UFRaw making photos look bad when loaded

[faeriegodess612]

So, I'm a Gimp user, and recently discovered that you have to convert Raw into another format. ( Just got the DSLR a few days ago, never shot in Raw before. ) Ok, so I installed the plug-in converter for Gimp called UFRaw. My problem is every time I load a photo into UFRaw, it comes up with the colors all out of whack. Like one I tried just a few minutes ago,....in Picasa it looks the way it did on camera, but in UFRaw, the sky is a nice blue, but the building is like a silhouette against it, and if I try to adjust it back to normal, it just makes the photo worse. I've tried everything I can think of to get it to look normal in the converter, but nothing works. I still have all the photos on memory card, so if something messes up too bad, I can just reload it. If need be I can post examples to illustrate what its doing.

Can anyone help, or direct me to a different Raw converter for Gimp that they know is better?

[photofun]

I used Gimp for a while and was never able to get the UFRaw to work. I always used Raw Shooter 2006 Essentials. It's a free download and very user friendly. If you do a search on it you will find plenty of links for it. Good luck

[faeriegodess612]

Thank you,... I figured there had to be something else, but didnt know where to begin. Google brought up UFRaw when I searched for converters before. So I'll search for Raw Shooter. Thanks again.

[faeriegodess612]

Ok, well found RawShooter Essentials, but when I try to look in a folder that has the pictures I want to convert, it says that there arent any RAW files in that folder. I have a Nikon, so my RAW files are in NEF format, so I guess it doesnt recognize that format. Does anyone know of anything else that will, or something I can do with this to get it to recognize that there are RAW files there?

[dcclark]

Here's the reason:

UFRaw always remembers the last settings which were used with it (exposure compensation, color balance, and curves, especially). That means that if you load one raw file and get it to look nice in UFRaw, the next raw file loaded will use exactly the same settings, even if they are wholly inappropriate.

On the other hand, other preview apps probably read the camera's "suggested" settings (color balance especially) and apply them to your preview, so they look better. It's very annoying that UFRaw does this, but it's easy to fix:

1. Change the exposure compensation bar (right next to the black and white +/- box on UFRaw's main screen) to 0, or until things look good.

2. Choose "Camera WB" from the menu just below that (which is probably labeled "Manual WB" right now).

Those two steps should make things look MUCH better. Then go to town on the other settings until things look the way you want.

Remember, the point of shooting raw is to have access to many detailed settings for your photo. If you're not interested in getting into the messy details (which, frankly, it sounds like you are not), then just shoot jpegs. Heck, I shoot jpegs 90% of the time anyhow to avoid the hassle -- they work just as well 90% of the time!

[mtellez]

Hi faeriegodess612, I'm also own a D3100 and has the same problem shooting raw. I'm using linux, ufraw, gimp and f-spot. After googling a lot and trial and error, I found the problem (there is no problem actually, it is just a misunderstanding of what raw format is ;-) and how to work with it). So I will try to explain this.

First, raw format is what the sensor of your camara capture without any modification of improvement, think as the image your eye see but before your brain apply transformation of any kind. When you shoot jpeg the raw data is transformed by white balance, color saturation and other settings that the camera apply, so a picture of raw data is very diferent of what a jpeg picture look like. One thing that was driving me crazy is that if I open a raw photo into f-spot I see a photo much like I see at the d3100's lcd screen, but if I open the same nef file into ufraw "the colors all out of whack" as
faeriegodess612 said. Very strange isn't? Well, actually isn't if you know why. The reason is that when you shoot raw, the NEF file has all the raw data (as I said before) PLUS a embedded jpeg with all the transformation that the camara apply to it (again, as I said before), the odd part is tha f-spot (and many other software) visualize the embedded jpeg of the NEF file, but ufraw (and of course the gimp plug in for ufraw) visualize the raw data.
Ok, now I know why the color difference of raw pics, so how can I make the raw pic look like a jpeg version of the same photo? Well, you have to set the white balance, exposure, saturation, color management and the like manual (as you camara did). It sounds like a lot of work, and yes, it is, but you can set default values for every option ufraw had so when you open a pic you get the same version as the jpeg (or even a better version :-D ) and only tweek what you need. The tricky part is that if your camara model isn't supported by ufraw (the d3100 support is only available at the cvs version) then setting defaults values are very hard, because you don't have options like "use camara white balance" as starting point.
All that said, my two cents tips: shoot only raw when you know the set's lighting is complicated and your photos will need postprocessing, or when you need any kind of postprocessing (remember, every time you save a jpeg file the quality decrese). Hope this help.

[Chip]

Nikon View NX is a free, easy-to-use program that lets you work with/convert NEF and do some other editing, too. It's not a plug in for GIMP, though, so you have to open the files in View NX and then get them into GIMP if you want to do more editing that what View NX will let you do.

A hassle, but the price is right.