question about RAW and jpeg images.

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JamieB

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Jamie
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Hi all as you may be aware i am trying to photograph an oil painting for my friend using a Nikon D5000, the thing we have noticed is when we take a photo as a jpeg, the green seems to go brown, but when we take a photo and leave it as a raw image it keeps all the colour nicely, but a bit dark.

If it helps having the settings we put in the camera let me know and i'll post them up here.

Many thanks guys and gals, you guys are great.
 
When you take the image in RAW look at the histogram, if it its slightly to the left then over expose slightly, don't just go by the metering system. (Always shoot raw) Hope this helps.
 
Thank you Simon, that was quick.

One last question, how do i go about editing and converting the raw image once i have put it onto pc please?

I know its a uber noob question, sorry :(
 
when shooting JPEG, what colourspace is your camera set in, and is it embedding a profile, and is your screen calibrated, and what software are you using?
 
JamieB said:
Thank you Simon, that was quick.

One last question, how do i go about editing and converting the raw image once i have put it onto pc please?

I know its a uber noob question, sorry :(
Click to expand...

In terms of viewing the raw you can use this:

http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/

However with editing I dont know what free software you can use. Does the Nikon you used come with any software? For me I used Photoshop to edit Raws.
 
Thank you for the questions Richard, we were just experimenting last night (and early hours of the morning lol) so we had the painting resting on his fireplace in the front room, with 2 lamps (1 either side of painting) and camera on tripod. not perfect i know, but we were experimenting.

I do not know what you mean by embedding.....i do understand what you mean by calibrating, but do not know how too. :bonk:
 
schizophonic said:
Does the Nikon you used come with any software? For me I used Photoshop to edit Raws.
Click to expand...

The camera does have a software disk, but we haven't installed it as we think it may just be driver for camera to connect.

My friend does have Photoshop, but i think it may be an older one, but not sure.
We cant seem to open the raw images within his photoshop.
 
when you shoot raw, the data off the sensor wil be processed by your software, and if your screen is calibrrated, and you use a sensible profile for output, the colours should be spot on

When yo shoot JPEG, your camera is doing the processing for you, so deep in the menu's, there will be settings for tone curves, and sRGB etc.. if you have screwed the settings, or chosen the wrong colourspace, then the JPEG's can look wrong on the next device that displays them (especially if it is in another colourspace

Reset your cameras menu to defaults, and see if it improves. Put it this way, you now know the benefits of shooting raw, and getting control over the final processing of your raw files
 
I am sure you can download a raw file plugin for older versions of photoshop. Otherwise, download a trial of Lightroom
 
Thanks richard, we never messed with any deep settings, just the basics, WB, ISO etc.

And my friend has Paint shop pro, is that any good?
 
Sounds to me like you need to sort out the white balance.

Cameras usually do a good job of guessing this correctly but if you are using "lamps" - I assume you mean some sort of domestic lighting rather than proper photographic lights - then a custom white balance taken off a white or grey card would be the way to go.

RAW files do not have a white balance setting as such, so you can change it at will in post processing - if you have the right software.

With a custom set white balance your JPEG should be OK

HTH

David
 
Willid1 said:
Sounds to me like you need to sort out the white balance.

Cameras usually do a good job of guessing this correctly but if you are using "lamps" - I assume you mean some sort of domestic lighting rather than proper photographic lights - then a custom white balance taken off a white or grey card would be the way to go.

RAW files do not have a white balance setting as such, so you can change it at will in post processing - if you have the right software.

With a custom set white balance your JPEG should be OK

HTH

David
Click to expand...

Thank you David, would you be able to recommend a program that would be upto the take, but doesnt cost extreme amounts of money please?

Thank you all for your replies, much appreciated.
 
ViewNX is the RAW developing program that comes with Nikon cameras and should be on your friend's disc. Otherwise you can download it for free here

ViewNX is very limited in editing capabilities, you cannot crop for one. Adobe Photoshop Elements is more versatile, or for more money, Nikon Capture NX or Adobe Lightroom.
 
Thank you again for your replies, can i ask another question? do you convert the raw image after editing? if so to what file type? or do we send it to printers as a nef image?

Also we cannot get paintshop 6 to open a .nef file, we tried to update it, but we just get an error.

We cant even get the raw image to open with Nikon capture NX2 free trial.
 
When you click 'save' after editing, it will ask what you want to save it as - you'll notice you cannot 'save-as' a NEF - only JPEG, TIFF, PSD etc. etc.

Some older editing programs are not supported by Nikon for their newer cameras. For example, Photoshop CS1 isn't supported for RAW/NEF for the D3, D3s or D3x...
Trial downloads often have limited accessibility for some applications.
 
Really odd that you cannot open a raw file with latest versio of NX2 trial download - does not make sense. Are you putting your card through a card reader, straight into the PC within a slot or using a usb lead? NX2 I find is best for Nikon nef conversions.

What sort of printer firm are you sending to? Most commercial printers will want it in SRGB form so you process the raw file and convert to that / save as srgb jpeg in NX2. You need to sade to at least 240dpi - preferably 300.

Paintshop Pro you have might not work with nefs or recognise the newer camera.
You could download photoscape free and try the raw converter in that - nice simple programme I have found that has some nice features.
 
Try using RawTherapee - free, fast, small footprint, very flexible, good manual and forum.

Note that it uses only the NEF when it opens the file (not the embedde jpeg that some other programs use) so very often the image will look darker than it does on the screen of your camera, or some other viewers. It is meant to be like that - the highlights will be preserved and you can tweak the exposure, brightness, curve, contrast etc to you heart's content. You can also adjust white balance, colour saturation, and just about anything you can think of....

Save as a TIFF or max.qual. jpg and do any other editing in PS or PSE or whatever.

This is what I do all the time and once you get used to it, it becomes very quick.

HTH
 
If you use the GIMP, then you can send the output from RawTherapee to it, although as the GIMP cannot handle 16-bits per channel, you're most likely better off doing your curve manipulation in RawTherapee.

It's a pity version 3 of RawTherapee isn't quite stable enough for a release to general public, it works great here :D
 
JamieB said:
Thank you again for your replies, can i ask another question? do you convert the raw image after editing? if so to what file type? or do we send it to printers as a nef image?

Also we cannot get paintshop 6 to open a .nef file, we tried to update it, but we just get an error.

We cant even get the raw image to open with Nikon capture NX2 free trial.
Click to expand...

The printers usually specify what file format(s) they accept, usually .jpg or .tif.
They will not usually accept .nefs, so you have to save as .jpg or .tif.

Have you tried to open the .nefs in View NX?

Edit - Just reread your OP where you mention that you were viewing the .nef and the colours looked better than the .jpg. What program where you viewing the .nefs in?
 
What's wrong with doing a custom white balance (all you need is a sheet of white paper - see camera handbook) and output as a finished JPEG? Why do you want to process from Raw?
 
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