RAW Import

[Marv Sanchez]

How can I import RAW photos as shot? Every time I import RAW, it looks dull and dark.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Marv Sanchez

[Ray S.]

Do you have a tone-curve applied? Look in View/Assistant-manager/develop-assitant which options are checked/unchecked.

[Marv Sanchez]

These are my options selected and it still looks dull. The image does not look like as shot.

[IanSG]

8 minutes ago, Marv Sanchez said:

The image does not look like as shot.

What are you comparing it with?  The image displayed by the camera is an embedded jpeg rather than a processed RAW file.

[walt.farrell]

A RAW image opened in Affinity Photo will generally not look the same as you might see in the preview in your digital camera, or in the software provided by your camera manufacturer, or in a JPG created by the camera. It will need some adjustment in the Develop Persona.

Can you tell us the camera you're using, and provide one of its RAW images? And also let us know what you're comparing it to to determine that it's dark and dull?

[Marv Sanchez]

Thanks for the help. I am using a EOS RP and shooting in RAW. The software I am using is Lightroom and Canon Digital Photo Profesional 4; when I edit in those two programs, the image gets imported as shot and it doesn't lose color.  When I import to Affinity, it loses color and looks dark and dull.

[NotMyFault]

Hi,

please check the Histogram.

If you see a normal brightness distribution (having some relevant contribution on the right side): Check for settings rendering issues (see below).

RAW file issues: Otherwise, the RAW file is severly under-exposed and needs adjustments on Exposure, Brightness, or Curves to achieve a normal level.

 

Rendering issues:

• Do you have a HDR / EDR capable display? Then ou might need to activate the "32bit Preview" panel in studio, and adjust adjust Esposure and/or Gamma. I would suggest to disable "32 bit Preview" unless you really need it and are familiar with it.
• Color Profile issues - see turorials and Q&A regardiang this topic.

 

[walt.farrell]

20 minutes ago, Marv Sanchez said:

The software I am using is Lightroom and Canon Digital Photo Profesional 4; when I edit in those two programs, the image gets imported as shot and it doesn't lose color.  

The Canon software will certainly understand their RAW image data, and the camera's shooting modes, and will by default show exactly what the camera preview would show.

Affinity is showing the actual raw data, except as influenced by the generic tone curve you asked the Develop Assistant to apply.

[user_0815]

Every RAW converter interprets RAW files differently. RAW files are not finished images but just raw data. Different apps show more or less different results because they have to interpret the raw data as a preview how they think the image should look until you save it as an image file (tif, jpeg...). How the result looks depends on how the developers of the app (LR, C1, Photo...) programmed the support for your camera's raw files. If Photo shows a result that is drastically different as others, perhaps the files of the Canon RP aren't supported yet or not in a way that looks pleasing. There must be a list of supported cameras somewhere.

What you can do now is adjust the exposure, contrast, saturation etc to your liking and save it as a preset. If it looks just dull, it might be sufficient to make a slight s-curve in the "Tones" panel and save just that curve as a preset. You can then apply that preset for every raw file you open.

[IanSG]

7 hours ago, user_0815 said:

If Photo shows a result that is drastically different as others, perhaps the files of the Canon RP aren't supported yet or not in a way that looks pleasing. There must be a list of supported cameras somewhere.

The list of supported cameras is here - it includes the EOS RP.  I downloaded a few RAW files from DP Review and there were no problems with them.  The images were a bit soft, but the exposure was ok and they only needed a bit of clarity to produce an acceptable image.

[NotMyFault]

@Marv Sanchez, can you please make a test shot of any suitable object, use RAW+JPEG, and upload both images in a zip file (to avoid changes of images by the forum upload software).

Canon RAW has multiple variations, and the issue you reported may be aligned to the specific choice of parameters used.

 

[Marv Sanchez]

@NotMyFault here you go.

Test_image.zip

[NotMyFault]

Both files open perfectly fine, and match within the expected limits of RAW / JPEG.

In addition, i have cross-checked with Canon DPP, which shows again very similar results when opening bith files.

Photo 1.9.1, on Windows 10.

Please check the following settings:

• Development Assistant (compare settings)
  • 32 bit mode will lead to dull results, as no gamma tone curve is applied!
• Studio->32 Bit Preview (disable 32 bit preview!)
• Histogram should look similar
• Your OS Settings for color profile
• Your Monitor brightness settings, Color Profile, WhitePoint etc

 

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