Raw Color Treatment

Question

Level 1

14 points

Raw Color Treatment

Hello everyone,

I've recently notice a real bad problem with color saturation in Aperture, or in the OS X 10.8.2 in general when it comes to raw files. But in Aperture, I can notice that "something" happens that destroys the picture.

Here is a movie to show exactly what I mean. I take a raw file, import it into Aperture, and for a few moments you can see the picture as it really is, before the god of ugly saturation jumps in and messes up everything:

http://cl.ly/1u2c36302d0K

So, does anyone know how to fix that? The colors as I see them in real life are like the ones that show up BEFORE whatever is happening happens.

Any help is appreciated, ty.

OS X: 10.8.2

Aperture: 3.4.2

Digital Camera Raw: 4.01

Pictures taken with a Canon 20d

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 27" i7 2.8GHz 8Gb 1Tb

Posted on Nov 5, 2012 11:24 AM

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Answer 1

morph21 Author

Level 1

14 points

Nov 5, 2012 12:33 PM in response to morph21

Just to add a bit more of information, this is the same image comparing what you can see with Raw Photo Processo and what you can see in Preview, which is the same as Aperture or Quicklook:

http://cl.ly/image/0a1L3226033D

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Answer 2

Aye Es Oh

Level 2

330 points

Nov 5, 2012 12:47 PM in response to morph21

That does look quite a bit off from your original image; you might want to contact Apple with feedback to let them know about this: http://www.apple.com/feedback/aperture.html

In the meantime, you could try sampling the blue from your file in the "Color" adjustment brick, then reducing the saturation and boosting the luminance. You could also try shifting the hue a bit as necessary. Also, if you're shooting RAW+JPEG, make sure to import the JPEGs as well so you have something that you can compare to as you're adjusting the RAW.

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Answer 3

morph21 Author

Level 1

14 points

Nov 5, 2012 1:37 PM in response to Aye Es Oh

Hi Aye, yes, I'll definitely write in the feedback.

I tried to "fix" the image with color adjustments, but it is so off that I can't get close to resembling the original picture. Right now, I'm looking at other options to treat those raw files, specially because I did not shot raw+jpg.

Thank you for your advice though.

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Answer 4

Nov 5, 2012 2:15 PM in response to morph21

A few things to look at:

- what are your RAW Fine Tuning settings? Are they the default for your camera?

- make sure you are not soft-proofing

- are you adding any adjustments at import?

- are you using any in-camera processing?

- what happens if you change "Aperture➞Preferences➞Import➞Post-Import processing" to "Standard"?

- what do the files look like in Preview? Look at the digital-camera file.

I wouldn't try to back-engineer your RAW Images until you are sure what is going on.

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Answer 5

morph21 Author

Level 1

14 points

Nov 5, 2012 5:17 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

Hi Kirby, thanks for your reply. Answering your points directly:

- what are your RAW Fine Tuning settings? Are they the default for your camera?

Apple Camera Default. I never changed this, and this file has not yet received any processing.

- make sure you are not soft-proofing

Check that, nope.

- are you adding any adjustments at import?

Nope, no adjustments at all.

- are you using any in-camera processing?

It is a RAW file, shot at RAW only, no +JPG, and no, no in-camera processing.

- what happens if you change "Aperture➞Preferences➞Import➞Post-Import processing" to "Standard"?

"Camera" - Using View -> Browser, the thumbnails are good until I double click so it loads the "Aperture Preview"

"Standarnd" - Using View -> Browser, the thumbnails are good for a split second and then automatically loads the "Aperture Preview" image

In the end, both produce the same result.

- what do the files look like in Preview? Look at the digital-camera file.

Files in my camera look exactly as they look in the video before the RAW treatment kicks in. In Preview, files look exactly as they look in Aperture.

When I linked the RPP results, the idea was to say: "whenever I use Preview, iPhoto or Aperture, or any other program that uses OS X Camera RAW engine, like Pixelmator, all files look the same, and they are all bad."

I'll try to find other programs other than RPP that has its own engine for raw processing and post new results.

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Answer 6

Nov 6, 2012 5:56 AM in response to morph21

Most unusual -- watching in stop action there is absolutely no change in the background greens or other than blue content. This does not seems like the normal change one might see between the initial display of the JPEG preview from the camera and the later change brought about by the decoding of the RAW.

Is this an Import from a memory card, and if so in the camera or a card reader? What are the icons I am seeing before the image first appears?

Ernie

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Answer 7

morph21 Author

Level 1

14 points

Nov 6, 2012 8:51 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Hi Ernie,

Those icons you see are part of my desktop. I just dragged the .CR2 file from the desktop to Aperture.

Interesting enough, if I export the original from Aperture and import it again, it behaves exactly as an import of a new picture.

I have no doubt now that the image I see first is the "camera preview" while the second image is the one generated by Apple's RAW treatment which is off.

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Answer 8

morph21 Author

Level 1

14 points

Nov 6, 2012 8:51 AM in response to morph21

I downloaded Lightroom, installed it and imported the CR2 into it.

Below is a screenshot of Lightroom 4.2, Preview, Aperture and RPP:

http://cl.ly/image/2N230P1s2k3K

Basically, Lightroom and RPP, two different applications that have internal RAW processing engines produce similar results, while anything "Apple" or that uses "Apple RAW engine" produces the bluish results.

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Answer 9

Nov 6, 2012 8:55 AM in response to morph21

I agree with Ernie, this is not the normal JPG preview to RAW change that you would expect, only the items in the foreground changed color.

How are you importing this? Where did the image come from, the naming of the file seems to indicate it was first placed onto your system and then imported.

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Answer 10

morph21 Author

Level 1

14 points

Nov 6, 2012 8:59 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Hi Frank,

I took the memory card from my camera, plugged it into a card reader, got the file into Aperture.

From there, after noticing this problem, I exported the "original" file, a Canon RAW 2 file, CR2, which should never be touched, and with that very same file exported from Aperture but viewed in "non apple raw" applications produces a different result.

The naming of the file could be anything, I could have used Aperture's presets or named it after the very original file. I don't think the file name would have anything to do with the treatment.

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Answer 11

Nov 6, 2012 12:55 PM in response to morph21

As far as I can tell from the abreviated screenshots, none of these look very much like the initial Preview you had in the QT video.

Do you have somewhere you could place this RAW .CR2 file that I could download from? You can find my email address by clicking on my name to the left of any of my posts, and looking in the bio line.

Ernie

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Answer 12

morph21 Author

Level 1

14 points

Nov 6, 2012 6:37 PM in response to Ernie Stamper

Ernie,

I just sent you an e-mail with the file.

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Answer 13

Nov 6, 2012 7:29 PM in response to morph21

Got it. I have been able to capture the Preview before Aperture generated a new one, and here on my 23" Cinema Display, the only change seems to be in the "blue things" and not in the back ground, as was shown in your video.

Photoshop CS5 opens the file to be much deeper in blue color than the original Preview, but not quite as deep as the one Aperture generates.

Graphic Converter, which to my knowledge does not use the Apple Digital Raw looks very much like that in Aperture.

From the EXIF data, it appears that the camera was not set on anything special to take the shot, and influence the JPEG Preview.

Very curious, and I will put more thought on it tomorrow.

Ernie

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Answer 14

morph21 Author

Level 1

14 points

Nov 7, 2012 8:21 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Ernie,

You're absolutely right. I wouldn't expect these programs to reach the same level in color since each uses its own algorithm to treat raw files, however, the deep blue as it is is completely wrong.

I wish I still could use Canon tools to treat the raw files, but as of now, Mountain Lion doesn't have tools from Canon that work, at least I couldn't find the last time (about two weeks) when I checked their website.

Meanwhile, I'm still quite scared with these results. I've been working for several hours in Aperture, but if there is such a problem, it raises a level of discomfort that right now I'm even considering reviewing a lot of my work, mainly because I lost confidence in the raw import procedure of Apple for the time being.

Hopefully either Apple will fix this (best of all possible options) or I'll find a way that won't make me insane to review my previous shots.

At the end, any help you could provide is much appreciated.

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Answer 15

Aye Es Oh

Level 2

330 points

Nov 7, 2012 8:32 AM in response to morph21

Just in case, you may want to check to see if there's any firmware updates for your Canon camera. Sometimes camera manufacturers alter their RAW formats in different firmware revisions.

Here's where you'd download it: http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer/eos_slr_camera_systems/eos_digita l_slr_cameras/eos_20d#DriversAndSoftware

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