Why do my RAW files look different?

[truephotoga]

I have noticed that when I view my RAW files with a program other than photoshop they are very sharp and bright. I have reset photoshop settings to defaults and still the raw files I open do not look as colorfull and sharp. Why does it seem that i am losing something by opening my raw files in photoshop? Thanks.

 

[480sparky]

The settings in your camera for saturation, contrast, sharpening, etc. probably are not being applied automatically to the image when it's loaded. Not having PS, I can't tell you how to change it.

 

[MTVision]

I shoot raw+jpeg. When I look at my nikon raw files with the nikon program they look almost identical to the JPEG which isn't how I want my RAW to look. In PS the raw files look a little dull but that's OK because then I can apply the settings I want to them. I'm assuming that's what is happening. You can change your camera RAW to show different camera profiles but I'm not sure how to. If you do a search for camera profiles in camera raw I'm sure you'll come up with the answer.

 

[889Media]

Your RAW files are just that; Raw files that - as "480sparky" said - have not been modified in any ways. All the details, colors, sharpness etc are there, you just have to tell Photoshop how much you want of everything. Many programs that comes with cameras, are built into windows or some other free software will read your RAW file, and use the settings it finds best for your image to give you a starting point in your processing of the image! Photoshop do not do this for you, and you have to choose the settings manually - and as a result your image will look flat and lifeless sometimes when you first open it in PS.

 

[vtf]

^^^^^^^what they said. :thumbup:

 

[KmH]

Each Raw converter uses slightly different conversion algorithms, so the same Raw file opened in several differnt Raw converters will look somewhat different in each.

Raw files opened with your camera makers software, like DPP or View NX, will have all the in-camera picture control settings applied and will look more like a finished photo than a straight Raw file.

 

[889Media]

And because of what KmH said about using the in-camera settings, is why the RAW files MTVision was talking about looks so close to her JPEG -> because the software uses close to the same settings as her camera is set to use when compressing the JPEG files