Really enjoyed the first Aurora Live Session and am looking forward to more.

Then I watched Trey’s deep dive into Aurora I ended up confusing myself on a couple of issues. So I reached out to Joseph who as normal came up with the goods and steered me in the right direction. Joseph agreed for me to put the questions and answers on this forum so that if there is anyone like me!!!! it might help them to.

This is the question I have.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         While watching the Live Training Session you asked the question of Kevin what format the images transfer from Lightroom to Aurora in. If I remember correctly it was in a TIFF 16 Bit then processed in 32 Bit and returned as a 16 Bit TIFF.

Correct.

Because I purchased Aurora early via your link I was lucky to get some add on freebies!! One of which was Trey Ratcliff deep dive tutorial. In the video he mentioned that you can process an individual RAW and when he demoed this he dragged the image from lightroom and dropped it on the Aurora icon in the dock. He also demoed some bracketed shots on each occasion he used the word RAW. So to cut a long question short. What format are the images going to Aurora in and do they transfer differently depending on which way you do it. i.e. dragging them to icon, file export etc. 

The only time they don’t transfer/open as RAW is if you explicitly tell it not to. So from Lightroom, if you choose “send TIF with Lightroom adjusters”, then that will send a TIF. Otherwise, it’s RAW.

And what is the best way to transfer them if there is a difference. I am coming from the point of view of more data is better!! so RAW would be the way to go!?                                                                                                                  But is it?

Usually, yes. But if for whatever reason you want to treat the image before it goes to Aurora, then you have to send something else. As soon as you make an adjustment, it’s no longer RAW.           More data is better, yes (unless it’s not necessary). This is why a 16-bit TIF file is sent to Aurora from Lightroom if you make adjustments there. A 16-bit TIF is universally considered to contain all the data that the RAW file did. 

An interesting point Trey made at the end of the video was. When he takes bracketed shots into Aurora he first exports them from lightroom as jpeg’s to a holding folder and then opens them up in Aurora and processes them. He maintains that he can’t see any difference. But with single images he uses the RAW.

When it comes to HDR, he’s certainly the expert. I think a lot of it depends on what you do to the files once you have them in Aurora. I think Trey probably has a pretty good idea of when a RAW is needed and when JPEG is enough. It’s probably faster to process from JPEG files, but I haven’t tested that.                                                                                                                                                   I’d advise using RAW though. Until you’re as good as Trey, at least ;-)

Thank you again Joseph for the answer that even I understand perfectly.