Converting RAW to JPG without losing anything

[LacPhan]

Hello! I wanted to convert my RAW pics to JPG without losing any of the aspects of the RAW. For example, in preview my pictures have a bright background, but when I go to load it in Lightroom suddenly the pictures have a kind of circular shadow border around the pictures and the picture becomes darker with more shadows. How can I retain those initial qualities?

[Per Berntsen]

Please post screenshots that illustrate the problem.

Also post a screenshot of the Export dialog in Lightroom, which shows the File Settings and Image Sizing settings you have been using.

[Jao vdL · Accepted solution]

raw files have no proper agreed on rendering. Every raw converter interprets raw images differently. Remember that raw files are just straight data from the sensor. They have to be gamma corrected, color interpreted and more to give you a pleasing image. In Lightroom a large part of the conversion is governed by the camera calibration that you can control in Develop in the camera calibration section. For many cameras there are profiles there that mimic the in-camera raw converter (the one that generates the jpegs and the built-in jpeg preview that you are looking at on the camera). Check if using "camera standard" there solves your issue. Another issue is that often in-camera people set HDR modes such as highlight priority or Advanced Dynamic Range in Nikons. These on purpose underexpose the image but only the raw converter from the camera manufacturer knows to correct for that. Other raw converters have no clue that this happened and will show you an image that can be a stop too dark. So turn off those modes on your camera if you turned them on.