Imported pictures (with flash) get too dark

[btracing]

Hi everybody, first post for me on the board. I've been using AfterShot Pro 2 for over a year now to much satisfaction. But I have a annoying problem that I hope to see fixed. Either I am doing something wrong, or I am having a problem not many others are having. A search on the forums and a search on google didn't help out, .

I shoot in RAW (.nef).

The problem arises every time I take a picture with my flash mounted on the hotshoe or remote trigger. The pictures look good for a few moments (1-2 seconds) after importing, but they all go way darker afterwards. The histogram slides all the way to the left! (without flash, it only gets a little bit darker)

Please take a look at the screenshots below, especially look at the histograms. For the .nef RAW file, see the link below.

Aftershot Pro 2 interface
http://btracing.home.xs4all.nl/COREL/Af ... 20dark.png

opening the RAW file in IrfanVIEW
http://btracing.home.xs4all.nl/COREL/Ir ... 0light.png

RAW file in camera with histogram and without
http://btracing.home.xs4all.nl/COREL/ca ... togram.jpg

http://btracing.home.xs4all.nl/COREL/camera%20shot.jpg

RAW: http://btracing.home.xs4all.nl/COREL/DSC_2020.NEF

Have any of you seen this before? What's wrong? Very annoying to crank up the exposure to + 2,50 to get it back to normal.

[dattanchu]

This is because the embeded jpeg is brighter. Once you open the nef file in ASP, it will first display the JPEG then display untouched RAW data. Simply move exposure to the right until your histogram span all the tones (left to right) to get the same effect as JPEG. From there you can start tuning contrast and other settings to get the developed JPEG to your liking.

[btracing]

Thank you for commenting, but why does the RAW and histogram look much less dark in camera or in IrfanVIEW? Surely that is not the jpeg it's showing.

[lathspell]

IIRC IrfanView tries to display the embedded preview JPEG of RAW files, if existing. So if the camera does some automatic shadow and light adjustments (AFAIR Nikon calls that D-Lighting), the (embedded) JPEGs and histograms might therefore be displayed brighter in camera and IrfanView than without D-Lighting.

Silkypix 6 btw. displays the RAW also in very dark tones, close to ASP's interpretation.

Can Nikons do in-camera RAW processing? If so, could you check if D-Lighting is active and what the result is with D-Lighting switched off?

[btracing]

Okay, so I checked in the camera settings. I've got it on neutral picture control. Active D-Lightning is on! I've done some searching on 'active D-lightning' and it can indeed be the problem. I turned it off and I will try it out next time. I will come back on this topic.

Thank you for the replies!

[btracing]

Just to come back on the topic, maybe someone else hit the same problem. It is fixed once you deactivate D-lightning! So I am happily shooting with my flash in the dark without an in camera render faking me into thinking the shot is ok.