Dull raw processed images???

eclipsed450 · 04-08-2009, 03:41 PM

When I look at pictures I've taken w/ my k100ds on the camera's lcd screen, they're bright, beautiful, and very true to life, but when I get back home and pull them up in bridge, or picasa, they're dull, washed out, and just crap...i have to literally pp every pic just to bring it back to what i remembered it when i shot it...funny thing is, in bridge, it brings up an initial thumbnail, which is almost exactly what I remember seeing on the lcd, but then after it finishes loading the thumbnail, it's the dull blah file i have come to know...am i missing some setting between my camera and computer, or what??? please help...

jeffkrol · 04-08-2009, 03:57 PM

Originally Posted by eclipsed450

When I look at pictures I've taken w/ my k100ds on the camera's lcd screen, they're bright, beautiful, and very true to life, but when I get back home and pull them up in bridge, or picasa, they're dull, washed out, and just crap...i have to literally pp every pic just to bring it back to what i remembered it when i shot it...funny thing is, in bridge, it brings up an initial thumbnail, which is almost exactly what I remember seeing on the lcd, but then after it finishes loading the thumbnail, it's the dull blah file i have come to know...am i missing some setting between my camera and computer, or what??? please help...

Check your "colorspace" setting in the camera.... Probably set to aRGB.. change this.

eclipsed450 · 04-08-2009, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by jeffkrol

Check your "colorspace" setting in the camera.... Probably set to aRGB.. change this.

nope, set to sRGB, thanks for the prompt reply though...here's an example, from bridge...the first shows some images where their thumbnail had already been loaded, but others (middle row, and bottom right 3 and bottom left 1) have not yet...and the second shows all the thumbnails loaded; so you can compare the color change...

PS: please excuse the jpeg and upload compression :-/

**Marc Sabatella** · 04-08-2009, 04:12 PM

The image the software is showing initially is the JPEG preview inserted by the camera into the file. Presumably, you are shooting using settings - like Bright mode, or increased saturation/contast/sharpness - that the software you are using is not honoring when doing its own processing. You should be able to create a preset that will more or less duplicate the effect of the in-camera processing using your favorite camera settings, and then you could simply apply that preset to all your images to give you a better strating place for your custom processing. Or you could use the Pentax software, which should honor the camera settings and come pretty close to reproducing the effect they had on the in-camera processing. Although I find the Pentax software clusmy enough that I'd more more likely to use the preset approach. As an example of how clumsy it is, the Pentax software doens't even provide a way to apply a preset to a bucnh of files and then still allow you to custom process inidividual files from that starting point.

eclipsed450 · 04-08-2009, 04:22 PM

Originally Posted by Marc Sabatella

The image the software is showing initially is the JPEG preview inserted by the camera into the file. Presumably, you are shooting using settings - like Bright mode, or increased saturation/contast/sharpness - that the software you are using is not honoring when doing its own processing. You should be able to create a preset that will more or less duplicate the effect of the in-camera processing using your favorite camera settings, and then you could simply apply that preset to all your images to give you a better strating place for your custom processing. Or you could use the Pentax software, which should honor the camera settings and come pretty close to reproducing the effect they had on the in-camera processing. Although I find the Pentax software clusmy enough that I'd more more likely to use the preset approach. As an example of how clumsy it is, the Pentax software doens't even provide a way to apply a preset to a bucnh of files and then still allow you to custom process inidividual files from that starting point.

i understand what you're saying, but when shooting in raw (on my camera at least, v1.00 firmware), the contrast/saturation/sharpness and image tone options are all grayed out...

and yeah, i installed the pentax software way back when, but i got very frustrated and uninstalled it; this was before i started shooting raw...and since i have bridge & cs4, i assumed i would be okay with raw processing...

eclipsed450 · 04-08-2009, 04:40 PM

i did notice that when i open one of the pictures in bridge's camera raw editor, at the bottom of the window, it says "adobe rgb, 8bit..."

jeffkrol · 04-08-2009, 05:10 PM

Well if it's not the image tagged as aRGB then you have the program software set to use aRGB as your editing space..

eclipsed450 · 04-08-2009, 06:20 PM

any tips on how to change the rgb profile to defaut to srgb??

*Ash* · 04-08-2009, 06:57 PM

Go to Colorspace settings on PS and set default to sRGB.
The setting in Camera Raw will only save your RAW files as sRGB, but the PS colorspace settings will need to reflect that to avoid reconverting those pics to Adobe RGB.

*Wheatfield* · 04-08-2009, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by eclipsed450

any tips on how to change the rgb profile to defaut to srgb??

At the bottom of Camera Raw, where it tells you the colourspace and other info, click on it (it's a link) and you can change your defaults.
If you are finding yourself making similar changes to everything, make yourself a conversion profile that you can automate to at least get you close.
You can also set the default from ACR default to Image settings (or vice versa) to see if that helps.

**Marc Sabatella** · 04-09-2009, 01:05 PM

Originally Posted by eclipsed450

i understand what you're saying, but when shooting in raw (on my camera at least, v1.00 firmware), the contrast/saturation/sharpness and image tone options are all grayed out...

It isn't RAW that grays out those settings - it must be something else. Like maybe, shooting in Green / Auto Pict mode? If you're in that mode, than it is indeed messing with the sharpness/saturation/contrast of all your images for the JPEG preview it inserts into the file, but true to its name, the RAW data itself contains none of those adjustments.

*hlpentax* · 04-10-2009, 07:21 AM

I experience this same problemand I use picasa. I did some tests and realized that picasa is not picking up the in camera jpeg settings. Which make sense if I am shooting raw. I just bought lightroom so I will have to see if I can do what was suggested and create presets. Does anyone know how to set the color space in picasa?

Riverlady · 04-10-2009, 03:24 PM

I have noticed the same issue with my K200D. The LCD display of photos shows much brighter colors and higher contrast than the downloaded photos, regardless of whether they are RAW or jpg. K200D has a control to reduce the camera display brightness and I have decreased that down to -4 or -5 in hope it will more closely match what I see on the computer screen. I do not do much printing but when I have, the printed photos were even darker so, I don't think it is that the monitor is too dark, I think the default camera display is overly bright.

(Yes, I know I need to calibrate and use a monitor better suited for photo editing, but these things take time and money.)