raw and JPEG look different

[Cyza]

whilst on my holiday around europe I got into the habbit of shooting in RAW + S2 Jpgeg, I was doing this as family back home wanted to see lots of photos not just my 30 or 40 favourites which I would go the effort of PP, and in order to save space I would just delete the raw versions of the photos that I didn't deem worthy of spending time on PPing.

Having come back I didn't change it back since my computer was reformatted and the codec I was using to view raw files on my computer is gone, and for some bizarre reason I can't get it working again so hence I'm still shooting in raw + S2 so I can preview the files and the open up the raw ones in ACR

however going through my photos from this mornings sunrise I noticed that the Jpeg images actually look different to the raw ones I open and do no adjustments to what so ever

let me explain with an example



the image on the right is the Jpeg file completely un edited, and the one on left is the raw file opened up in ACR then straight away saved as a Jpeg.
could anyone shed some light as to why this is occurring?

[fess67]

the image on the right is the Jpeg file completely un edited, and the one on left is the raw file opened up in ACR then straight away saved as a Jpeg.
could anyone shed some light as to why this is occurring?

This is not quite correct. Whilst you may not have edited the JPEG, the camera has! Within your camera settings there are options which it uses to edit the image and spit out a JPEG. There are some presets in there such as landscape, portrait etc. My bet is you have one of these presets selected and therefore instructing the camera to produce a JPEG with that 'editing' applied.

[Cyza]

if you're referring to picture style I had is set on standard, should it be on neutral/faithful?

[davsv1]

you can't actually "see" raw images either, they are processed by the raw processor with whatever settings that has applied then previewed as processed then saved as a jpg, tiff, bmp or whatever you choose. Different raw processor settings different looking photo. Thats why you should save a version in tiff (or keep your raw which will always be raw as shot)or some non destructable format and only save final edit as an exported jpg, i.e keep your tiff file.

[ameerat42]

As above, and a bit above that.

[ricktas]

if you're referring to picture style I had is set on standard, should it be on neutral/faithful?

Doesn't matter which JPG picture style you choose, it will look different to your RAW file. JPG is a processed image. All the different picture styles do, is alter slightly, how that processing is done, in your camera, but process them, they do.

Yes you have some control over how that processing is done, by using the picture styles, but even a neutral/faithful picture style is going to be a processed JPG, and thus it will not look the same as your RAW file.

This is, at the basic level, exactly why most photographers shoot in RAW. It gives US the control over any changes to our photos, rather than have them changed by what a software developer has deemed as a good way to process it, using picture styles, that the software developer has decided looks good.

[Cyza]

okay well now that that's out of the way, could anyone help me with a raw codec.

I'm using windows 7 64 bit
and have a Canon 60D with latest firmware

thanks alot by the way, the whole picture style thing had always puzzled me but never really found any useful info on it.

[Ezookiel]

This is now the fourth time I've typed this. Auto save isn't saving, and every attempt to post is crashing the browser. This one I'm pasting into Word to save in case this post also crashes the system, because I'm getting really tired of typing it all out over and over.


Faststone Image Viewer (or photo viewer) is able to view RAW files, and on top of that, it also has a fair range of PP features so you can make the minor changes right there as you're viewing the RAW file.
It's also FREE.
And if you find the range of PP tools not quite sufficient, you can tell the program very easily what your other Editing software is, and with a single keystroke send the image over to your other editing software for a more comprehensive touch up.
I'm finding that I now do almost all my PP in FastStone and only use CS5 now for when there's something that is still worth trying to fix, but is a bit more complex than Faststone can handle.
For free software it is really pretty good.

[arthurking83]

You may find that (because you have a Canon camera) if you open the raw file in Canon's DPP software it should look as it does from the camera jpg file.
That's because DPP will render the raw file as the camera does because it would understand the in camera processing style(Picture Style).
So, if you set the camera up with a more vivid/contrasty picture style, then DPP should render the raw file the same way.
It also renders the raw data in the same way as the camera does, because it uses the same raw codec.
Third party raw converters use their own interpretation of what the raw data has captured.

As Ezookiel says, FastStone's FSViewer will render the raw file in the same manner as the camera does, but this is only because it renders an image on your screen based on the jpg file embedded within the raw file. All raw files have these jpgs embedded for both reviewing on the camera's screen and for thumbnail previewing too.
You can set FSViewer to render the raw file from the raw file data ... (go to Settings->Settings->RAW tab and see the options there) .. and the file will be rendered differently as all other raw converters are prone to do as well. FSViewer renders the embedded preview file for the sake of speed.

[ameerat42]

As above, and a bit above that, and the same again. It comes down to what you think, no, expect it "should" look like.

Ultimately, you were there too.

[Mark L]

I'm in the PP baby steps stage, but I download and preview (and delete) with ZoomBrowers Ex. Then do convert using DPP.
FWIW, Picasa reads RAW, though it's not the best.

[Cyza]

downloaded fast stone earlier tonight, very straight forward efficient program, thanks so much for sharing.