NEF looks better than jpg in Capture One Pro

NEF looks better than jpg in Capture One Pro does anyone know why that is and is it something that I have done wrong?

Here's the difference in Lightroom -

You're not looking at the NEF file. You're looking at a JPEG created fom the NEF file data.

The difference is the JPEG out of the camera used one demosaicing method in the camera. The computer app used another method to create the JPEG you see.

I'll have to do some Googling because I don't 100% follow you.

Dont know if this will help but have you made in camera jpeg adj even though you shoot raw.

The thing is Nikon cameras leave the factory with poor jpeg settings especially sharpening so if your PP program is like ACR it will automatically add about 21% sharpening to the raw file which could make the raw look better.
I have jpeg settings sorted in my D500 and shoot raw, i download into view nx and am presented with a jpeg that uses these settings so then when i open the raw it normally looks flat, which is the way it should be.

Each pixel of a digital camera can store only the light levels, so essentially a sensor is monochrome. To get colour information each pixel has a mask of one colour. Bayer pattern used in most cameras has a Green, a Blue and two Red masks in a cluster of four touching pixels. So even though the sensor has say 20 Mega Pixels, 10MP are Red, 5MP are green and 5MP are blue. RAW format stores the image data as seen by the sensor, along with a host of other supporting data. Why BAyer pattern and not RBG, is because Bayer uses only one pixel while RBG needs 3 pixels - essentially the Bayer pattern needs 1/3 the pixels. The down side is that the colours are not exactly true but interpolated for each pixel.

JPEG on other hand has colour information for all the 20MP pixels, in effect it has data for 20MP Red, 20MP Blue and 20MP Green - thrice the data that the sensor had collected! In camera JPEG is RAW processed by the camera.

The conversion of 20MP Bayer pattern to 20x3MP of RBG is called demosaicing.

NEF file is in RAW format. That format has one entry for each pixel effectively what the sensor sees. To get RBG information you have to use a demosaicing algorithm to create colour information for each pixel. In effect
. Two pixels had Red mask so essentially these had only Red information. After demosaicing they each have R,B,G data.
. One pixel had Green data. After demosaicing it has R,B,G data.
. One pixel had Blue data. After demosaicing it has R,B,G data.

So essentially Demosaicing algorithm is "Guessing" what colour goes to which pixels. Each software has its own proprietary demosaicing algorithm, so the result of one may be more pleasing to the eye than the other.

I don't know how Capture One Pro works since I don't have it and never used it. But here is something from ACR (both Light Room and Camera RAW in PCC have this ability). When you are working with NEF's, you can go in and change the Camera Profile. Possibly Capture One Pro is using some type of predetermined camera profile for NEF's. Adobe's Camera RAW default is Adobe Standard, but when you toggle through the options, the image will change. Landscape seems to add more contrast. Camera Neutral and Camera Portrait have less. Image saturation also changes. The differences are noticeable. But I *think* this option is only available for Camera RAW files, not jpegs.

Check Capture One Pro's options and see if they have options that are automatically being applied to your NEF's.

hark said:

... when you toggle through the options, the image will change. Landscape seems to add more contrast. Camera Neutral and Camera Portrait have less. Image saturation also changes. The differences are noticeable.

Click to expand...

Here's what Nikon says about the different Picture Control profiles and how they modify the image: Picture Controls Step by Step

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hark said:

But I *think* this option is only available for Camera RAW files, not jpegs.

Click to expand...

This is correct. Picture Controls are one of the many post-processing options you surrender when shooting in JPG.

Horoscope Fish said:

Here's what Nikon says about the different Picture Control profiles and how they modify the image: Picture Controls Step by Step

....
This is correct. Picture Controls are one of the many post-processing options you surrender when shooting in JPG.

Click to expand...

What I forgot to mention is the Camera RAW/LR Camera Profile options mimic what the jpeg counterparts are supposed to look like. If Capture One doesn't have the same options, maybe the OP can create some type of preset for Capture One that will match what he/she sees in Adobe Camera RAW.

aroy said:

..............
. Two pixels had Red mask so essentially these had only Red information. After demosaicing they each have R,B,G data.
. One pixel had Green data. After demosaicing it has R,B,G data.
. One pixel had Blue data. After demosaicing it has R,B,G data.
.........

Click to expand...

Two green, one red, one blue.