D300 and RAW color in Aperture 2

I just got my new D300, and ran it through its first shoot Saturday. When I went to import into Aperture 2, the processed files were nasty washed versions of their NEF parents. I opened Capture NX and all of the color was there in the NEF file. I opened Lightroom, and everything looked fine, rich saturated images. In Aperture the color was all washed out.
The only thing I can think of is that Aperture is running in a different color space than sRGB, and whatever the color space that the program is working in is washing the NEF files color away. But I couldn't find a menu setting for color space, so I don't know if that's true. Or the program imposes limits on crazy color saturation (no program should ever do this).
Any ideas? Anyone else experiencing this? I finished the job in Lightroom without a problem (great color tools, I was genuinely impressed), so I'm wondering if my Aperture days are numbered.

I am having exactly the opposite problem here and it is most confusing!
I normally shoot RAW and I had been planning to use Aperture as my RAW conversion tool of choice when I noticed that Aperture does not deal properly with Chromatic Aberration on files from my Nikon D300. (I posted on this on the forum and it was interesting that we did not hear back from Appple on this).
So today I shot JPEG's for a quick edit to file to the client tonight and all the images are over saturated! I pulled up the same file on the same screen in Photoshop, put them side by side and the image looks fine in PS and rubbish in Aperture! I checked the image in Capture NX and also in Preview - all the colour match apart from in Aperture. What is going on? Aperture seems to have no colour management option as part of its workflow. I have checked the "preferences" and there is nothing there - I have no control over my image! Its a shocker! What do I do?
Again, if Apple are really planning to pitch this software at the pro market, they need to do some serious work on their colour management and RAW conversion. These are the bedrock of pro shooting these days and with out them, Aperture is just another archiving software. I have not tried Lightroom, but I wonder if this will fare any better?
Andy

Similar Messages

Canon G9 and RAW: colors are different

Hi,
I tried to find an answer in this forum and on the web but had no success, though somebody must surely have noticed this before. I have a Canon G9 and when I import RAW images in Aperture 2 (2.1.3, with the latest updates), the colors look quite different from when I open the same RAW images with the Canon supplied software (Raw Image Task) or even with the Gimp. I am not even able to make the Aperture version resemble the Canon one by just changing white balance or other simple parameters, so it's not a trivial issue.
Did anybody face the same problem and found a solution?
thank you very much in advance for any suggestions,
cheers
giuseppe

Hi Andreas,
thank you very much for your reply. I guessed something like that was going on. The colors from the Canon (or Gimp) raw conversion are much closer to the original than the Aperture ones though, so this poses a problem: If I want to use the Canon or Gimp conversion but store the image in Aperture, then I have to export the RAW file as TIFF or JPG losing the benefits of non-destructive editing on RAW files in Aperture.
I wonder if there is any software which could re-save the RAW image with some additional information that could make Aperture read in the correct settings for the RAW conversion. At any rate, it seems a bit strange to me, to say the least, that while an open source software like Gimp (even Picasa, I just found out) is able to the do the correct conversion (comparing with the actual scene's color as my eyes see it) - as Canon's own software - a commercial professional product like Aperture can not.
What do people usually do in situations like this? I tried to reconstruct the same colors that Canon gives me but I cannot even get closer to it. I guess it should be possible to do it with a very detailed manipulation of the Levels, but that is just too much work to do for every image...
cheers and thanks again for your comments
giuseppe

Black & White and other colors in Aperture

How can I color a part of a black & white picture in Aperture. I mean, if I have a color picture, reduce saturation to convert the picture to black & white and then just color the pants or shirt of the person that is in the photo but the rest remains in black and white.

You can only do this in Aperture if that's the only occurrence of that colour in the picture - in which case you can use the colo(u)r sliders.
Otherwise you need to use something like Photoshop (http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/mono-with-a-dash-of-colour-photoshop- cs2-tutorial/)

Aperture Olympus E-PL2 Raw Color Distortion and other issues

Hello there, Olympus Micro Four Thirds Fans!
So finally, Apple introduced Olympus E-PL2 Raw Support in Aperture 3. After some testing and troubleshooting there are still some issues remaining that sort of still leave the Raw option unusable for me:
The Apple Raw developer does not seam to read Olympus gradation curve settings properly. I usually leave the cameras color mode to "natural" which in JPEG gives the Olympus-typical beautiful documentary-style color accuracy. However, in Raw, colors get distorted in the most unpleasant way! Especially the greens get horribly oversaturated.
Noise reduction settings also are not correctly translated. I'm the type of Raw user who always wants to start from the camera settings chosen and who then wants to be able to tweak settings to perfection just a little bit. But all in all I chose an Olympus camera, because it does deliver superb white balance metering, decent noise reduction and beautiful color gradation right out-of-the-box.
SPEED! Aperture seems to be horribly horribly slow with Olympus .orf files. Lightroom is easily ten times faster in real-time developing of Raw files.
Did someone observe the same behaviour? How do you work around these issues, what is the best setup for the apple raw developer?
Greetings from Esslingen am Neckar!

Hi there!
I am now developing my raw files with Olympus Viewer. It is the only software solution that would deliver results close or identical to Olymus built in JPEG engine. Most of the time I need to get color reproduction that is as subtle and fine as the Olympus engine, but I do want to benefit from all the other postprocessing advantages that RAW has to offer.
Within Aperture I have not been able to get comparable color rendering.

Aperture imports, and RAW files...

After I import raw photos into Aperture when I first click on the photo and it opens in full screen, it looks brighter/best and then a second later the photo darkens colors change just a little, almost like I have an import preset assigned and it only happens when I import raw photos not JPEG's. Can someone tell me how I can make sure that I don't have some kind of preset happening, I would like to have the photo's stay the same as when i first import?

You don;t have a preset set. What you are seeing is normal behavior when importing Raw files.
What you see at first is the camera produced JPG preview imbedded in the Raw file. Aperture puts this up while it decodes the actual Raw data. This JPG has all the special settings and enhancements set on the camera and is basically the image that would be produced if you were shooting JPG.
As a rule none of the settings on the camera (apart from the basics) are applied to the Raw file though some of the newer cameras have settings that could affect the data stored in the Raw file.
This is a often asked question by those just getting into Raw and you can search the discussions here for other answers to this question.
Given the capability of today's cameras, especially the high-end ones, a lot of users have decided to abandon Raw as unnecessary if they are happy with the images the camera produces. It's all a matter of personal needs.
regards

Latest Camera Raw 2.3 + Aperture 2.1.2 + Nikon D300 = broken import?

After installing the latest camera raw update to version 2.3, it seems I can no longer import raw files from my Nikon D300 into Aperture when the D300 is set for USB Mass Storage, which I always used. When trying to do so, the first sign that something is wrong is the "Import" button in the Import dialog that doesn't show the number of selected pictures. It always show "Import All". Then, if I select all pictures or some of them, the Import dialog disappears as usual but then the completed import dialog appears immediately and says that 0 pictures have been imported. When checking the project where I wanted to import, there are indeed no pictures.
I then tried to import in iPhoto and it worked just fine. I reverted to Camera Raw Update 2.1, and had no problem.
I was able to import from the D300 when I set its USB connection to be MTP/PTP but no thumbnails appear in the import dialog, no matter if I shot RAW or RAW+JPEG.
So, anybody else noticed that?
Message was edited by: NemesysSoft
Message was edited by: NemesysSoft

NemesysSoft wrote:
Hmm... well, why would I want to buy a separate card reader, pull the card from my D300, put it in the reader, get it read, put it out of the reader and put it back in the D300?
typically photographers carry and shoot with multiple cards and then use card readers to get the photos into aperture
Because Apple screwed up their latest raw bundle? I'd rather not take the card out of my D300.
So, no, I haven't tried an external card reader and don't intend to buy one either.
that's your choice, we're just trying to help u out.
a fw800 card reader will be much faster importing than the camera,
if the camera settings changed at least you'll be able to get your photos into aperture.
btw, i have the same camera as you d300 and i've imported well over 100,000 photos (in the last week) since the last update, without a hitch (Camera Raw 2.3 + Aperture 2.1.2 + Nikon D300)
victor

Hello! I'm using Aperture with Efex plugins and notice, what when I saving result in plugin and go back to aperture, preview mode is going to grey color and not working until I reboot Aperture. Did you saw this problem?

Hello! I'm using Aperture with Efex plugins and notice, what when I saving result in plugin and go back to aperture, preview mode is going to grey color and not working until I reboot Aperture. What is intresting - in full screen mode everything works fine. Did you saw this problem?

It seems there's a workaround here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5566037?tstart=0

Aperture 3.4.1 and raw 4 update installed now many of my D700 and D800E raw files are turning in to unsupported file format?

Only happens if the file is opened for editing and not to all files. Pictures are visible in the browser. No issuses with Aperture prior to upgrade. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

leonieDF
Have not been able to re-install raw 3.13 always says newer software and closes
I have Aperture disc 1,2,and 3;
Followed commands to re-install from #3 no change in library's unsupported images when upgraded to 3.4.1
Uninstall again with Mac Cleaner all ?DLL files erased only library remains
Install #3 from disc and new permissions to open library"from newer version" and all of previous images restored, but new older ones start to blink out "they do not turn black but look like you are using rabbit ears to tune in your TV, scrambled" until viewed for processing then become unsupported.
Repaired 3.1 library and Aperture would open but not open library. Re-installed 3.4.1 many more images failing to load across entire 5700 Nef's library but not JPEG.
Close but where is culprit?
Raw 4 is always there even in Aperture 3.1 due to Lion OSX8
3.4.1 is the only down loaded upgrade, new down load each time
Raw files/cameras are D200,D700,D800E and possibly Lecia DLUX-3
IMAC 2.4 core 2 duo
4G 667
Radeon HD 2600
OSX 10.8.2
no aperture problems since 1.0 until recent upgrades
Thank-you

I have my camera (Canon 5D MARK 2) set to take both JPEG Large and Raw files with each shot. I uploaded the images from the card to my Pro (Aperture 3) and while the import info said 1500 images were uploaded, I can't find the RAW images. Aperture put ab

I have my camera (Canon 5D Mark 2) set to take both JPEG Large and Raw files with each shot. I uploaded the images from the card to my Pro (Aperture 3) and while the import info said 1500 images were uploaded, I can't find the RAW images. Aperture put about 700 images in an untitled project folder, but all the images are the JPEGs. What am I missing?
Thanks,
upsjdris

Have you checked your "Import" settings for "Raw&Jpeg" pairs in the "Import" panel?
You can set Aperture to import raw, jpeg, or raw&jpeg.
If you imported Raw&Jpeg, but have set Aperture to use the Jpeg as original, you will see the imported image as Jpeg image, not as a raw image, even if the raw has also been imported. You can switch between Raw and Jpeg originals for selected images from the Photos menu:
Photos > Use Raw as original.
Regards
Léonie

Jpg and raw suffix not appearing on filename in aperture 3.4

Using macbook pro running mountain lion and aperture 3.4.5. org and jpg suffixes not displayed on filenames on jpg and raw pairs imported from olympus omd em-5. in addition the suffixes not displayed on older images previously imported from other cameras.
Thanks for your help.
Mark

Have you ever seen the file name extension shown as part of a Metadata Overlay?
That is puzzling, Kirby - I have always seen the filename extension in Aperture; in the Inspector Info panel, the Viewer, the Browser.
I tested again with raw+jpeg pairs, to see, if there is something peculiar about pairs - if Aperture thinks, the filetype should be clear from badge, but I am seeing the extension always.
Even when I created the image file and imported it into Aperture while the Finder option "Show all Filename Extensions" has been disabled, Aperture would still show the extension.
But I noticed, that in Basic View Aperture would give precedence to the version name and display the version name and not the filename, even if I selected the filename with a higher priority in the list of metadata tags. So I deleted the version name from the views and added the "Show metadata labels", to be sure to see the Filename extension. And surprise - Aperture had been showing version names in the basic view overlays instead of the filename, when both filenames and versionnames had been selected, even with the filenames selected first.

Is the MacBook Air recommended for working with RAW photographs using Aperture or Lightroom and perhaps Photoshop?

Is the MacBook Air recommended for working with RAW photographs in Aperture and Photoshop, or do I need a more powerful MacBook ? The relative lack of weight of the AIr is what attracts me to it.

For doing Photography with RAW files in either Aperture or Photoshop, the new MacBook Air is fine, but for Photoshop CS6 some of the filters and plugins really need a better graphics card and plenty of RAM.
You'll also want an external disk if you are going to be doing lots of shooting.
Summary:
Yes, you can use an air but you'll want external storage and at least 8GB of ram.
Or go MacBook Pro with 16GB ram with the 650M card.

Viewing RAW images in Aperture

I cannot find a similar discussion so I'll post this.
I cannot view RAW files in Aperture since the 3.5 update to 10.9. The files import correctly and then when I try to view them in the viewer they turn into a scrambled mess. I have created a new Aperture library and still the problem persists. Is anyone else having this problem and are there any fixes?
Thanks

Chris,
try two things:
use the command "Photos > Reprocess Raw" from the menu bar
and use the command "Photos > Generate Thumbnails"
It looks like the thumbnails of your imported images are broken.
Léonie
Added:
and then when I try to view them in the viewer they turn into a scrambled mess
Is your scrambled mess red and blue? Have you perhaps enabled "View > Highlight hot and Cold areas" or "onscreen proofing" with an unsuitable color profile?
Or any presets interfering? Raw decode preset, or an effects preset in the Import panel?

Is there any way to invert raw images in Aperture.

I am "scanning" a lot of old slides and negatives with a SLR camera using an old professional slide duplicator.
It is very fast and effective with slides and I have tried with negatives. It goes very well except for I have to invert the negative image in Photoshop and even in 16 bit theres at lot less quality left when I save it back in Aperture for the last color correction.
The solution would be to be able to do the inversion from negative to positive image i full raw quality inside Aperture.
Does anyone know if there is at "trick" to invert the raw-image in Aperture?

There is not. Inversion is more a rewrite than an adjustment -- best done between the scan and importing, imho.
See this link for further suggestions:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/12907195#12907195

RAW conversion with Aperture

Has anyone compared the quality of RAW conversion of Aperture vs. Nikon Capture as well as other converters?
I really like the quality of nikon capture and would not want to purchase aperture unless the conversion was at least equivalent.
Thanks for any input.
mark
G4 17" Laptop Mac OS X (10.4.3)

I've compared Aperture's conversion side by side with Adobe Camera Raw's. My method was to do some conversions with Camera Raw and save the result along with the RAW file. Then, in the Apple Store, I performed the conversions using Aperture.
The results from Aperture are not good. They look okay at reduced size, but if you look more closely, the de-mosaicing Aperture performs is quite bad. On some images it is only "somewhat" worse than Camera Raw; on others it is so bad as to be unusable. Shadow detail suffers the most, but highlights are not immune. Some images showed color fringing that was not present in the Camera Raw conversion, even with all chromatic aberration adjustments set to zero in Camera Raw.
I ignored differences in color and tonal rendering because I did not have enough time with Aperture to learn to get the best results out of it in terms of color. It takes a while to figure out how to get good color out of a RAW converter.
In no case was Aperture as good as Adobe Camera Raw in terms of image quality. The difference was immediately obvious at 100% magnification.
I would not use Aperture for RAW conversion.
EDIT: I forgot to mention, in case it matters, my camera is a Nikon D2X.

Bug exposed when comparing Jpeg and RAW Photos taken with Canon 20D?

I'm using iPhoto 7.1 to manage my photos. My Digital SLR, the Canon 20D, can be set to save photos as both RAW (CR2 files) and Jpeg (JPG files). Both of these files can be imported into iPhoto with no problem.
The problem that I have is that these photos that should be identical, have two major discrepancies.
1. Their resolution are NOT the same. (3504x2332 for CR2, 3504x2336 for JPG)
2. The colors appear different (CR2 appears reddish, JPG appears normal)
Interesting to note: if I export the same CR2 file out of the iPhoto library (export it as Kind='original'), and open it with IrfanView running on Windows 2000, the photo is viewed with the expected resolution of 3504x2336 and the color appears normal (i.e. not reddish).
I'm a new Mac user, and relatively new to digital photography, so any advice or suggestions would be appreciated! I've heard of color profiles and adjustments, but I'm not sure how that works. Perhaps I could be pointed to a HOWTO type document?
Cheers

OK, next RAW files again.
These hold the data the sensor 'saw' when you took the shot together with 'metadata' such as aperture, shutter speed, white balance settings, ISO setting etc - lots of data in fact.
Most programs do not alter RAW files at all - they are the digital negative and should not be altered.
The latest iPhoto treats all newly imported photos in this manner - RAW/JPG or other format. It keeps a copy of the original in a folder called originals, and any edits/crops you make are applied and saved either as a modified JPG or TIFF. This non-destructive editing is a great feature that many RAW editors allow so you can go back to the original image if you mess things up. Applying the principle to JPGs etc is equally as important.
Canon's Digital Photo Professional is a free RAW processor program you can download from their site - certainly worth a look, but you may well find iPhoto simpler if not as flexible. On Windows, not sure about Mac OS, DPP does actually alter (or add) some metadata to RAW files - it doesn't alter the 'sensor data' but somehow embeds edited values to the RAW file so they display as edited next time - you can go back to original but I doubt other software will understand these tweaks.
Digital cameras are getting better and better at getting white balance etc correct, however RAW files are great mainly for two things.
Firstly - in camera white balance settings are simply those applied to JPGs the camera produces. Set it to fluorescent and take a shot of a cloudy scene and the JPG may look awful. With the RAW you can change the white balance after the event and is a real image saver. I particularly like software that lets you use a 'dropper' to choose a neutral grey shade on the image to set the white balance.
Secondly - over/under exposure. As RAW files hold more light intensity detail you can often bring out shadow detail from underexposed images or recover blown highlights from images that are unusable as JPGs. There are limits to this latitude of course.
In camera JPGs are often all you need - the RAWs just give added flexibility.
Next thing I'd say is not to get too hung up about profiles at this stage.
Yes, you can pay for generic profiles or even expensive personalised profiles for the 20D - there are some gains in compatible software (sometimes the profiles are designed to work with particular software!). Not necesarily huge gains though, so I'd say keep it simple to start with.
If there's one thing it's worth profiling, then it's your monitor.
I often use the analogy of a TV with a video still image from DVD or VCR.
Say you adjust the brightness/contrast/colour/sharpness of the TV then the image can be made to look wildly different on different settings.
However the actual image being displayed is not itself altered at all by the DVD player or VCR on pause. Turn the TV off it goes black, but the DVD/VCR still outputs that same image. It's just displayed differently or not at all!
Translate this to editing photos.
The RAW or JPG will be processed by iPhoto according to a particular colour space, say sRGB or AdobeRGB - now how on earth do you know that the monitor's brightness/contrast/saturation are at the correct level to display the image correctly? Is it brightnes 50%/75%/20%?
The answer is the monitor profile which tweaks the output of the monitor towards a preset calibration - this is for a given brightness/contrast/colour setting (not all monitors have exhaustive adjustments but some do). Generic profiles which come with Macs are better than nothing, and indeed often quite close to an individually calibrated monitor profile.
You can however calibrate your monitor either by eye or using a hardware accessory.
Open your System Preferences folder and choose Displays.
Click the colour tab and remember the profile name highlighted!
Click on any others to see how different profiles affect the display - the other profiles will invariably be wrong for the monitor but they show the effect.
These other profiles DO NOT make you system display an image say as sRGB or AdobeRGB - what they imply is that the monitor can display the range of sRGB or AdobeRGB - it can't! It can display what IT is capable of displaying.
It is the image profile that makes software display it in the sRGB or AdobeRGB or other colour space. The monitor profile allows the image to be displayed more accurately by mapping available colours it can display or close fits to the one's the image contains.
There is a Calibrate button in this tab which should help you Calibrate your monitor by eye (I think I've not used it).
You can also buy hardware accessories to accurately calibrate your monitor (I use an EyeOne Display by Gretag Macbeth - older version - there are far more expensive and also reasonable cheaper options out there). The hardware devices basically cycle through a display of 'known colours'. The device's software knows what colour it's trying to display, the device usually hangs over the display and measures what's actually displayed, then reprograms the way the graphic card displays colours and also creates a custom monitor profile - this process of calibration optimises your monitor's display.
You can also calibrate or get custom printer profiles made to optimise printer output, but you won't be doing that. Some online photo sites do however supply profiles which match their photo printers so you can tweak your images to match output on their hardware.
Most photo sites that the public use however will assume that the images are sRGB. If you send an AdobeRGB image for printing it may be treated as sRGB and printed incorrectly if that photo printer's software doesn't take account of embedded profiles.
I said it was complex and confusing!
Continued again!
AC

D300 and RAW color in Aperture 2

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