Something is turning my photo files dark -- this started when my RAW problems began.

Question

I have a MAC 10.8.5.  Back in February I was not able to open RAW files from my new Sony RX100-II camera.  I asked for help on this board, see https://forums.adobe.com/message/7200550#7200550.  I downloaded two programs, one from Adobe for DNG converter and one from Sony.  They both worked.  Since then my photos, sporatically, are getting a black veil covering them.  This started with DNG files.  I trashed the DNG converter and the Sony converter as my RAW files started opening in PhotoShop CS4 and CS6 (I don't know why they didn't open before).  Now the veil is about 10% black where before it was about 80% black.  I know I'm not presenting this clearly enough, but I am quite upset.  This is happening to files wheither I open them in PhotoShop or directly from my hard drive.  I open a folder and see many photo thumbnails.  One by one the thumbnails darken.  I can still see the image, but once the file is opened I cannot remove the black veil.  This started with my RAW files and now is happening to my jpg files.  It doesn't go in order, but moves around hitting one here and one there.  I have the majority of my files backed up on a drive not connected and I have a backup drive connected, so not terribly worried about losing my photos, but don't want to plug in a good external drive at this point.  I did a virus scan using Intego and no files were quarantined.  Not sure what to do at this point.  Would appreciate help.  Diane

Answer 1

Here is what the embedded previews look like as viewed in Windows Explorer which is not rendering the raw data, just showing the embedded preview from what ever software created the DNGs.
In Camera Raw, Lightroom and Bridge the DNGs look dark on my system the same as the JPGs included, above, so it's not errant Camera Raw defaults:
If I open one in RawDigger, raw analysis software the image is very dark similar to how it looks in Camera Raw so I think the data is just that dark:
If I open one in Photoshop and adjust the gamma to something around 2, then it looks brighter more like the DNGs embedded preview but lacks contrast:
So my suspicion is that the DNGs have linear gamma or perhaps the wrong DNG profile embedded in them.  This would be controlled by the scanner software and cannot be fixed in the raw converter, only Photoshop.
Another approach if your PS is new enough is to open the DNG into PS using the CR defaults, then set the mode to 32-bits and use HDR Toning, which assumes linear gamma and makes it look more natural.  I did also ASSIGN a profile of sRGB to the DNG before HDR toning:
And if you use PS-CC there is a Camera Raw layer filter that can be used for toning 32-bit images:
Since I've never used a Nikon Coolscan I can't really say what to do differently but I'd guess there is some setting or some scanning mode that can be change to make things look better.