Tech | Recovering cropped RAW files in Lightroom

A benefit of the electronic viewfinder on the Olympus OM-D E-M5 is the ability to change the aspect ratio and compose your shots with the correct result shown in the viewfinder. This is easier than using the viewfinder of a DSLR and trying to guess what, say, a square composition will look like after cropping.

If you do this in RAW mode, the camera still records the full 4:3 image that the sensor saw. This is apparent in playback in the camera, where you see your crop superimposed on the full 4:3 image. But it's not apparent when you load the file into Lightroom (as of version 4.3). In Crop & Straighten mode in Lightroom, you'll just see the cropped image and won't be able to recover the full 4:3 image. The data is there in your RAW file, but you can't see it in Lightroom.

Adobe provides a Lightroom plug-in to help, called the Adobe DNG Recover Edge plug-in. As the name suggests, it requires converting your RAW files to DNG, but everything can be done within Lightroom. After installing the plug-in, to recover the full 4:3 image:

1. Select the image(s) in the Library
2. Select Library > Convert Photo to DNG...
3. Review the settings for DNG conversion (particularly whether you want to retain the original RAW file), and complete the conversion
4. Select the converted image(s)
5. Select Library > Plug-in Extras > DNG Recover Edges > Apply

Using the plug-in in step 5 creates a copy of each intermediate DNG file created in step 3 and imports it, so now in your Library you have each cropped original and a new non-cropped copy (with "_full" appended to the file name), with the aspect ratio reset to 4:3.

At what point in your process should you use the plug-in? Personally I prefer to keep the original RAW files in my Library, with the aspect ratio I shot them at, so I can see the composition I intended. I only use the steps above if I need to recover more of the image. That works because the steps above retain any adjustments and metadata changes you've already made using the RAW file (similar to a Virtual Copy, although it's a new file).

The downside of this approach is that the new file created by the plug-in has its History reset to start with a new Import at the time you used the plug-in. That's awkward if you need the History but would prefer to delete the intermediate DNG file. On the other hand, using the plug-in on all your RAW images right after importing them means their aspect ratios will be reset to 4:3, so you'd have to recompose every image with the aspect ratio you shot it at.

A compromise would be to start converting RAW to DNG at import. Then steps 1-3 above don't apply. I'm not at that point yet -- the potential long-term benefits of DNG are a whole other topic, covered here, here, and here.