Can't adjust colors on RAW layer?

Is something not working like it should? Let us know.
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2020-09-28 19:57:02

Hi Andrius and team. I have been enjoying Pixelmator Pro for some time. However recently I have found that the program won't let me adjust colors on a RAW layer. I can't understand why that would be. FWIW I opened this through the Photos extension and did some editing that way. I then saved and reopened in the PP extension. But at that point it tells me that if I want to adjust colors I need to first convert to a regular (non-RAW) layer.

What am I doing wrong?
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2020-09-29 06:07:29

Yeah, I was wondering something similar.

On any RAW file I try to edit in PP, for certain actions the image needs to be 'converted'.

When the image is converted, are the RAW details lost?
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2020-09-29 16:11:31

With RAW files, you should never have to convert them to regular image layers to adjust their colors using the color adjustments. Any chance you both could share some sample files with us, either here, or by emailing them to me at andriusg@pixelmator.com?

With certain actions that are destructive (retouching/reshaping), RAW layers need to be converted because it's not really possible to preserve the RAW data while also performing these destructive edits. Well, in a layer-based editor like Pixelmator Pro it's tricky, but not necessarily impossible. In fact, we recently added support for using the Repair and Clone tools on RAW layers, but the other retouching tools do require you to convert RAW layers to regular ones before editing. And yes, in cases like that, the extended dynamic range info is lost.
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2020-10-02 14:47:06

P.S. Just in case anyone stumbles upon this thread and wonders what the issue was:

There was an active selection and, because RAW layers cannot be modified by selections, the 'convert' message was being shown. Choosing Edit > Deselect All (or pressing the Command-D keyboard shortcut) would make the color adjustments active. To be honest, this is a UI issue that we really should fix to make things clearer!