How I edit camera RAWs on iPhone/iPad without keeping 40MB HDR JXL files
I have been trying to make a laptop-free travel workflow work for camera RAW files. The goal is simple: shoot on a real camera, import to an iPhone or iPad, edit in Lightroom Mobile with HDR enabled, and still end up with a file size that is reasonable for Photos, iCloud, and sharing.
The main problem I kept running into:
Lightroom Mobile can export HDR edits as JXL, which is great for preserving the HDR look, but the files are often huge. In my tests, a single edited image can easily land around 20MB to 50MB. Standard JPEG is smaller, but it often defeats the point because the HDR look gets flattened into an SDR delivery file.
Here is the workflow I am using now:
- Import RAW files from the camera companion app to iPhone or iPad.
- Cull first in Quick Photo Cleaner, using a swipe-based flow to reject bad shots before editing.
- Edit the selected RAWs in Lightroom Mobile.
- Enable HDR while editing.
- Export as JXL, use Rec. 2020, and keep HDR Output enabled.
- From the iOS share sheet, send the exported JXL files to RAW to HEIF Pro.
- Batch convert them into HEIF and save the results back to Photos.
The result is a much smaller delivery file while still keeping the HDR viewing experience on Apple displays. In my own tests, I often see around 70% to 80%+ size reduction. One example was roughly 37MB down to around 7MB.
Important caveat: I do not treat this as an archival master. For anything I may re-edit later, I still keep the original RAW and sometimes the JXL/TIFF export. The HEIF version is my compact sharing and Photos-library version.
Why HEIF instead of keeping JXL everywhere?
For my use case, HEIF is simply more practical in the Apple ecosystem. It displays well in Photos, takes much less space, works nicely with iCloud, and is easier to share from iOS. JXL is technically useful, but it is still not convenient as a final everyday photo format on mobile.
Disclosure: I am involved with RAW to HEIF Pro, so I am not pretending this is a random app recommendation. I am sharing the workflow because this specific Lightroom HDR to compact HEIF gap was the reason I wanted the tool in the first place.
Curious how others are handling HDR exports from Lightroom Mobile. Are you keeping JXL, exporting SDR JPEGs, using HEIF another way, or just waiting until you are back at a desktop?
