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rbw68
Participant
August 27, 2013
Question

Output jpeg looks different than edited RAW image

  • August 27, 2013
  • 5 replies
  • 17309 views

I just got CS6 and have been working on some new images in RAW.  Once I finished the editing I wanted to do in RAW, I saved the image as a jpeg, then clicked "open image" at the bottom of the RAW window.  The image that came up in Photoshop looked nothing like my edited RAW image.  It's as if none of the edits ever occurred.  I've looked on the internet and tried figuring it out on my own.  I'm at a loss and would appreciate the help.

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    5 replies

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    magicalmaury
    Participant
    March 3, 2018

    I found that my images that looked great in Raw Edit, were terrible (unusable) when opened in Photoshop. They were very low key, night images. I found I could fix it with the midtone slider in Levels, but I found the real answer when I clicked the "Options" button in the Levels dialog box. I switched "Auto Color Correction Options" from "Enhance Brightness and Contrast" to "Find Dark & Light Colors" and I'd say that my image then looked even better than in Raw Edit.

    Tharakesh
    Tharakesh
    Participant
    November 11, 2015

    I had the same problem.

    When I flattened all layers and then saved as jpeg, it worked.

    Alternatively saving as tiff also solved the problem. Hope this reply helps.

    A
    Anonymous
    August 29, 2013

    If you take a NEF and edit in ACR and click done do you get an edited version that looks good?  If not, does it generate an XMP file?  (click on View/hidden file).

    Where are you viewing image?  If thumbnail it will not show edits if you use embedded.

    R
    RBW44
    Participant
    August 29, 2013

    Curt - thanks for the response.  When I edit in ACR and open my edited RAW image within Photoshop I don't get a version that retains the edits or look I had in RAW.  I'm really new to CS6, so I coudln't figure out if it generates an XMP file.  Did you mean to click on "View" in Photoshop?  If so, I couldn't find the hidden file option.  Am I looking in the wrong place?  I'm viewing the image in Photoshop, and nothing I've tried related to color management works.  That's not to say color management isn't the problem, I just don't have a mastery of anything on this program yet.

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    Anonymous
    August 29, 2013

    If shooting in RAW I really recommend you keep the origial with edits.  Forgot to mention the View is in Bridge.  When you edit a RAW ACR will generate an XMP file with the same name.  If you want to delete you edits you click on Edit/Develp Settings (Bridge) and you have several choices.

    You can convert several RAW images to jpg in Bridge Tools/Photoshop/image processor.

    Lots to learn, hope this helps.

    Noel Carboni
    Noel Carboni
    Legend
    August 27, 2013

    Chances are you're not clear on how color-management works, and Photoshop's default settings aren't a good match to your needs/expectations.

    Camera Raw, by default, provides images to Photoshop in the Adobe RGB color space.  I'll wager, without much additional information, that you're saving your JPEGs either without an embedded color profile or you're viewing them with an application that doesn't know how to interpret an embedded color profile.

    While it's nigh impossible to teach color-management on a forum, with a little more information about specifically how you're viweing your files when you say they "look terrible" someone here might be able to suggest settings that will more often give you the results you desire.

    -Noel

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      RBW44
      Participant
      August 28, 2013

      Noel - first of all, thanks much for taking the time to respond to my question.  You helped me realize (and I should have realized this last night) that my question and problem statement lacked a lot of detail.  I'm new to Photoshop, but I've learned a good lesson.  Here's some more details:  I use a Nikon D700, WIndows XP OS, and CS6.  After taking the images from my memory card directly into Bridge, I can see that the images look "good", meaning they match what I was seeing on my camera display.  The metadata for my photo of interest states that the color profile is RGB, and I assume this is sRGB?  I open the .nef file directly into CS6 RAW.  Once again the image in RAW looks just like it did in Bridge and on my camera display.  I like how it looks in general, but I make the manipulations I want in RAW (removing blemishes, softening skin, etc).  Prior to saving the manipulated image, I click on the Workflow Options link below the image and choose 8-bit, sRGB, then save it as a .jpeg.  Photoshop's color space has also previously been set to sRGB, so the two match.  If I open the image from RAW directly into Photoshop or open the newly created .jpeg from Bridge into Photoshop, the image no longer looks like what I saw in RAW.  The image looks sort of hazy, the black background that was completely black in the RAW image is now visible in the Photoshop image, and the model's skin, which looked nice and smooth in RAW, now looks pixelated. 

      You suggestions about color management make sense, and I bet I'm still making some sort of mistake in that regard.  Any ideas?

      Noel Carboni
      Noel Carboni
      Legend
      August 28, 2013

      Actually, it sounds like you've touched on the places I was worried about (specifically the workflow options in Camera Raw).

      So as to reduce the guessing some, Is there a way you could capture your screen, showing both the image in one of the tools in which it looks good to you (e.g., Camera Raw), and ALSO opened in Photoshop showing how it looks bad?  You can post images in threads here using the little "camera" icon above the edit box.  I'm betting that will clear a lot of things up.

      -Noel

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      rbw68Author
      Participant
      August 27, 2013

      The images in question looked good in my camera display, in Mini-Bridge, and then in RAW.  After making a few adjustments in RAW, I can't get the resulting saved .jpeg or .tif file to look like my RAW image.  Others have complained that they don't understand why a RAW image looks worse than a .jpeg image, because they didn't understand that the RAW image has had no in-camera adjustments made to it.  I seem to be having the opposite scenario.  My RAW images look beautiful, and the resulting out .jpeg or .tif files from that RAW image look terrible.  They look nothing like my camera display, the jpeg preview in Mini-Bridge (I shoot a RAW and jpeg file for each photo I take), or my edited RAW file.  It's like it's not even the same photo.  Any ideas?

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