a "master local/native file explorer like Finder on macOS". I can absolutely hook up my USB-C SD card reader to my iPad and copy images to a local folder. Then, in any photo app I can open them.

Seriously: you're out of touch.

 

[sharpimage]

Still can't hold a candlestick to Affinity Photo on the iPad. They are still missing key features from the raw processor including Curves.

are you a beta tester? anything else you can share?