Bridge and Raw previews...

CWSkopec

So here's a question I can't seem to find an answer to...

I was on a nice 2 week vacation in the first part of the month and I took a ton of photos! A TON!!

Now I'm home and trying to sort through them and process the good ones, however, when I click on the preview in Bridge CS3 it applies some processing to the image and in a number of cases ruins the "sunset glow" I got in a number of them. When I then open it in ACR I'm having trouble bringing that glow back in a natural way... It's also happening to photos from other times of day, sunsets aren't exclusive. Everthing is importing to ACR with extra flat lighting... What gives? Is there a way to turn off Bridge's "pre-processing?" Or am I just stuck trying to do my best to recover what I already had?

I've searched for an answer on google and can't seem to find any good answers to the question. Any help/random suggestions would be very much appreciated!! I feel like I got some good shots and would like to show them off, but I'm losing so much to Bridge...

Richard

What are you comparing them to? The way you remember the scene? The way they looked in the camera LCD?

OffTopic

Here's my thinking: check how you have your Bridge preferences set up for your thumbs. I think you'll see that you have "Convert to high quality when previewed" selected. (Which is what I use).

So when you open the folder, initially a Quick Thumb is generated based upon the low-res JPEG thumb embedded in the RAW file. What you see there is based upon how your camera interprets the data into a JPEG. When you click the thumb and preview it, Bridge generates the high quality preview (and updates the thumb) based upon your Camera RAW defaults in ACR (which you can control). RAW is just data, which your camera and ACR each interpret differently.

So no matter how you have your Camera RAW default set-up, it will never 100% match the way your camera interprets the RAW data into the embedded JPEG.

But that's probably not what you wanted to hear...

Nikolai

Clear and save the ACR defaults
Clear thumbnails/preview cache
Set bridge to use existing thumbnails

And get yourself CS4 trial - you will like it, I swear!

OffTopic

Oops, just wanted to add, you could change your Bridge thumbnail preferences to "High Quality Thumbs" and you'll never see the camera interpretation and the thumbs will never change. However, it takes a lot longer to generate the initial thumbs, and it doesn't change the way you process the image. It only changes what you see when the initial thumbnail is generated.

CWSkopec

Richard wrote:

What are you comparing them to? The way you remember the scene? The way they looked in the camera LCD?

Partially, it's what I remember, but I know that's not an accurate gauge especially not considering what my eye captured and what the camera captured.

Mostly I'm comparing what Bridge first shows me... for example, I burned most of my shots to DVD, so when I double click to open the disc in Bridge, I let it sit for a few moments to bring up all the thumbnail previews (in the content windo). Once they're all there and I'm looking through them, the images are much closer to what I intended to capture. When I click on the thumbnail and give it a second to load the image in the preview window, it changes. Bridge does some sort of processing on its own to change the image. Mostly this has been "flattening" out the light. A number of sunset, dusk shots lose their warm sunset, orange-ish glow and end up with sort of a sickly yellow cast instead.

Is there a way I can prevent this automatic processing and keep the image closer to what the thumbnail preview shows? The processing is carried over into ACR and I would rather start with what the camera captured to start working on instead of what Bridge thought was right.

[edit] Whoops... bunch of other replies while I had this one open as I worked... Thanks for the replies, I'll have to read through them tonight... got deadlines to meet

CWSkopec

OffTopic wrote:

Here's my thinking: check how you have your Bridge preferences set up for your thumbs. I think you'll see that you have "Convert to high quality when previewed" selected. (Which is what I use).

So when you open the folder, initially a Quick Thumb is generated based upon the low-res JPEG thumb embedded in the RAW file. What you see there is based upon how your camera interprets the data into a JPEG. When you click the thumb and preview it, Bridge generates the high quality preview (and updates the thumb) based upon your Camera RAW defaults in ACR (which you can control). RAW is just data, which your camera and ACR each interpret differently.

So no matter how you have your Camera RAW default set-up, it will never 100% match the way your camera interprets the RAW data into the embedded JPEG.

But that's probably not what you wanted to hear...

Lori, you're absolutely right... it's not what I wanted to hear! I was hoping someone would say "You just have to uncheck this box in the prefereneces and you'll be all set"

However...
You diagnosed the problem... I didn't realize that those initial previews were jpgs that were embedded in the raw file (I didn't even know raw did that!!). So, it my not have been what I wanted to hear, but I learned something, and that's never bad!!

Thanks, Lori!!

CWSkopec

Nikolai wrote:

Clear and save the ACR defaults
Clear thumbnails/preview cache
Set bridge to use existing thumbnails

And get yourself CS4 trial - you will like it, I swear!

Wait! It was just announced!! The trial is available already?! One more reason to get my home connection working again...

Thanks Nikolai!

OffTopic

Well, glad I could at least explain what is happening!

Something you may want to play around with: Check your ACR preferences and see if you have "Apply Auto Adjustments" checked (that is the default, so it is turned on unless you have turned it off). If so, ACR takes a stab at adjusting the data (in addition to your camera RAW defaults), and what happens frequently if you have dramatic light, or especially if you bracket exposures, ACR "normalizes" the file (for lack of a better word). I recommend turning this off if you find that you are frequently shooting in that type of lighting condition.

You can turn it off for each image when you're in ACR, but as you see, just previewing the image in Bridge applies the settings to the preview, and your thumbs/preview may look flat/bland/like you didn't bracket your shots/where did my beautiful light go....
Again, it's not something that affects how you process the image, just how you see the preview.

If you did have this preference selected when you opened the folder with your sunset shots and you're up to doing a little work, you can turn the option off, purge your Bridge cache, and then rebuild the thumbs. The quick thumbs will again be the embedded JPG, but this time when you preview Bridge will not make an attempt to determine how your image should look (it will only apply your Camera RAW defaults), and you may find that you have most of your dramatic light back. That could give you a better start for processing the RAW file.

Does that make sense?

digismile

Chris,

The issue of "flat" RAW images has been a common complaint as long as I can remember. If you google "flat raw images" or something close to that, you can keep yourself reading for a very long time!

As already mentioned, you are not looking at the RAW file in camera or for Quick Thumbnails in Bridge. The bottom line, our cameras tend to boost the color and saturation for our jpegs (and that's what we tend to accept as the norm). As well, there are many in camera adjustments that will not be reflected in your RAW file.

So even when you get all the previous suggested changes done, it is still possible that you might think it's still flat. Over the years, my eyes now see my raw files as "normal" and the in camera previews, etc. as boosted/saturated/adjusted. So, you do have the option of making adjustments to default saturation, etc. for the default Camera Raw settings, if you want it to be more like your in camera preview.

As well, be sure that you update your Adobe Camera Raw to version 4.5. You can then download these beta camera profiles, that will allow you to set your ACR to a similar in camera profile, giving you that same kind of boost or "pop".

But .... Personally, I think we over do the "pop" factor. But that's just my opinion . I like to use "pop" selectively and not as my default (and I wasn't always this way). So yes, sometimes, maybe for a sunset, you might have to do some adjustments in ACR or Lightroom or Photoshop to make it stand out a bit more. But I think you will find over time, that in most cases, your RAW images are very close to what was really there ....

CWSkopec

OffTopic wrote:

Does that make sense?

It does!! Thank you for your help and suggestions!! I just wish this stupid "work" thing wasn't taking up my day so I could get back to my home computer and try out your suggestions...

CWSkopec

The camera profiles and ACR update are downloading now and I'll install them tonight when I get home!!

I've noticed the change in the previews before, but for whatever reason this set had the most dramatic change I've yet to see, which is why I started thinking maybe I accidently changed the wrong setting somewhere along the way...

"Pop" is something I'm working on finding the correct balance to... some of my photos lack it and some are overdone... I suppose it's all a matter of taste... Anyway, before I babble away my lunch time, Thanks for your ideas, Brad!! AND for pointing out the updates!!