Raw

McCormack

New member
I recently bought a D5300 and I like it, but I'm having trouble in that Picture Control seems to be affecting my RAW (.NEF) images.

Here's an image shot in RAW with Neutral Picture Control saturation and sharpness turned all the way down:
https://images2.imgbox.com/a4/0c/9PIVrqod_o.jpg?download=true

Here's the same scene shot in RAW with Neutral Picture Control saturation and sharpness turned all the way up:
https://images2.imgbox.com/43/ff/thzDZ3yP_o.jpg?download=true

Also when I shoot in RAW+JPEG the images are exactly the same. Why is Picture Control affecting my RAW images?
 
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BackdoorArts

Senior Member
The jpg preview corresponding to the camera mode is stored in the Raw file, but the file itself is not altered. How the Raw file appears when you go to edit it depends on the profile applied in the editor. If that's Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw then that will default to "Adobe Standard", not the Nikon camera specific profile. There is no way to get an Adobe product to read and reflect the shot-with profile, but if you always shoot with one specific profile you can set that as your editing default. Otherwise you will need to go into the Profile section of the Basic edit panel and choose Camera Neutral if that's what you shot with.

Other editors may be able to pick up the profile used stored in the raw file but it's been ages since I've used something else I don't retain that stuff.
 

McCormack

New member
Thanks for responding. I use Irfanview and Nikon's Capture NX-D, and Picture Control is applied to my RAW images in both editors. Is there a way to edit my RAW photos in either of those editors with having Picture Control applied?
 

nickt

Senior Member
I don't use nx-d, so I'm not well versed. But try Edit-Preferences-Raw Processing. From there choose something other than 'recorded values'. The other two choices are srgb or adobe rgb.

Edit: Forget this, It seemed to work, but it doesn't. At the same time I was messing in the right hand edit panel. I turned off picture control there by selecting something other than 'recorded value' under the picture control setting. So far I can't find a way to turn it off for all images.

I think infraview is only showing you the embedded jpg in the raw file, but I'm not sure. My understanding is no 3rd party software can apply the Nikon picture controls, only the Nikon editors.

For easy testing, shoot a monochrome shot. You'll know right away that you are on the right track when nx-d shows you the color image rather than the b&w version.
 
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McCormack

New member
I tried fiddling with the various settings in both Irfanview and NX-D and couldn't nullify the Picture Control influence. The file size of my RAW images are larger than OOC JPEG images, if that means anything, and I shot a B&W RAW photo and loaded it into NX-D and Irfanview and it showed up as B&W in both editors, for what that's worth.

I used to shoot Canon and the RAW images loaded as pure RAW, so I don't know why my 5300 images won't do the same. But my images are turning out really good even if I can't edit them in pure RAW form, so I guess I won't worry about it and just keep on keeping on.
 

nickt

Senior Member
The raw file contains a full size jpg with the camera picture control settings cooked into it. Nikon software applies those same settings to the raw, but you still get the full range of edits. So you can un-edit it, lol. I didn't explain it good above, but in nx-d, if you go to the editing panel, there is a pane for 'edit'. In there there are several icons, the one under "WB", a color pallet looking thing, is picture control. If you change that from recorded settings to flat, you might get what you want. I'm not sure if flat is the same as nothing, but it should be close to 'blah' that you would expect from a unedited raw. I just tried it and it turned my b&w test shot to a bland color shot.
 

McCormack

New member
Oh OK, I had to change from Camera Compatible to Latest Picture Control in order to be able access the flat setting. I processed an image in flat and in Picture Control Neutral, and I prefer the Neutral, so I'll just stick with that.

When I was shooting Canon, RAW images were so much better in sharpness and color than OOC JPEGs, but my images are tack sharp out of my 5300 and the colors are great, so from here on out there's no reason to concern myself over whether the images are RAW or not.

Thanks for your help.
 

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
@McCormack Welcome to the forum. I'm glad to see that you have found a "solution" to your problem. It sounds like you are now a happy camper with your Nikon raw processing. Have fun
 
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