colors muted upon import

[paulduane]

When I'm browsing through the raw files in ASP, I notice that the image comes up on the screen and about half a second later, the image gets changed to a darker, duller version. It's not just an exposure thing, it seems to be corrupting the colors just enought that skin tones look really kind of gross. It's subtle but enough to make the images unusable for a professional workflow. ASP basically ruins every image it touches. If I"m lucky, after a lot of fooling around, I can get the image looking semi-presentable.

I've been loving ASP, except for it's color rendition, and that's a pretty darn big problem. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm really hoping to never return to Adobe products; it seems like messed up color is a problem that Corel should have under control. Thanks!

- Paul Duane

[afx]

When I'm browsing through the raw files in ASP, I notice that the image comes up on the screen and about half a second later, the image gets changed to a darker, duller version.

First you see the embedded JPG. Then you see the AS rendering.
Set up your defaults to fit your needs....

cheers
afx

[Tadjio]

What camera (RAW files) are you using?
I have a similar effect with my Canon images.

[paulduane]

I'm shooting a Nikon D90. Most of the time, I shoot in RAW. I understand that the first instance of that image is just an embedded .jpg that shows while the raw data is being rendered. Can someone help me understand

1. Why does the RAW file end up looking different than the .jpg
2. Why does it look worse? It has a markedly different exposure value than the .jpg
3. I understand that this is controlled by some setting, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to keep AS from messing with the raw file?

The documentation on this part of AS does not shed much light on how to work with this.
Thanks everyone!

[afx]

1. Why does the RAW file end up looking different than the .jpg

Because the JPG has been rendered by the Nikon raw converter in the camera that uses different algorithms than the third party converters like AfterShot.

2. Why does it look worse? It has a markedly different exposure value than the .jpg

Because the profile is not perfect or you have settings in cam that beef up the image.

3. I understand that this is controlled by some setting, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to keep AS from messing with the raw file?

It does not mess with the raw file. It just uses different algorithms and profiles than the Nikon converter. A raw file is not a developed image....

cheers
afx

[paulduane]

Thanks makes sense. Thanks !

[Denis de Gannes]

I am thinking out of the box here because I do not know how the original poster has his system set up. Is the monitor profiled using a hardware device? This may have a bearing on how the raw renditions are displayed as opposed to the jpeg thumbs.
If the monitor is not profiled it is able to display the thumbs since they are probably in sRGB color space which most Monitors are designed to do out of the box. However if ASP is setup to use AdobeRGB or ProPhotoRGB as its working space which is recommended then the monitor will display the renditions muted in comparison since the monitor is not designed to handle the larger color space. This is similar to what happens when images are posted on the web using AdobeRGB or ProPhotoRGB color space and viewed on systems without profiled/calibrated monitors.