Odd Camera Raw Conversion for Nikon Z8

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
February 22, 2024
2 replies
1305 views

Once Adobe started using profiles in Camera Raw, I set mine to Camera Neutral. This has worked fine for my Nikon D800 and Nikon D850 as all the values in the Camera Raw Light Drop Down were in there 0 position. However when I open up a Raw file made with the Nikon Z8 and the profile is Camera Neutral, Exposure is set to +.33, Highlights are set to -21 and Shadows are set to +10.

If I chage the profile to Adobe Color they're back to 0.

Why is this and can I fix it?

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Correct answer _FT_

I'm quite late to this thread but please check if D-Lighting is active. It can cause this kind of skewed base values in LR.

Per Berntsen

Community Expert

See this thread, which I believe explains what's happening.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/pannello-base-impatto-saturazione/m-p/14436506#M357183

Since that thread is about Lightroom Classic, see also

https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/kb/acr-raw-defaults.html

D

DanBaumbachAuthor

Known Participant

I'm sorry I don't understand. With my other Nikon cameras the settings are on the neutral values. With the Z8 they are skewed. Are you saying it's the setting I have in my camera that are doing this?

Per Berntsen

Community Expert

Yes, it's caused by camera settings.

Digital cameras have always written these settings to the raw files, but in a proprietary format that Adobe software doesn't understand. If you open raw files from the D800 or D850 in Nikon's own raw converter (Nikon Capture NX-D), the camera settings will be applied.

The Nikon Z cameras were the first to write camera settings in the XMP format, which Adobe software understands, and other manufacturers of mirrorless cameras have followed.

You can stop these settings from being applied by setting Camera Raw to use Adobe default settings instead of Camera settings, and you can also create you own settings.

Instructions are here: https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/kb/acr-raw-defaults.html

I also recommend that you zero out/neutralize any settings on the camera, which will make the image you see in the camera a better match to what you see in Camera Raw.