Images Appear "Dull" and Dark After Import and Opening in Preview Pane

If I understand your description corrrectly, it's when viewing the actual photo, not its thumbnail? Some things to look at:

you didn't say what filetype the photo was - is it jpeg or RAW?
what camera?
are you running the same version of Aperture configured in the same way on both machines?
Are your iMac and MBP both calibrated? What you may be seeing is the result of different brightness in the screens.

Regards,
Calx

The preview that you are looking at was the jpg preview generated in camera by the Nikon software - the default RAW conversions on that NEF file will be much darker, lower contrast and cooler than what Nikon will render by default in NX2 or in-camera.

Take a look here for some additional info:

[Aperture and NEF RAW conversions|http://photo.rwboyer.com/2008/12/aperture-2-and-nef-raw-recipies>

RB

Trust me on this. Also understand that your impression of the image on the mbp will be different than the imac. I have shot nikons for years and I have used Aperture since day one. The biggest complaint of Nikon shooters with Aperture and other non-nikon raw processors is this issue. The images you are first seeing that you are speaking of are the previews embedded in the NEF.

RB

If your monitor is even close to calibrated you are seeing what everyone else will see if you export as is. You need to "correct" it to your liking and then export it.

Did you take a look at the link? There are some sample NEF files there as well as JPGs as rendered by the camera software and JPGs "matched" via Aperture along with a general recipe for NEF files to match a more Nikonish rendering of the NEF.

If you would like me to help validate what you are seeing along with the default pict control renderings via NX2 just hit me up and send me an NEF, I would be glad to validate your findings.

RB

Any other ideas, folks?

Perennial problem: What is it - precisely - that we see when we see a colourant rendering on a digital colour device?

This has preoccupied people since the start of digitisation. In prepress as it was until 1995 when the International Color Consortium released the ICC Specification, you had a viewable graphic as a colour photograph on reflective paper or as a colour photograph on transmissive film (called a 'chrome').

The photographer handed the 'chrome' to the scanner operator and on the optical lathe of a drum scanner the light was split into an R, a G, and a B channel, converted into electric and then electronic data, corrected in the colour computer, and 'saved' directly onto separated film or into DCS EPS.

If there was disagreement about the colour reproduction, then the photographer had the original viewable graphic, and the scanner operator and press operator had to pick which one was responsible for not reproducing the colours. The idea in the ICC framework is to address the situation that arises in a world without a viewable graphic.

In a world without a viewable graphic, the colour photograph consists of TWO parts, not ONE part. The first part is the digitized colourant data, the Red component, the Green component, and the Blue component in the channel values and the second part consists of the colour definitions in the form of the ICC profile that determines the colours those colourants should form.

When you see digital colour devices that render colour differently, you need to begin by asking yourself what ICC device profiles determine how those colour devices render colour, and what rendering intents determine the conversions between those ICC device profiles. Software publishers should make this simple, since the ICC framework is itself simple enough.

/hh

With all due respect to the color experts in this discussion to root of Vineminer's problem is actually the RAW engine. The Update to DCRCU 2.4 had some adverse effects on certain file types.

Please try this go to [http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/application_updates/digitalcamerar awcompatibilityupdate23.html] and download the 2.3 RAW package.

Navigate to Hard Drive/System/Library/CoreServices/ and delete the file RawCamera.bundle.

Then run the package (installer) for RAW 2.3 that you downloaded and restart.

Should fix you right up.

Hi Vineminer.

I've been having the same problem using Aperture and my Nikon D60. I've stumble upon this thread while looking online for some answers. I noticed nothing was posted since last february. Have you found a solution since then?

Okay,
Changing the camera settings will do nothing.

RB