Getting the embedded JPEG from RAW file.

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
I was shooting a bunch of family portraits in the garage studio this weekend in RAW on the D800. I use ACDSee Pro 8 to preview, import, and rate the pictures. The previews of these portraits looked terrific to me and the family as if no post processing was needed, but when I opened the RAW files in ACDSee's Develop/Edit modules or in Adobe Camera Raw, the pic went back to looking very flat and uninteresting. So I had to do a bunch of post processing in ACR to get back to that great look in the previews.

From what I have learned so far, ACDSee uses the embedded JPEG profile for previews because it is faster.

If I did not shoot RAW+JPEG (which I will now do in the future), is there any way in PS or Capture NX (which I have never used) or any other program to get that embedded JPEG profile so I don't have to do any extra work in ACR?
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
If Nikon view nx will handle D800 files you could view them in it,it will display an image with the in camera jpeg adjustments and you can save the jpeg from there,it does not harm the raw file.
 

WayneF

Senior Member
I was shooting a bunch of family portraits in the garage studio this weekend in RAW on the D800. I use ACDSee Pro 8 to preview, import, and rate the pictures. The previews of these portraits looked terrific to me and the family as if no post processing was needed, but when I opened the RAW files in ACDSee's Develop/Edit modules or in Adobe Camera Raw, the pic went back to looking very flat and uninteresting. So I had to do a bunch of post processing in ACR to get back to that great look in the previews.

From what I have learned so far, ACDSee uses the embedded JPEG profile for previews because it is faster.

If I did not shoot RAW+JPEG (which I will now do in the future), is there any way in PS or Capture NX (which I have never used) or any other program to get that embedded JPEG profile so I don't have to do any extra work in ACR?

Exiftool will extract the embedded JPG from raw files, but it's a big complication, avoidable by just shooting JPG in the first place.

JPG images apply the camera settings automatically.
Raw images do Not apply the camera settings.

Why shoot raw if you're not going to use it? One possible wishful reason heard is to archive them for the future after which you might have learned to handle them?

The purpose of raw is specifically to NOT INCLUDE the camera setting adjustments, such as white balance, color profile, contrast, etc. The purpose of raw is to process and adjust the image AFTER we can actually see it, to know what helps it, without having to undo wrong stuff. To see and know what we're doing is a huge plus, but only if you're going to use it. The difference is that we can set white balance and Vivid and whatever before we shoot image, hoping about the imagined results. Or we can make those settings later in raw, when we can see what it does, and still make corrections. Otherwise, if we don't, raw is simply an unprocessed image. If the automatic camera adjustments and the JPG is what you want, then seems obvious to just shoot JPG.

Nikons CaptureNX had the ability to read the camera settings the the Exif with the raw file (but which were NOT applied to the raw data), and then apply those same camera settings automatically later when the raw file was opened. But again, if that's the goal, why not just shoot JPG in the first place?
 

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
Why shoot raw if you're not going to use it?

I do use RAW and ACR all the time. My point here was that the exact work I would do in ACR for these particular shots was already done for me in the embedded JPEG. I was able to tweak the RAWs to get the same result, but was simply wondering if there was a shortcut to jump to the embedded JPEG. Now I switched my camera to shoot RAW + JPEG fine in case the same thing happens in the future.
 

WayneF

Senior Member
I do use RAW and ACR all the time. My point here was that the exact work I would do in ACR for these particular shots was already done for me in the embedded JPEG. I was able to tweak the RAWs to get the same result, but was simply wondering if there was a shortcut to jump to the embedded JPEG. Now I switched my camera to shoot RAW + JPEG fine in case the same thing happens in the future.

I'm sorry that I missed that part. :) Frankly, it seems simple enough to just regularly process the raw files as desired, but one way to recover your jpg images is ExifTool, free from https://sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

It is a command line tool, but this exact command will do it, extracting full size JPG from all NEF files in the current directory.

exiftool -b -JpgFromRaw -w _JFR.JPG -ext NEF -r .

Recursively extract JPG image from all Nikon NEF files in the
current directory, adding "_JFR.JPG" for the name of the output JPG files.

NOTE that the last trailing period is required (it means Current Directory), it is Not just for its sentence.

This is by far the best and about the only remaining Exif Viewer (that is kept up to date for recent cameras). It does Not have to be a command line tool, and for other general Exif Viewer purposes as a Windows tool, see A Viewer for Camera Exif data - ExifTool
 
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Blade Canyon

Senior Member
It is a command line tool, but this exact command will do it, extracting full size JPG from all NEF files in the current directory.

exiftool -b -JpgFromRaw -w _JFR.JPG -ext NEF -r .

Wow wow! That totally worked! It took all of my old Command Line DOS skills to figure all of that out, but it worked very fast. Thank you so much!

This way I get to see a JPEG that looks like the preview I was seeing on the back of the camera when we were shooting.

For anyone else trying Exiftools, once you download it you have to unzip it and copy it into the Windows directory. Then change the name to "Exiftool", then run it once as Administrator. After that, you open your command line window (Run CMD), then navigate your way to the directory with the RAW files you from which you want to extract the embedded JPEGs (either you remember DOS or you don't...), then type Wayne F's command.
 
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Blade Canyon

Senior Member
Original RAW untouched:

OriginalRAW.jpg

Embedded JPEG... not perfect but better:

ExiftoolJPEG.jpg

Final product after ACR, (which looks terrible and grainy shrunk to 72 dpi and uploaded):

PostACR.jpg
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
We possibly all have different goals as to what an image should look like but these are what i wanted from them,the thing is i always shoot raw but more and more with the D500 i find i am just using the jpeg that View NX presents me using my in camera jpeg settings,these just had very slight tweaking in Elements on the jpeg,as i say it may not suit all.

DSC_4147.jpg


DSC_4150.jpg
 
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