RAW files rendered differently?

[jeremy_c]

I am curious. On my K20D, I snapped a quick picture of my middle daughter and then opened the resulting PEF in the Pentax Photo Laboratory and then also in my image editing program (Paint Shop Pro). I then clicked the Save As button and saved them both to a JPEG. On screen and in the resulting JPEG files, they are different! How do I know which one is my actual shot? I figured that rendering a RAW file was the same no matter where? If not, what is the best software to use?

Please see the two attachments... Hm, it didn't say the filenames. The first is the Pentax Photo Laboratory, the second is Paint Shop Pro.

Jeremy

[MPrince]

Yes, raw converters are different. I have yet to find a raw converter that does a better job on Pentax raw files than PPL.

But that's just me.

[stevebrot]

Originally Posted by jeremy_c

... I figured that rendering a RAW file was the same no matter where?
...

Your RAW image is the same to all converters. What comes out of the converter is another matter. Your results are highly dependent on the quality of the converter and how you have it configured. Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), for instance produces a very different rendering with its default settings than the same file in Picasa. Think of the RAW file as your negative and the RAW converter (along with image processing software) as your enlarger and printing chemistry.

There is a lot of discussion regarding software. Picasa is free, but not very flexible. I use it for quick and dirty conversions with my laptop on the road. Adobe Lightroom is very popular with the users on this site and offers the full power of ACR along with a pretty good work flow environment. I use Lightroom for all my serious work. For less than half the money, you can get ACR with Adobe Elements. Other options include SilkyPix, Bibble, Photoshop, and a host of others. I am sure that the good members of this forum will popup with a ton of suggestions for you.

Steve

[arbutusq]

There is no 'actual' shot. Each RAW converter will interpret the photo a bit differently and with skill and practice you can get almost any result out of a RAW converter.

I use Lightroom as it is flexible and I find it quite intuitive.