DNG/RAW Files Washed Out

[ebergerly]

I know this has been discussed here before, and I've read a bunch of posts and checked out the Affinity videos on RAW files, but I still haven't figured out what the issue is. Any help would be appreciated.

I imported a DNG image taken on my Samsung phone, and as you can see in the attached it's totally washed out. I imported the same image into Nuke, hooked up a viewer, and it looks fine (Affinity Photo on the left, Nuke on the right). No adjustments necessary in Nuke.

I've set Develop Assistant tone curve setting to "Take no action" but even if I apply the tone curve it looks a little better, but not close to the "correct" image.

My challenge is that no matter what Exposure, Saturation, etc., sliders I move in the Develop Persona, I can't get close to the rich color of the Nuke/correct image. 

Now this is my first time working with RAW files, so I could be doing something dumb, but I've tried cranking the Exposure up to get a decent histogram and adjusting all the other sliders but still it's washed out.

Anyone? Thanks

[NotMyFault]

Hi,

first of all please change RAW output format to anything else, not RGB/32. This certainly solves most of you issues. 

RGB/16 will serve you better.

Then, let the assistant apply both exposure and tone curve adjustment.

 Next, if you expecting to get 100% same result as from other apps, you will be disappointed. All RAW developers use a brand specific set of adjustments, making it next to impossible getting the same results.

Never the less, using some reasonable settings in Photo can provide good results. 

 

[ebergerly]

Thanks NotMyFault. It's funny, as I recall some of the posts I've read on the subject say pretty much the opposite of what you're suggesting. But I did try your suggestions, and, probably due to my inability to figure out the best slider positions, I'm still nowhere close. In fact the image is more blown out. 

I'm curious what magic handwaving Nuke does to make the imported image so reasonable. 

[ebergerly]

Okay, after a bit more fiddling using NotMyFault's suggestions, I think I've got it. I set the Develop Assistant per the suggestions, then restarted AF, and while it started out with a very similar, washed out image, I could get a lot closer by tweaking the sliders.

I couldn't get enough saturation in Develop (even with slider at max), but after applying the Develop I tweaked it a bit in Photo (see below).

I wish I could figure out a default preset for my particular camera so that all imports from it go thru the same process.