Camera RAW changes after opening in Bridge? What's going on?

Anton17

Anton17

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Anton
Edit My Images
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I thought it was strange and couldn't work out why. On the LCD monitor and when first opened in bridge my pictures have a nice exposure, well saturated with constructive contrast and sharpness throughout. When opened in Photoshop CS3 via Bridge the images change and lose all of the above and turns into a shot that may as well have been taken with a P+S. :shrug:

I monitored my Bridge images while they were being opened in Camera RAW format in Photoshop and I saw that the thumbnails DID CHANGE. I thought it may have been my eyes deceiving me with how much an image can change from small to large resolutions, but the quality dropped considerably as soon as it was opened in Photoshop, proved by the Bridge thumbnails.

What's going on? Should I convert my images pre-photoshop to avoid this? I'm sure this a noobie question asked several times, but I can't seem to work out why it's happening.
 
I've just tried it in Lightroom with the same results... the image displays with a thumbnail of equal quality as what I shot with (i.e. what appeared on the camera LCD - AKA- the entire guide I use for shooting exposure, colours, clarity etc...) and then after a few seconds washes out the image, to lose pretty much all the features I tried to get while taking the shot.

This is driving me mental. Is it the software or are my images that bad when processed from RAW?

EDIT: This is what I mean. It's a poor image example but you can see the difference is night and day:

5ybwpc.jpg


25uqwef.jpg
 
Does Bridge not just display the RAW file as it is, ie without any editing?
 
When bridge is importing photos is it applying any type of preset making the images look difference to the actual raw appearance?

I noticed that when I was taking RAW+JPEG, I had my JPEG setting on Vibrant, and my display on the camera was completely different to the one on the camera.

Hope that helps
 
When you open a RAW file, ACR will automatically remove any processing adjustments (e.g saturation, sharpness) you made in-camera so you have the original, unprocessed data that your camera captured.
 
No, I've noticed a similar thing recently after performing the last online 'update'...
My RAW files look OK in thumbnail-view in Bridge, as I have ticked the box that applies in-camera settings to the thumnails, but the processed JPEGs in their seperate folders look terrible...When they open, all is fine though...bizarre...
 
This is ludicrous! How do I keep my in-camera settings when opening a RAW file? I took a lot of shots today using the in-camera monochrome setting, the thumbnail shows them as greyscale, and upon opening they're all in colour! :razz:

Is that seriously how RAW conversion operates? It feels like I'm losing everything I shot for and I have to go and artificially edit it back to the way it was on the camera. :thumbsdown:
 
the RAW file is exactly what is taken in from the sensor. So it is impossible to get a grayscale image from a RAW file unless the subject was in black and white itself :P

In order to get a monochrome you need to convert it yourself in PS or LR.
The image you see on the back of your camera is a JPEG image from the original RAW file, but the RAW image is always colour and with no in-camera pre-sets included.
 
Anton17 said:
This is ludicrous! How do I keep my in-camera settings when opening a RAW file? I took a lot of shots today using the in-camera monochrome setting, the thumbnail shows them as greyscale, and upon opening they're all in colour! :razz:

Is that seriously how RAW conversion operates? It feels like I'm losing everything I shot for and I have to go and artificially edit it back to the way it was on the camera. :thumbsdown:
Click to expand...

The whole purpose of shooting raw is that you process them yourself, the in camera settings apply to jpegs. What you see on the back of your camera is the in camera jpeg, not the raw file which is just the data captured (not processed) by the camera.
 
J4MIE_P said:
the RAW file is exactly what is taken in from the sensor. So it is impossible to get a grayscale image from a RAW file unless the subject was in black and white itself :P

In order to get a monochrome you need to convert it yourself in PS or LR.
The image you see on the back of your camera is a JPEG image from the original RAW file, but the RAW image is always colour and with no in-camera pre-sets included.
Click to expand...

Right, I've read that DPP retains the in-camera settings, correct?

I'm going to try and see if that helps me. I use my LCD images to correct and balance what I'm shooting and I don't feel it's right to lose all that and have to do it again in software. :shrug:
 
Set your camera settings to Neutral. That's what I do, then I get on my camera the exact same as on my computer at home.
That's the only way around it, I'm not sure at DPP keeping the in-camera settings, but if it does I assume it's an .xmp side file or a TIFF or JPEG file. Because you cannot edit a RAW image, only edit it and export it as a different file format :p That's why It's raw in teh first place.
 
Anton17 said:
Right, I've read that DPP retains the in-camera settings, correct?

I'm going to try and see if that helps me. I use my LCD images to correct and balance what I'm shooting and I don't feel it's right to lose all that and have to do it again in software. :shrug:
Click to expand...

That's why you have the option to shoot jpeg, so that you can use the in camera settings to process the image. Raw is for when you want to process them yourself.
 
It is better to take a colour image and convert to B&W afterwards imho, and shooting in RAW (or RAW+Jpeg) gives best of both worlds, a B&W preview on the LCD, and a colour image to convert to B&W.

I'm not sure whether Nikon NX would open it up as taken, with any picture styles, as I would any manufacturers own software. I'm not in a position to try that at the moment though.
 
fabs said:
That's why you have the option to shoot jpeg, so that you can use the in camera settings to process the image. Raw is for when you want to process them yourself.
Click to expand...

I agree with this!
If you want to apply in-camera settings, why are you using RAW?

The raw image applies no settings, no sharpening, no nothing. Just 100% of what the camera see's.

If you want to apply in-camera settings, use JPEG simple as.
 
Sorry, I had a different understand of it.

Before I get into this, thanks for the help so far. :thumbs:

This is a bit of a dilemma I face. The RAW images I see are lacklustre and fall short of anything quality, in my opinion, and I don't know whether it's just because I'm incredibly bad at photography. If I edit them to a point from RAW to a stage where I like the result, is that you by-passing the camera's processing and doing it yourself, or just doctoring something you can't get right?

I don't know what to do now. :shrug:
 
I understand your dilemma Anton, but I suggest turning your camera onto Neutral style and go from there. You will find yourself getting better photos that way, as at the moment you are taking bland photos and the camera is telling you it's good (by ways of in-camera settings) but you will notice in Neutral your photos look worse on the back of the camera and you will slowly start to corerct your mistakes in camera and your processing time goes down.

I noticed this when I was in your situation, now I get lots of keeper images that just need a quick sharpen before I export them (but I have a preset in LR that auto-sharpens to my requirements and then I adjust it from there to get it perfect)

Hope that helps
Jamie
 
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