RAW conversion in Photoshop, does anyone have any idea what is going on?

[dangerdoormouse]

Hi there
OK, let me preface this by saying I convert literally hundreds of RAWs a week and have never had (or noticed perhaps?) this problem before. My work flow is that I go through my images in Zoombrowser (the free software that comes with Canon) to decide which ones I want to keep, and then convert in Photoshop CS2. On Saturday I was shooting interiors of a big venue and the lighting is relatively extreme. However I have never noticed this as an issue before, I popped it onto Photoshop and it just wouldn't look like it looked in Zoombrowser. Obviously I have tried about a million setting in Photoshop to get it to look like it does in Zoom browser, but it won't. So then I tried some of Canon's other own software to see if I could convert it, and indeed Digital Photo Professional had no problem and made it look just like it did when viewed on Zoombrowser. Now I realise that inherently some RAW converters handle different setting better or worse than others. But I have never had this problem with CS2 before. Is there something I am doing wrong? Is there a way of fixing this, or do I just accept that there are some things that CS2 can't do, and for then use Digital Photo Professional. I have popped on the photos in question. This is Photoshop (minimal tampering, but I have adjusted the contrast, to no avail, it didn't get it any better) http://www.helenmaybanks.com/wphotodetail.aspx?folder=comparison&file=Sandhurst002
And this is the image pretty much how it appeared in Zoombroser, but converted in Digital photo professional: http://www.helenmaybanks.com/wphotodetail.aspx?folder=comparison&file=Sandhurst002_DPP

So what do you think guys, any suggestions? (and I appreciate that moving to another RAW converter would be good, but I don't have the finances just yet, so I thought I could see if I could rectify the situation in CS2)
Thanks!

 

[Atropine]

Seems like you are having an issue with the colour spaces. "Sandhurst002.jpg" is in Adobe RGB and "Sandhurst002_DPP.jpg" is sRGB. The colour space is something you can choose in your camera, dpp and photoshop. You must decide which one that fits your purpose best and stick to it. Do a search on rgb on the forum and you will get a lot of hits.

 

[TCimages]

This is the one reason I choose to use DPP as my starting point for RAW. It reproduces the colors more acurately for my taste. Normally other programs do not retain in-camera settings and you basically have a flat image to work with.
Did you make change to these settings recently? Maybe that's why you're just now noticing it?

 

[Cuervo79]

I would also recommend using Digital Photo professional (which also comes free with your camera) I've been trying Adobe Camera Raw on CS3 but haven't decided yet (it has more stuff to adjust compared to DPP) also check the preferences in your camera and your software that are the same when I changed my camera to AdobeRGB I also did it in Digital photo professional and in Photoshop, also when saving for web make sure you chage your original to Srgb before saving since there is a very noticeable difference if you don't

 

[dangerdoormouse]

Thanks for all this guys. Lots of stuff for me to think about. I am going to have to look into colour spaces a lot more (it is one of these things I have been fairly ignorant of). I don't think I have changed any settings recently. I wonder whether I have noticed it now because I don't usually take these sorts of photos - dark with hotspots of light. It is these which seem to be the issue. I will have a good look round and see if I can make CS2 function better. DPP is fine, but it is much slower to convert files, and when I am converting 200, I need speed ideally.