RAW photos converted to jpeg, copies not same.

[darock]

This is my first post. This is a great site and I have read many good threads. My problem is this. On a few occasions when shooting in RAW, then converting to jpeg I've noticed that when I make copies of the final shots they sometimes come out not as sharp of colorful. Is this one of the problems with digital photography?

I appreciate any input I can get.

[Daniel Bates]

Welcome to TPF, Clem!


I'm not sure I understand your question... so let me ask a question or two to clarify:

You shoot an image in RAW. Then you convert the picture to JPEG. Then, you make a copy of the JPEG? And this copy is not as colourful, nor as sharp as the originally-converted JPEG? Did I get that right?

--Daniel

[AndrewCCM]

Be sure you convert your Jpegs to sRGB colorspace for viewing on web and/or most viewing applications. Also, RAW files do not take on the camera presets that typically include sharpening and saturation added to jpgs in camera.

[darock]

Daniel, you are correct. I did read AndrewCCM's response and will try that option. It's always great learn something new.

Thanks a bunch.

[gsdpic]

Clem....it could also depend on how you are copying the jpeg image. jpeg is a "lossy" compression scheme so an image compressed with jpeg is not actually an exact copy of the original...i.e. some of the data in the original image is "lost". If you load a jpeg image into an image editor and then save it again, the editor will uncompress the image when you load it and re-compress it when you save it. If you then load and save that image, the data loss will accumulate.....each time you save it, you may lose a little bit more detail. How much you lose depends on the amount of compression used. Usually when saving jpeg images, there is an "image quality" slider that determines the image compression (higher quality = less compression = less data loss).

Having said that, it would take very careful examination to notice the difference if you just do one extra load/save, unless the image quality is set very low for maximum compression. However if you load and save the image 5 or 10 times you might start seeing differences even with fairly high image quality settings.

[studiocygnet]

If you end up converting from Adobe RGB color space into sRGB color space when you save as a jpg, you could be losing some of the color information as well, since the Adobe space is larger.

[AndrewCCM]

Originally Posted by studiocygnet

If you end up converting from Adobe RGB color space into sRGB color space when you save as a jpg, you could be losing some of the color information as well, since the Adobe space is larger.

True. However, I believe this is more so in print practice than viewing jpgs on the screen. Most LCDs/monitors don't cover the expanded colorspace...and most browsers and consumer viewers expect sRGB... If you open an Adobe RGB Colorspace image in your browser, it'll look washed out. Even more so if you use Prophoto RGB.

In Photoshop or some other colorspace aware application, things appear correct.

FWIW.

[pj]

I'm having the same issues, except my problem appears when I print the images. They look great as RAW in CaptureNX, pretty much the same in jpeg after conversion, but when I print them, either on my Canon iP6600D or at a lab, they just don't have the same 'pop'. Quite often, they show up darker overall, and sometimes the colors are just flat.

It's less noticeable on the lab prints, but they still don't look anywhere near as good as the monitor-based versions.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
PJ

[ndsimm]

Originally Posted by pj

I'm having the same issues, except my problem appears when I print the images. They look great as RAW in CaptureNX, pretty much the same in jpeg after conversion, but when I print them, either on my Canon iP6600D or at a lab, they just don't have the same 'pop'. Quite often, they show up darker overall, and sometimes the colors are just flat.

It's less noticeable on the lab prints, but they still don't look anywhere near as good as the monitor-based versions.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
PJ

Make sure that the lab you are sending the images to does not do any color correcting. It's best to have them print straight off the CD without adjusting color or density

Depending on the lab you use, they sometimes have a color profile you can load on your PC that will match their lab printer and that will help.

If you are using NX, you may want to check your settings, usually when converting from RAW, especially in NX, the quality is similar. you may want to also check your monitor as it may need calibrating

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by pj

I'm having the same issues, except my problem appears when I print the images. They look great as RAW in CaptureNX, pretty much the same in jpeg after conversion, but when I print them, either on my Canon iP6600D or at a lab, they just don't have the same 'pop'. Quite often, they show up darker overall, and sometimes the colors are just flat.

It's less noticeable on the lab prints, but they still don't look anywhere near as good as the monitor-based versions.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
PJ

Why are you printing from jpegs? Why not print from at least 16bit Tiffs? Are you using the correct ICC profiles for your printer and paper?