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Participant
December 29, 2023
Answered

Adobe is not reading ARW files

  • December 29, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 5203 views

Hello.

 

My camera is Sony Alpha 7 IV and when I open my pictures in Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, Camera Raw and Bridge these programs change the histogram and the pictures are very dark but on the exposition, light etc settings it looks like it has not been modified but the histogram picture are far different from what I have in my camera. 

 

Anyone can help me? 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Per Berntsen
quote

So the pictures I already took, do you know a way to make LR read it properly? Thank you in advance


By @davidm78463985

 

LR is reading them properly. They are underexposed, and you have to edit them to make them look better.

But brightening underexposed images will lead to increased noise and poor color rendition in the shadows.

You may find this article helpful.

Exposing a digital image

2 replies

Community Expert
December 29, 2023

Try applying the "camera settings" preset. It might actually read the in camera settings and try to mimic those. I don't think that works for Sony but it works great on my Nikons. Also, you can change the default for raw development in Preferences -> Presets to Camera Settings (you can find a similar preference in the cloudy version of Lightroom). This will apply to newly imported images or when you hit reset on an image.

Worth a try. It should at least pick up the in camera set picture style. 

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 29, 2023

Applying camera settings won't help. The image is simply underexposed, because that is what most Sony Picture Profiles (video profiles) do. And that's all they do for raw photos. So yes, you'll have to try and rescue them by applying a strong Exposure correction.

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
Community Expert
December 29, 2023

It does with my Nikons with the same type of in camera auto dynamic range stuff. It will automatically dial in exposure compensation and shadows, highlights, etc settings when you chose camera settings ultimately getting the develop view close to the embedded jpeg no matter what style or automatic dynamic setting you choose. I don't know why this doesn't work on Sony. It might have to do with Nikon actually embedding camera raw settings in the nef files.

Per Berntsen
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 29, 2023

This is most likely caused by a setting you have activated in the camera that brightens the shadows and mid tones of the image. Might be D-Range Optimizer ?

Using this setting leads you to believe that the image has been correctly exposed when it in fact is underexposed.

Camera settings only affect jpgs (and the jpg preview embedded in the raw file), and the histogram you see on the camera is also for the jpg.

The camera settings are probably written to the raw files, so that Sony's raw converter can apply them, but LrC doesn't understand them and ignores them.

 

I suggest that you turn this setting (and other similar settings) off.

This will also give you a more accurate histogram on the camera, although it's not a raw histogram.

See also https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/lightroom-underexposes-imported-photos-from-sony-a7-riv/m-p/12893902

Participant
December 29, 2023

Thanks a lot for you reponse. Yo were right! It was a profile setting on the camera. So the pictures I already took, do you know a way to make LR read it properly? Thank you in advance

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 29, 2023

Don't use Sony picture styles for photos. These are settings for video, and require special exposure. S-Log3 for example requires you to overexpose almost two stops, otherwise the image becomes two stops underexposed in the end. As these styles do not have any effect on the raw data, you will end up with a severely underexposed raw image.

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga