Adobe DNG Converter B/W raw to jpg color

[totomiceli]

Hi, I have a problem with Adobe DNG converter.

I have some raw photos taken in B/W. When I go to convert the raw file to dng it doesn't transform them into original color profile. Not even if I export the photo to jpg.
Let me start by saying that the goal would be to use DNG Converter with the Camera Bits Photo Mechanic 6 software. However, when I enable the function with Photo Mechanic it does not carry out the conversion. However, not even when I use DNG Converter independently.

What can I do to enable the rendering of raw B/W photos into jpg color with Adobe DNG Converter?

[D Fosse]

This is determined by the camera profile you choose in ACR/Ligtroom.

The profile choice is recorded in the raw file's metadata, along with the rest of the processing metadata. This metadata is included in a conversion to DNG, and this is how the file is exported to jpeg.

As long as the camera has a standard Bayer filter array / Fuji x-trans sensor, the color information is there, it just needs to be decoded (demosaiced) in the raw processor. A very few camera models don't have the Bayer filter in front of the sensor, and those cameras are true B&W cameras that cannot record color.

This is LrC, but ACR works the same way:

[totomiceli]

But I don't have to open raw files with Camera Raw, Photoshop or Lightroom.
I need to convert raw files (shot with a BW color profile) to color DNG (or JPG) files without opening them in Camera Raw!
And this process is normally done by the Adobe DNG Converter software (https://helpx.adobe.com/it/camera-raw/using/adobe-dng-converter.html).
This software, if it works in synergy with Photo Mechanic 6,  automates the rendering of raw BW by automatically displaying it in color. However, this process is not successful on my PC.
I'm wondering if anyone can help me.

[D Fosse]

Then you need to delete the metadata from the raw file, leaving any processing to whatever default values are set in the software.

If the raw file has processing metadata, it carries over to the dng.

[totomiceli]

The raw file is original because it was taken by the camera. Contains no processing metadata.

If deleting the metadata can solve the problem how can you do it with Adobe DNG Converter?

[D Fosse]

The one thing I can think of is that these are "M" or "S" raw files, that are downsampled from the full sensor resolution.

In that case the file is demosaiced in camera, because you can't downsample a raw file without disrupting the Bayer (or x-trans) pattern and so render the file un-processable.

Then the file is output as linear RGB data. In other words, R=G=B is baked into the pixel data and cannot be reversed.

I don't have any hard confirmation for this - but the fact that "M" and "S" raws are unacceptable to processes that require mosaic data (like Denoise), led to the inevitable deduction that this is the way it has to work.

[totomiceli]

Sorry but all this reasoning doesn't help me. It seems too complicated to me.

I'll add something important that I didn't say before. The bw to color conversion process with Adobe DNG Converter works great with a PC. While with another PC with the same setting the color conversion does not occur.

So I remember that the problem is not in the raw files, in the camera settings or in photoshop, but the problem is in the Adobe DNG Converter software.