Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

[codeoverride]

I'm having some trouble with colors. I'm shooting with a Nikon D810 with color space set to Adobe RGB and opening in Camera Raw 9.1.1 set to Adobe RGB 98. The files always seem desaturated in camera RAW when compared to the back of the camera and even the OS X Preview application. Please see image attached. If I shoot JPG everything matches. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks so much!

Here's an image:
http://oi63.tinypic.com/eja88l.jpg

[Doug Nelson]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

See if this is helpful

[Tony W]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

Setting the camera to Adobe RGB is not really relevant when shooting raw. The camera LCD will not be able to display anything that exceeds sRGB, if that!

Therefore there is a disconnect between the LCD camera screen and monitor when processing in Adobe camera raw.

All this assumes that you are working with a display capable of Adobe RGB and that the monitor has been calibrated and the resulting profile is being used by the OS

[codeoverride]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

I understand that when shooting RAW, it doesn't matter if the camera is set to Adobe RGB or sRGB because it won't get converted until I select the option in RAW converter. Right?

But if I shoot a JPG image and a RAW image, the JPG is more true to life and has more saturation, like the sample that I posted.

BTW, I'm using one of the newer iMacs so I assume the display is able to show Adobe RGB.

The display is calibrated using Spyder4Express profile.

[Tony W]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

The image you are seeing on your camera LCD cannot exceed sRGB and that image is a baked JPEG based on many factors including your camera settings.

For instance if you have selected Vivid, Standard or any other camera preset the JPEG will have those settings baked into the file.

The raw however will not, and it is expected that the raw may look quite different to the JPEG image or what you see on camera LCD screen.

The camera presets can be applied to the raw image by default in the old Nikon Capture NX2 and I assume the same is true for the new NX-D.

ACR and LR have an Adobe version of the Nikon Presets in the Camera section and from past experience they are pretty close to Nikons own.

So you may want to confirm your camera preset and set the same in ACR to get a similar look in the raw.

While I do own an old iMac I am really a PC guy so no idea of new Mac gamut

[codeoverride]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

Thanks Tony. I am looking in the camera calibration tab but don't see presets other than "Process" which is set to 2012 (Current) and "Camera Profile" which is set to Adobe Standard.

I took another shot, this time as a TIFF and as a RAW file for comparison that you can see here: https://i.imgsafe.org/e788402.jpg

[Tony W]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

You need to select the dropdown as shown in the attached. Adobe Standard is just the default from which you should be able to work.

Your camera will be set on one of these (or similar) and they are the result of Adobe efforts to mimic the look of the Nikon camera presets.

Check what preset you may have set in your camera menu and match it in the raw ACR menu.

[andrewrodney]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

Thanks Tony. I am looking in the camera calibration tab but don't see presets other than "Process" which is set to 2012 (Current) and "Camera Profile" which is set to Adobe Standard.

Everything you thought you wanted to know about DNG camera profiles:
All about In this 30 minute video, we’ll look into the creation and use of DNG camera profiles in three raw converters. The video covers:

What are DNG camera profiles, how do they differ from ICC camera profiles.
Misconceptions about DNG camera profiles.
Just when, and why do you need to build custom DNG camera profiles?
How to build custom DNG camera profiles using the X-rite Passport software.
The role of various illuminants on camera sensors and DNG camera profiles.
Dual Illuminant DNG camera profiles.
Examples of usage of DNG camera profiles in Lightroom, ACR, and Iridient Developer.

Low Rez (YouTube):

http://youtu.be/_fikTm8XIt4

High Rez (download):

http://www.digitaldog.net/files/DNG%20Camera%20profile%20video.mov

[clippix]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

It's your camera profile. Xrite colour checker should get you accurate results but as a quick fix try turning off camera profiles in camera raw and see if that gets you closer to what you think you're image should look like.

[Guest]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

Everything you thought you wanted to know about DNG camera profiles

I am considering buying an old flagship camera like the 1Ds2 for the jpg out of camera is said to be really good and that would let me skip the raw conversion also.

A regular AdobeRGB jpeg from the 1Ds2 is ~11Mb while raw is ~15Mb; it seems like the jpeg is a 8 bit kind of raw!

I wonder if I lower contrast (-2) and saturation (-1) and set the sharpening to a reasonable amount (+4) on camera will I get a good starting point for post production in Photoshop?

Thanks

[skoobey]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

I am considering buying an old flagship camera like the 1Ds2 for the jpg out of camera is said to be really good and that would let me skip the raw conversion also.

A regular AdobeRGB jpeg from the 1Ds2 is ~11Mb while raw is ~15Mb; it seems like the jpeg is a 8 bit kind of raw!

I wonder if I lower contrast (-2) and saturation (-1) and set the sharpening to a reasonable amount (+4) on camera will I get a good starting point for post production in Photoshop?

Thanks

1ds mkII is a great camera, but there is no such thing as "great JPEG" when compared to the endless possibilities that you have with a RAW file. Also, deluding yourself that you can skip the retouching because the JPEGs are so great can't be good in the long run, or at all, and you can just use the Canon RAW converter to get the exact settings your camera used when creating JPEGS, so you can have your cake and eat it, too.

Jpegs are for event shooting, news reporting, sending samples to clients, and any sort of shooting where the delivery time is more important then the end result. Not that you can't retouch a JPEG, you can, but RAWs are so much cleaner and you don't have to deal with all sorts of artifacts(you can save a compression free JPEG, I just don't think cameras even give that option?).

P.S. I'll repeat this for the n-th time, but do not sharpen or add drastic contrast in your raw conversion, you do that on top of your layer stack. It is much harder to clone on a super-sharp file, same goes for dnb, liquify will soften areas considerably, healing will produce artifacts etc.

[Guest]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

Is Canon DPP good for RAW conversion to Neutral 16-bit tiff?

[John Wheeler]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

I would suggest double checking the basics

1) Reset Camera Raw Defaults as you may have accidentally set the defaults to something you do not want. Do this per the image below

2) Reset Photoshop Preferences (may be overkill yet it would catch any other erroneous settings whether user error or software glitch

3) Note that the JPG or TIFF that comes into ACR needs to have an embedded profile. If you are taking the image OOC this should not be an issue. Setting ACR to Adobe RGB will be the color space that is sent to PS after ACR. If ACR sees a non-Raw file with no embedded profile, I believe it assumes it is sRGB. That would make Adobe RGB image desaturated if interpreted as sRGB. I bring this up because the image you posted to the forum did not have an embedded profile so if was anything other than sRGB, the colors will be interpreted as sRGB and off.

BTW, I do not believe that #3 is your issue because I tested out your image and this does not match

I got a pretty good color match just by shifting the Red slider in the Color panel to the left a bit. That is why I suggested #1

Not sure any of these will solve your issue yet thought they were worth mentioning.

[klev]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

Is Canon DPP good for RAW conversion to Neutral 16-bit tiff?

Canon's names can seem a little misleading at times, but yeah it does a decent job. It doesn't offer as much control as capture one or lightroom, and it's specific to canon files. 16 and 8 bit tiffs will look identical in color balance.

[skoobey]

Re: Importing Adobe RAW Color Issues

Is Canon DPP good for RAW conversion to Neutral 16-bit tiff?

Try it, I believe it is, if matching the JPEG is your goal (I think it can be done in CR1 and LR as well, but this is a more direct approach).