RAW and in-camera sharpening

[jamesino]

When I open up a RAW file shot with a Canon Rebel XTi in ACR, am I seeing the RAW data with the in-camera processing done to it? I read that the in-camera options are stored in a "header".

Is there any point of applying an in-camera sharpening, contrast boosting or saturation when shooting in RAW?

I did a few shots in the camera's default Picture Style and a few shots in a custom picture style where I turned the sharpening, contrast and saturation all the way up. On the camera LCD, the default Standard picture style shots looked normal, while the custom picture style shots looked way over saturated. However, when I opened up the shots in ACR, all of them looked the same. The oversaturated shots didn't look oversaturated anymore. Why does this occur?

 

[Big Mike]

Is there any point of applying an in-camera sharpening, contrast boosting or saturation when shooting in RAW?

The way I understand it, no...there is no point in messing with those in-camera settings if you are shooting RAW. RAW allows you the freedom to apply those settings to the exact degree you want, on the computer, after the shots have been taken.

 

[jamesino]

I just did some more test shots and I can confirm that when I open up the RAW file in ACR, it is ignoring my in-camera settings.

The first series of shots I did, I set the camera to a proper white balance and the default Standard picture style and shot in RAW + JPEG mode.

The second series, I set a completely wrong white balance and a User Defined custom picture style with sharpening, saturation and contrast turned all the way up and shot in RAW + JPEG mode.

When I open up the first series of shots, both the JPEG and the RAW looked roughly the same. However, when I opened up the second series of shots, the JPEG's looked like they had the in-camera processing done to them (wrong colours, high contrast, high saturation, high sharpening), however, the RAW's looked like the RAWs from the first series- without the in-camera processing.

Nothing I do will let me preview the RAWs from the second series in ACR with the in-camera processing data to make it look like the JPEGs from the second series. I tried clicking on "Camera RAW deault", "Image Default" etc... and the picture in ACR doesn't change.

 

[ksmattfish]

I'm using CS2, so my ACR info may not be up to date for CS3. When I open a raw file in ACR it uses the default ACR settings, or the ones I've saved. If I want to get the in-camera processing settings I need to use Canon DPP, which comes with the camera.

Even though I always shoot raw, I often adjust the in-camera processing settings. They are applied to the jpeg that's displayed on the LCD. They aren't permanent, but I can use them to adjust the look I'm seeing on the LCD to more closely match my intended processing. For instance if I'm shooting shots I know are going to be BW, I like to see BW on the LCD, even though when I open them in ACR they'll go back to color.

 

[Drake]

For instance if I'm shooting shots I know are going to be BW, I like to see BW on the LCD, even though when I open them in ACR they'll go back to color.

That's something I've never thought of. I also convert to BW in ACR, but having a BW in-camera preview is a good thing to have. Thanks a lot for sharing