Lightroom: Capability to display embedded preview or sidecar Jpeg

I would like to point out that this request was filed 3 years ago and plenty of people have since confirmed they want it. There are writeups all over the Web on how to try to workaround this frustrating limitation. Yet there is no Adobe response here about what they're going to do. That's clearly poor product management. The least they can do is say what their plan is.

Lacking easy management of sidecar files -- and yes, importing them as separate pictures is simply unacceptable for a professional level application -- is the biggest pain in using this product in daily workflow. I'm always switching out of Lightroom to look at the sidecar file using another application. Why I would have to do this many years after this basic workflow feature was widely requested by users is inexplicable to me.

Some of you may be interested in the script (not a plugin):

'Import Raws For Jpegs'

It finds the raw files corresponding to selected jpegs (in your raw storage area, or card if still there) and imports them:

MiscScripts

The reasons for wanting Lr to support access to embedded preview and/or jpeg sidecar are many and varied, but to attempt a summary:

* Performance: embedded previews do not need to be rendered - they already are.
* Comparison: it's very common to *want* to compare one's work in Lr with what was done using a different software (including in-camera rendering). One could argue that it isn't necessary, but that won't keep people from wanting to do it. I don't do it very often anymore, but it took years of transitioning... Yeah, you can open the file in the other software, but comparing in that fashion is not as convenient as using Lr's compare view (or before/after comparison feature).
* Immediate use, in case jpeg (usually sidecar in this case), is good enough, at least for now (raw to be imported later, maybe).

Currently the options are:
* Have both on disk and in catalog as separate photos.
* Have no in-Lr access to embedded or sidecar jpeg.

People don't want to have to clutter catalog with both copies, or populate disk with raws which aren't needed yet..

Note: this is not a big deal to me, anymore, but I get that it is still a big deal for a lot of people..

I'm late to this party, but just want to add my vote. My preference is to do as much as possible in one piece of software, and at the moment, for me that is Lightroom.

My key requirement is to easily toggle between RAW and jpeg for a single image, with shared meta-data and the ability to select which one is the primary. That would allow me to use the jpeg for happy-snaps or where the quality is good enough, or switch to RAW for any serious post-processing.

Also nice to have:
- ability to toggle the grid view between all-RAW, all-jpeg and mixed user-selections.
- default initial post-import view to jpeg to avoid the need to render (or maybe user-defined preference?)
- ability to do all this from the emedded jpeg (not sure what value there would be in shooting / importing/storing both seperately if you had easier access to the embedded jpeg?)

Given the amount / length of the debate here and on other forums I'm not optimistic about progress. However, having recently made the step-up to more serious cameras, and started to explore the possibilities of RAW I've been astonished by the way I'm forced to choose one workflow or the other up-front.

Improvements in jpeg quality and growth of Micro 4/3 and other compact-ish Interchangeable Lens Cameras are blurring the boundaries between the 'point & shoot' and 'serious full-frame' worlds. I've now read many heated threads about the RAW vs jpeg, and think it's high time there was better support for working in a seemless way to get the best of both worlds.

I'm really considering switching to a different software if this feature won't be added in the next release ....

Everyone he is a solution http://photographylife.com/how-to-get...

This is a massive problem for me - I've spent money on Lightroom so that I can make the most of my decent camera and then discover that anything my camera handles in JPG format (eg the art filters) is buried unless I handle jpg & raw separately which damages the organisational capability of lightroom. This seems a very basic oversight!

hallo Chris,
i agree with you. I was coming from nx2 to lightroom and didn't understand why my nef were so noisy and ugly with respect to my jpg. i have spent weeks to try to use plugins to use nx2 from lightroom,... and corrupted several times my lr database. so i have decided to lean lightroom more and have purchased ononesoftware and topazlab suites and i am really happy now.
lightroom 5.7 is so fantastic that auto works nice with small manual retouching.
so based on my experience, i would shoot nef and add artistic with topazlab on pc.
i am sure you will spare lot of time and will be fully happy

br
marc

thanks Mark / Rob for the responses - seems I've more digging to do, I've also tried replacing effects I want in Lightroom, which isn't so easy - I guess the trick for me is remembering that I took photos in a mode that lightroom doesn't natively handle well and treating them differently to the rest - I think some practice and following your pointers is in order.

Hey all. This thread has gotten wildly off course from the original intent, which was in reference to a performance enhancement that PhotoMechanic takes advantage of, where it reads the JPG that has been hidden inside the RAW file by the camera, rather than trying to process the RAW on the fly.

That said, there seems to be some confusion about what you might expect from a RAW file. For those of you who are surprised when the camera enhancements aren't applied to the RAWs - that's not a failure of LR. LR is showing you exactly the data you fed to it. RAW files are, by their very nature, not processed. They are a "container" if you will (as all files are containers) that hold the exact, unedited, unmodified, unadulterated data that the sensor captured. Those effect settings that your camera has are taking the image data, running a "photoshop filter," then storing the result as a JPG. Doing this same thing to a RAW file simply isn't possible. (If you're curious why, Google about Bayer arrays and mosaicked image data. Cambridge in Color has a great article about how your sensor works.)

So why does the image appear to be filtered when looking at the back screen, even though you're shooting RAW? Simple. As mentioned above, your camera is hiding a JPG inside the RAW file. (Don't confuse this with your RAW + JPG mode, I mean literally a JPG inside the RAW file.) When you review images on the camera, effects have been applied to those hidden JPGs, but NOT to the RAW data. This is why settings such as color space, noise reduction, special effects profiles, etc etc all appear in the preview image on the back screen of your camera, but have absolutely zero impact on the actual RAW data that you're working with in LR. That preview on your camera screen is not the RAW data. It is only the embedded JPG preview.

I would encourage you to shoot without those (questionable) in-camera special effects, and learn to get the results you like directly in LR from the RAW data you captured. Hope this helps a bit. Now let's please get back to this thread being about a potential "performance mode" for culling in LR.

Cheers!

hallo,
only nx2 was able to start from a nef identical to the jpg, continue with color efex pro3 for nx2 and save all things in the same nef except that this raw had plenty of dynamics because raw so advanced d-lighting, upoints, local dnoise with upoints made miracles.
nx2 needed to be compared with lightroom 3. now lr 5.7 has become much more powerful with its radial filter, local temperature retouching,... so i think in one "auto" click we are close from the jpg
my main complaints in lr today would be :
- need a conten aware eraser brush like nx2 or onone software
- tone enhancer and dynamic contrast like ononesoftware
- all sharpening sliders in local sharpening brush because there you use same settings than in sharpening panel and just change gain so you cannont use large radius in capture sharening and small radius in local sharpening

seeing the original jpg can be frustrating or a loss of time. i shoot raw + jpg because my girl wants the picture in few minutes for her facebook so when i launch lightroom she becomes crazy :-)

if you want artistic effect i really advise topazlab star, glow, simplify, impression, clean, adjust, clariti and restyle.with, with respect to camera effects, possibility to use layers in photoshop

br
marc

The ability to do this is the main reason I always used Aperture. I use DPP to convert from RAW, and then import RAW + JPEG. That way I have the JPEG for dispay, and the RAW for safety.
I don't edit my photos, and I want the result I get AT the shoot to be as close as possible to what I get at the end. Lightroom isn't capable of doing this. It seems crazy.

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Lightroom: Raw + JPEG Stacking needs improvement.

The way Lightroom handles RAW and JPEG files needs some major improvement. Currently, I import my files as separate files (as checked in the Preferences). This is because I prefer to look at the JPEG files since the RAW files generally look terrible out of the camera. 

I would really like to have an Auto Stack option that will stack the RAW and JPEG file together, based on filename and capture time. Then, there should be a toggle button that allow you to switch between the RAW or JPEG file on top. Any ratings, flagging or color labels would automatically be done to both copies. 

This way, I could view my images as JPEG files that are already processed in camera (and look good), sort and label and place in collections. Then I can do basic cropping, adjustments and such to my JPEG files, and if needed, I could switch over to the RAW file, easily if I need it for a higher quality processing. 

The RAW file really needs to be treated as the Digital Negative to the JPEG file. It's there if you need it, attached automatically. 

I tell you that sorting through 25K images where each image has 2 files makes the job twice as difficult. BTW, Canon's DPP software has this type of RAW/JPEG stacking with a click of one toggle button, so it should be possible to implement.

I feel a good option would be to allow the embedded JPEG to be shown as the reference photo. The reference photo is a great addition and there should be some way to show the embedded JPEG as the reference photo in addition to any photo from the film strip.

hallo,
in the past i used only capture nx2 which displays all jpg settings including d-lighting on nef files and was really lost when i started to play with lightroom 2 or 3. after LR4, things changed and a simple click on AUTO in basic settings and color profile makes much better results than NX2... so no need jpg anymore, except i shoot raw+jpg so my children can directly uploda to facebook without waiting for me for retouching. i am also fan of on1 photoraw and lightroom cc. so i think no need jpg preview anymore. it would help making grid view faster in LR catalog but with a loss of infos. new machines can display grid much faster now. on1 browse is amzing too ! hope it helps you because i was a fan of jpg preview and rob cole plugins but it is an old story now. ounce LR learnt no need jpg anymore
best regards
marc