Some JPEGs Open in ACR While Others Open in the PSE Editor

[paulr1958114]

I am using Photoshop Elements (PSE) 14.

My standard working practice is to shoot RAW files with my Nikon SLR (.NEF files), process them in DxO Optics Pro and then export them to disk from within DxO Optics Pro as JPEGs.

I have just been looking at some photographs created during 2014 and 2015.

When I look at, or open, them with any of FastStone Viewer, View NX2, View NXi, Picasa, Affinity Photo or Irfanview the JPEGs all display correctly. However, when I open them with PSE 14 they open in ACR, and display with an incorrect White Balance (i.e. different to that showing when viewing / opening the image in all of the different programs listed earlier).

This happens to all of the images I processed in 2014 and those processed in the first part of 2015. Images created later in 2015, and all of 2016 & 2017 open directly in the PSE editor and display the correct white balance.

I can't think of any change I made which might account for this different behavior.

For one of the JPEG images that is opening in ACR with an incorrect white balance, if I re-export it as a JPEG from DXO Optics Pro it then opens directly in the PSE editor with the correct white balance.

I could just reprocess all of my photographs fro 2014 & 2015 to fix this but I'd like to understand why it is happening. Given that the 2014 & 2015 images all display correctly in everything other than PSE it seems to be something specific to PSE. Any suggestions are welcome.

[MichelBParis]

paulr1958114 wrote:

I am using Photoshop Elements (PSE) 14.

My standard working practice is to shoot RAW files with my Nikon SLR (.NEF files), process them in DxO Optics Pro and then export them to disk from within DxO Optics Pro as JPEGs.

I have just been looking at some photographs created during 2014 and 2015.

When I look at, or open, them with any of FastStone Viewer, View NX2, View NXi, Picasa, Affinity Photo or Irfanview the JPEGs all display correctly. However, when I open them with PSE 14 they open in ACR, and display with an incorrect White Balance (i.e. different to that showing when viewing / opening the image in all of the different programs listed earlier).

This happens to all of the images I processed in 2014 and those processed in the first part of 2015. Images created later in 2015, and all of 2016 & 2017 open directly in the PSE editor and display the correct white balance.

I can't think of any change I made which might account for this different behavior.

For one of the JPEG images that is opening in ACR with an incorrect white balance, if I re-export it as a JPEG from DXO Optics Pro it then opens directly in the PSE editor with the correct white balance.

I could just reprocess all of my photographs fro 2014 & 2015 to fix this but I'd like to understand why it is happening. Given that the 2014 & 2015 images all display correctly in everything other than PSE it seems to be something specific to PSE. Any suggestions are welcome.

The correct behaviour in Elements (I think all versions) is to open jpegs in ACR if and only if they have been voluntarily processed in ACR via the 'Open in ACR' command (or the equivalent command depending on your Elements version). If the files have been processed through Lightroom or the ACR module of Photoshop, they should also open in ACR. When edited in ACR or Lightroom, the edits are saved in the metadata header of the jpeg file, and that is what triggers the opening in the ACR module.

If you are sure your files have not been processed in ACR or Lightroom before, you should perhaps have a look in the organizer to the metadata:

Select one such file

Information panel on the right,

- display the 'Metadata' section with details (small icon on the right of the top bar)

- look in the CAMERA RAW section on the bottom

What is there?

[MichelBParis]

Another thought: I have not used DXO since 2006...

I just did a Google search on "DXO and ACR compatibility" and that gave a number of discussions on similar matter.

[paulr1958114]

Michel,

A further thought after reading your comment about DxO and ACR searches.

One discussion on the DxO forum highlighted a preference in DxO that is called "Preserve metdata in XMP sdiecars for RAW images". The DxO user manual states that this  "Allows the application to process and export your RAW images while using metadata previously stored in an XMP-format file alongside the input image (e.g., metadata created by a program such as Adobe Bridge)".

For all of the folders of images where I had originally processed them in ACR, I have retained the ACR .XMP sidecars in case I abandoned DxO and reverted to PSE ACR). It's possible that the DxO v8 and DxO v10 behaviours are different in how they handle this.

[paulr1958114]

Michel,

I think you have pointed me in the direction of an explanation of sorts, although not one that fully explains what is happening.

I had forgotten that up until sometime in 2015, my standard working practice was to use PSE with ACR to process the RAW .NEF files. Then sometime in 2015 I became aware of, and  acquired a copy of, DxO Optics Pro v8 and switched to using it to process the RAW .NEF files. I did however, go back and reprocess all of my earlier 2014 and 2015 RAW .NEF files and generate JPEGs from DxO Optics Pro. I can see from the dates of the JPEG files that they are consistent with the dates of the DxO sidecar files created by DxO Optics Pro, confirming that they had been regenerated from DxO.

I have checked the metadata as you suggest, looking at it Organiser. The first image (below) is the Camera Raw information for a JPEG  image that I initially processed in PSE ACR and at a later date processed with DxO Optics to generate the JPEG. The photograph was originally taken in Jan 2014 and the RAW .NEF processed in ACR at the time. I later, in March 2015, processed the .NEF with DxO and exported the JPEG - hence the modification date of 03/2015 (the creation date of 2016 reflects that I bought a new PC in 2016 and copied all of the files from the old PC to the new one). The JPEG, output by DxO, opens in ACR.

The second image (below) is for the same .NEF RAW file as above, but exported as a JPEG earlier today using DxO Optics Pro V10.

With the exception of the creation and modification dates, the two sets of Camera RAW information are identical, apart from that relating to file size and resolution - I switched to maximum size JPEG export with my new PC.

I can only conclude that there is something in the JPEG file created by DxO v8 that is reflecting that the .NEF was originally processed in ACR and that this is not present in the JPEG file created by DxO v10. Although I had ACR set up to save .XMP sidecars, possibly ACR also modified the RAW .NEF file in some way that carried through in DxO v8 but not in DxO v10.

In any event, it looks like my best course is to regenerate all of the JPEGs using DXO v10.

As I said, this doesn't fully explain what is going on but it has identified a change at the point in time that matches the one after which JPEGs open as I expect in PSE editor.

Thanks for your input.