This did not use to happen. After the raw files are imported, they look like a preset is under exposing them. Can anyone help??

you know that what your seeing is the change from the cameras generated Jpeg (thats embedded in the RAW) to the software's own preview right ?

so yes check what the software is doing . if its applying a preset the in Lightroom for example your can click reset . but it could be that you have a setting in the camera that is cooking the jpeg, so when the software generates its own preview its quite a bit different.

Ian.Dobinson wrote:
you know that what your seeing is the change from the cameras generated Jpeg (thats embedded in the RAW) to the software's own preview right ?

so yes check what the software is doing . if its applying a preset the in Lightroom for example your can click reset . but it could be that you have a setting in the camera that is cooking the jpeg, so when the software generates its own preview its quite a bit different.

Thanks Ian. There is no preset being applied. Can you tell me where to look for a camera setting that would do this? I am shooting a Canon 60D. Thanks again for your reply!

Ryan

1. Calibrate your monitor so blacks are black but differentiate the tones and whites are white but differentiate the tones.

2. Profile your monitor with monitor profiling hardware & software so that the tones are reproducible on other systems. This is not necessary if you are seeing a large change on your system, but it will straighten out tone steps if your monitor is extremely wonky (unlikely).

3. You can't trust the LCD on the back of the camera for colour, contrast, saturation, or brightness.

4. You can generally trust the histograms on the LCD.

5. Use your menus and especially the Info button on your camera to change the in camera presets that affect the LCD (to help a little there) and affect the way the computer software makes a first guess at what you want to do, kind of a 'default preset'. Set the controls on the camera to neutral.

6. What software? You don't say. Canon DPP? Photoshop? ACR? Lightroom? Bridge? Microsoft CR2 readers? Something else?

7. Read your camera manual. If you bought used without a manual, then download it from the Canon USA site (under Support).

are you using lightroom? if so it's likely changing the camera calibration profile on import to Adobe Standard.

you can prevent it from doing this if you import an image, let LR make the change to Adobe Standard, and then go into the develop module, camera calibration panel, and change the profile back to whatever it is you want to use (Camera Standard, Camera Faithful, or whatever your body has available.)

once you've changed the profile, go to the Develop menu and go to Set Default Settings. this will allow you to override the existing import settings with whatever changes you just made to the profile.

one warning: don't do any other processing on the file other than change the camera profile before you update the default settings, or else those changes will be saved as well and applied to imported photos in the future. for example, if you set sharpening to +50 and then update those import settings, everything you import will always receive +50 sharpening, etc. if you screw it up you can always restore the defaults so no biggie.

Monito wrote:
1. Calibrate your monitor so blacks are black but differentiate the tones and whites are white but differentiate the tones.

2. Profile your monitor with monitor profiling hardware & software so that the tones are reproducible on other systems. This is not necessary if you are seeing a large change on your system, but it will straighten out tone steps if your monitor is extremely wonky (unlikely).

Thanks Monito. I have done items 1 & 2

3. You can't trust the LCD on the back of the camera for colour, contrast, saturation, or brightness.

Good to know. I have always has good results trusting the LCD with jpgs. I will treat the RAW images differently.

4. You can generally trust the histograms on the LCD.

Point taken!

5. Use your menus and especially the Info button on your camera to change the in camera presets that affect the LCD (to help a little there) and affect the way the computer software makes a first guess at what you want to do, kind of a 'default preset'. Set the controls on the camera to neutral.

Will do!

6. What software? You don't say. Canon DPP? Photoshop? ACR? Lightroom? Bridge? Microsoft CR2 readers? Something else?

I am using Lightroom 3. (Latest Version)

7. Read your camera manual. If you bought used without a manual, then download it from the Canon USA site (under Support).

The manual does not address this issue.

Thank you for taking the time to help. I will go to work on this.

goosemang wrote:
are you using lightroom? if so it's likely changing the camera calibration profile on import to Adobe Standard.

you can prevent it from doing this if you import an image, let LR make the change to Adobe Standard, and then go into the develop module, camera calibration panel, and change the profile back to whatever it is you want to use (Camera Standard, Camera Faithful, or whatever your body has available.)

once you've changed the profile, go to the Develop menu and go to Set Default Settings. this will allow you to override the existing import settings with whatever changes you just made to the profile.

one warning: don't do any other processing on the file other than change the camera profile before you update the default settings, or else those changes will be saved as well and applied to imported photos in the future. for example, if you set sharpening to +50 and then update those import settings, everything you import will always receive +50 sharpening, etc. if you screw it up you can always restore the defaults so no biggie.

Thank you goosemang, I will give all of this a try. I appreciate your help!

Ryan