RAW and ProRAW with a live preset

With a look active and RAW on, xMosaique saves exactly two files: the 48 MP ProRAW DNG holding untouched sensor data, and the photo with the preset applied. Turn the look off and you get the DNG alone. The DNG is never touched — the preset is applied to the second file, so the negative stays a negative.

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What lands in your library

Two files, side by side. The DNG is what the sensor recorded, at full 48 MP where the lens and mode support it. The processed file is that same frame with the preset applied at full floating-point precision.

Because they are separate files, nothing about the look is irreversible. Deleting the processed copy leaves you with an ordinary RAW; deleting the DNG leaves you with the photograph you framed.

Why the preset is never written into the DNG

A RAW file's value is that it is undecided. Baking a preset into it would throw away the latitude that makes it worth the storage, and would make the file a worse starting point than a JPEG, not a better one.

So the preset is applied on the way to the second file only. If you later want the same look from the DNG on a desktop, you already have the .xmp that produced it.

Bit depth and format

The processed file can be written as JPEG, HEIF or 16-bit PNG, at 8, 10 or 12 bits. The processing is float-native from end to end, so the depth is real rather than an 8-bit result padded out — a gradient that would band at 8 bits does not at 12.

Higher depths are worth choosing when the look pushes tone hard: heavy curves, strong colour grading and deep shadow lifts are where banding shows first.

Keep Unprocessed Original

This is a separate setting from RAW, and it is on by default. It saves a clean copy of the ordinary frame beside the processed one even when you are not shooting RAW.

Between the two, the default behaviour of the app is that nothing you shoot is only available with the look applied — unless you deliberately switch both off.

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