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Photos Change After 'Loading' #1
JP Rutigliano's picture
by JP Rutigliano
August 1, 2012 - 12:33am

When I first view recently imported photos (RAW) Aperture presents the photo quickly with a 'Loading' (lasts about a second) in the top center of the photo. Once the photo has 'loaded' the picture changes - the white balance and exposure changes and I get some noticeable vignetting in the corners.

Can someone explain what is happening? Is this something that has to do with the importing of RAW files?

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
October 24, 2012 - 7:33am

Mariëtte,

Without seeing samples it’s impossible to say. Remember that RAW decoding is basically an art form, and it’s impossible for every image to turn out perfectly without tweaking. Sometimes additional adjustments are needed — that’s what the settings are there for.

@PhotoJoseph
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Mariëtte de Vos's picture
by Mariëtte de Vos
October 25, 2012 - 5:01am

How can I sent you a sample, don’t have a site yet, made a sample last hour.

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
October 25, 2012 - 5:11am

Mariëtte,

Are these screenshots? You can post them anywhere like flickr and just put the links in here.

@PhotoJoseph
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PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
October 25, 2012 - 5:15am

Oop, already got ‘em.

OK here is Mariëtte’s [screenshot].

So my take is that this is very, very subjective. Your screenshots will look more or less green and yellow depending on your screen calibration, and then there’s the haze in the day, and any number of factors. This is a pretty subtle shift. Honestly I think that there’s nothing wrong; have you done this with other photos, and other photos from other cameras, and on other computers? Again it could just be your screen, or just your personal taste. Ultimately if you prefer a different RAW decode, then you have the ability to shift the settings and save that as a new default — that’s what it’s there for.

@PhotoJoseph
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Mariëtte de Vos's picture
by Mariëtte de Vos
October 25, 2012 - 5:58am

I did not make this decision easy for myself. I am aware of any numbers of factors. I have done this with many photo’s from weeks, months ago, different seasons, morning, afternoon, noon, etc. and it works.
It also occurs on a Windows Vista pc in CS5, there it is to solve by changing Adobe to Camera standard or sometimes vivid….As you can see this is about a Nikon D90, later this week I will try CRW with a Canon Powershot and I let you know what happens.
On the iPad no colourshifts.

Mariëtte de Vos's picture
by Mariëtte de Vos
October 23, 2012 - 6:13am

Searching goes on: Inspector > Adjustments> Raw fine tuning: changed hue boost to zero and my skies get blue again….and rid of that green/yellow veil. What are your comments?

Fabrice D's picture
by Fabrice D
May 6, 2013 - 11:26am

Hi All,
I’am using a Canon 650D (T4i) shooting in RAW and I am only a beginner in photo. I have experienced the same darkening of the images once rendered by aperture (3.4.4). So I tested this : as every 650D owner I got a bunch of canon software including “Digital Photo Professional” I installed it and converted one of my CR2 (raw) image into tiff (16 bit) which in not compressed and therefore not destructive. I imported the the raw file and the tiff file in Aperture and the difference in stunning. the tiff just looks like the jpeg preview you like. Not only the exposure is right but the raw file’s altered colour balance is back to normal.
Therefore, my conclusions are :
There is nothing wrong with the camera and its raw format
The problem is definitely an Apple issue unfixed for over a year
Using the canon provided software to convert to tiff 16bit could be a temporary solution (and it allows for batch process) but a CR2file in native resolution is about 22Mb vs 107Mb for the tiff file….
To that file size issue, a non destructive compressed format like PNG could be more appropriate, unfortunately the canon’s software doesn’t offer this conversion option
Apple : “Wake up, your products are getting worse and worse and your reputation won’t save you forever”.
Regards,

Fabrice

Butch Miller's picture
by Butch Miller
August 1, 2012 - 12:55am

When you first import an image, Aperture is presenting the camera jpeg preview embedded in the RAW file … then as the image is “Loaded”, Aperture reads the actual RAW image data and creates it’s own preview based upon the default settings you apply to the image. Since third party developers can’t exactly replicate what the camera manufacturer coded for the camera firmware or their own RAW processing software … there will be subtle differences …

Mariëtte de Vos's picture
by Mariëtte de Vos
August 1, 2012 - 4:57am

Have the same problem. Load very nice skies and after loading the clear blue is grey greeny and the whole picture becomes sad…makes me feel bad. I understand what is written above, but this happened suddenly, and also the same behaviour when I load an existing project from a year ago, gone are my beautiful photo’s…

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
August 1, 2012 - 7:40am

Mariëtte,

What camera are you using? Check out today’s post “Canon EOS 5D Mk III & 1D X “Highlight Tone Priority” Aperture Problem and Solution” on an issue with some Canon models and Aperture.

@PhotoJoseph
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sam harris's picture
by sam harris
March 18, 2013 - 5:54pm

hi there…

i have a similar issue.
i use a d700 and only shoot RAW.
after loading images i tend to browse over large thumbnails and then select and view a certain image in full screen mode. when i view the image the colour shifts after loading for the first time.
always i think the colour looks better before it’s finally loaded.
colours seem to shift towards magenta and brighten about half a stop.
i tend to use white balance to counter this adding more green, however i wish there was a way to keep the images as they first appear as they look better/perfect to me.

Could you please explain what is happening here and is there a way to fix it?
with much appreciation, Sam

John James's picture
by John James
August 22, 2012 - 7:28am

WOW…sorry to belabor this issue but went out and took more pictures today and man the RAW files are just awful. The jpg version are so much more real. RAW is virtually unusable. I kept the HTP disabled and got similar results from the other day. Not sure what I was expecting.

All the in camera settings are at “0”, like saturation, contrast, etc. I mean the darkness of the RAW image is dramatic. Here is another example and now I will shut up and hope for a fix.

RAW Image:

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p593/X_Bones/RAW-1.jpg

JPG image:

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p593/X_Bones/JPG.jpg

John James's picture
by John James
August 22, 2012 - 10:04am

One more thing…I took a few RAW + jpg images with my G-12 and the difference between the RAW and jpg in darkness is barely noticeable. So it’s definitely a camera specific problem with Apple’s RAW support. The Canon T4i is definitely affected. :-(

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
August 22, 2012 - 9:44pm

Thanks John.

-Joseph

@PhotoJoseph
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John James's picture
by John James
August 23, 2012 - 12:09am

Hmmm…

I downloaded Canon’s software and looked at the same image. Results are the same. Actually, on balance, LRs images were the same too – maybe the RAW image was slightly lighter in LR but not by a lot. I posted the comparison somewhere above.

So, is it possible that it is correct and that the flat dark image is just what it is and requires major PP on every image? Is it possible that this is because T4i will have much more dynamic range than the G12’s sensor which would make he RAW and jpg images look almost identical from the G-12 camera?

It’s just that the RAW images are no where near the scenes that are captured in bright sunlight. Colors are all muted, flat and otherwise nowhere near what I was shooting. Makes me think I didn’t see what I thought I saw while shooting.

Any more thoughts would be helpful. This was such a shock to me since I have never encountered this before that it’s bothering me – obliviously.

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
August 23, 2012 - 1:57am

John,

The RAW image will always change once it’s decoded, and how that’s decoded is up to the software. JPEGs are usually quite “poppy” compared to the RAW, which is, by design, quite flat. However if your JPEG settings are all at neutral, then the JPEG should be quite close to the RAW decode.

Are you checking exposure on the histogram? Look at the histo in-camera, and make sure that in a bright scene with bright white that you’re exposed properly meaning there is a peak right at the edge but not over it. If you aren’t familiar with how to read histograms, I recommend watching the Live Training Levels lesson (I go through histograms quite a bit) and then in Curves, I do it again but a bit differently. Start with the Levels one.

It does feel to me though that your image is too dark in the RAW, but for all I know it could have been underexposed in the first place. Make sure it’s exposing right.

You could get a grey card and meter off of that to establish an accurate exposure as well.

-Joseph

@PhotoJoseph
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John James's picture
by John James
August 23, 2012 - 9:03am

Joseph…

I posted something earlier but guess I didn’t press the right button so it’s gone.

Anyway, I think you’re on to something, i.e. “operator error” to some extent. I think with my new camera I am underexposing my images. It is going to take some getting use to. The T4i is much more capable and less forgiving than the smaller G-12 plus it has 9 focus points instead of the 1 the G-12 has and it’s reading more light and consequently adjusting to the dark side. Most of the photos I have taken with my new camera have been on bright sunny days close to the water so the camera is reading a lot of light which could be part of the darkness issue. Additionally as was explained to me at the camera store the G-12 is built for idiot proof photos and meant to be a point and shoot even though it has lots of controls. So maybe Canon erred on the side of caution internally with the G-12. I dunno.

Since Aperture, LR and Canon’s own software are all producing fairly similar results I think it’s more “me” than anything else.

I am talking more phones and trying to keep this in mind and will see if I get better results.

I already bought and have watched the curves presentation. WOW. Will get the levels one next and then work through the rest. In the meantime I have some homework to do with regards to proper exposure. I think that will help immensely. Thanks for your help and suggestions.

Maybe that little company Apple isn’t all that bad after all although I’m not letting them off the hook altogether as others are experiencing some degree of this issue after upgrading Aperture to 3.3x.

Thanks Again.

Matt Cline's picture
by Matt Cline
August 2, 2012 - 10:33am

I am having the same issue. I am using a Pentax K-7 and a K-200. Both have the same problem with the RAW files changing to some kind of JPG preview after it is selected. Its not acceptable. Editing the shot from there moves it from the JPG preview and NOT the RAW image I need it to. How do we turn this off and keep it form changing the RAW file into any processed image aside form what I want to do to it?

David Edge's picture
by David Edge
August 3, 2012 - 1:23am

Matt
It’s the other way around. First you see the camera’s preview (if you’ve asked Aperture to use it), then Aperture’s preview if it has one and finally Aperture’s rendering of the RAW file. You can’t view a RAW - you can only see it after some level of conversion whether done by the camera or Aperture. But the image it settles down to is Aperture’s rendering of it.
d.

d.

Michael Ball's picture
by Michael Ball
August 3, 2012 - 5:33am

It seems very much like you;re seeing the differences between out of camera JPEGs and the unprocessed RAW file. When cameras give you JPEGs they’re heavily processed, usually applying a bit of saturation and sharpening to the files. Many cameras now even apply exposure adjustments including de-vignettes, Canon calls this “Peripheral Illumination Correction” and has specific settings for each lens. I know Nikon has a similar feature, but I can’t recall the name since I only shoot Canon. Other things such as the photo profiles type settings that set different levels of saturation and color will all affect the JPEG preview which is output with the RAW or the actual JPEG file. However, none of these affect the actual RAW file and data at all.

Often times, an out of camera JPEG will be much more pleasing than an out of camera RAW file. However, once you edit, then the huge awesomeness that is RAW really comes through. :) Sometimes I do shoot JPEG is if I really need to get photos out quickly or won’t edit too much.

Mariëtte de Vos's picture
by Mariëtte de Vos
August 3, 2012 - 6:24am

My camera is a Nikon D90, tomorrow I check out what happens when I shoot JPEG’s…
Work on iMac with CS5. Glad others follow and react on this item.

Mariëtte de Vos's picture
by Mariëtte de Vos
August 4, 2012 - 7:10am

With JPEG’s the sky is beautiful blue..
in CameraRaw 6.7; cameraprofile is adobe standard, if I change to ACR 4.6 the sky becomes blue
But I do still wonder why this happens since a few weeks and not before..what is going on ???

John James's picture
by John James
August 19, 2012 - 11:21am

Frustrated beyond belief…

I’ve been using Aperture for about two years with my Canon G-12. I always shoot in RAW and have never experienced a problem.

Just last week I bought a new camera (Canon EOS Rebel T4i) which is supported by Aperture for RAW compatibility. I have all the latest updates installed for RAW compatibility.

So, I took a bunch of pictures to test out my new camera and upload them to Aperture 3. Immediately I noticed that the photos after “loading” were very dark. They are all like that. Researching this some I found that Apple has adjusted the RAW exposure levels with Aperture RAW decoding for certain camera…mine is so new it isn’t on the list but clearly they included my model in the changes. Why? I have no idea. See this link:

http://www.apertureexpert.com/forum-user/post/1907242

But now my photos as mentioned in RAW are very dark. They used to be close to the jpegs and then I could adjust white balance etc. to meet my needs. Now I have no idea where to go with the photos. Clearly not a camera problem. WTH Apple?

So anybody have any idea how to get normal RAW levels back to newly imported images?

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
August 20, 2012 - 2:48am

John,

Read this, and let us know if that’s the issue: Canon EOS 5D Mk III & 1D X “Highlight Tone Priority” Aperture Problem and Solution

As you read the article and comments you’ll see it’s NOT just restricted to the cameras in the title.

@PhotoJoseph
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John James's picture
by John James
August 20, 2012 - 3:03am

Joseph…

That is EXACTLY the problem.

I will disable the “Highlight Tone Priority”, take more pictures an report back.

Thank you.

John James's picture
by John James
August 20, 2012 - 3:38am

UGH

Nope didn’t seem to fix the problem.

Here are t he examples:

.jpg…

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p593/X_Bones/IMG_jpg.jpg

RAW

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p593/X_Bones/RAW.jpg

Sorry I don’t know how to make the images show up in this post.

Now what? Am I just screwed? Is Aperture unusable unless Apple fixes this mess? So disappointed after buying a new camera.

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
August 20, 2012 - 4:01am

John,

So to confirm, the samples you posted above are with Highlight Tone Priority turned OFF, right?

If so, is there any difference between your tests with HTP on or off?

Finally, can you download the trial to Lightroom and see how the RAW images look there?

There is always a difference between the camera-generated or software-generated JPEG and the software-decoded RAW file, so we need to determine where the problem is. The difference between your samples is noticeable of course, but not as dramatic as samples I’ve seen from the HTP issue, so I want to be sure of the problem.

@PhotoJoseph
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John James's picture
by John James
August 20, 2012 - 4:25am

Hi Joseph…

The results with HPT off were very similar for photos I took with HPT on. Still a huge unacceptable shift from the jpg to the RAW image in darkness. I noticed it immediately after taking my very first photos with my new camera.

I have never used LR so that in itself will be a big deal for me. I suppose I am going to have to try it to resolve this issue in my own mind. Trouble is I’m an Apple guy from way back because Apple products have always proved to be easy and intuitive to use. Very disappointing after just purchasing a new camera with a considerable investment.

I have sent two bug reports to Apple and even called AppleCare yesterday. The guy I got on the phone was clueless and never heard of the problem even though he was in the “Aperture Group” so he said. I gave up talking to him.

Any idea how to get Apple to fix this?

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
August 20, 2012 - 6:09am

John,

Believe me, having you actually USE Lightroom isn’t something I want to see  ;-) but it’d be useful to at least see if you get the same shift. It’s a free trial download and it’ll only take you a minute to figure out how to import.

I have shared our findings with Apple.

-Joseph

@PhotoJoseph
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Dave W's picture
by Dave W
August 20, 2012 - 8:52am

Just want to throw in a “me too”. I also use a T4i and noticed a significant darkening of the RAW images compared to the jpg previews. They look very similar to the images posted above by John.

I am also using OS X 10.8 and Aperture 3.2.2.

John James's picture
by John James
August 20, 2012 - 11:42am

I hope everybody who is having this problem is notifying Apple using the “Provide Aperture Feedback” feature in the application.

John James's picture
by John James
August 20, 2012 - 10:24pm

OK Joseph…in my quest to find out more information about this “darkening” issue with RAW images I stumbled onto this website and without knowing what it was or who you were I jumped in and looked for answers.

So for the last day or so I have been exploring this site and wow…I find you’re the ultimate Aperture Guru who actually has some input to Apple as to issues and problems that need to be fixed.

So, can you tell me where we are on this issue as you indicated you have been in contact with Apple? In your view is there any hope of a fix for this problem any time soon?

As I mentioned, I am beyond frustrated and really can’t take decent pictures that will be worth much in Aperture at the moment shooting in RAW.

Lastly, this is a wonderful website and there is great information and learning/training tools which I will be purchasing. You’ve just opened up a whole new world for me with Aperture and I sure hope I can continue to use the software.

Any kind of update would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

John James's picture
by John James
August 21, 2012 - 12:13am

Got the LR4 trial and imported the RAW file. I don’t know anything about LR and when I imported even though I shot the image RAW + jpg the jpg file didn’t import only the RAW file. No idea what that is all about. Probably operator error. (Hate LR already BTW)…

Anyway there is a difference between the darkness (and I’m sure other things) between Aperture and LR. LR is a little darker than the jpg but not as dark as the Aperture RAW file.

LR RAW File…

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p593/X_Bones/LR_raw.jpg

Aperture RAW File…

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p593/X_Bones/aperture_raw.jpg

jpg from Aperture…

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p593/X_Bones/IMG_jpg.jpg

Camera is Canon EOS T4i

Does this help Joseph?

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
August 21, 2012 - 2:37am

John,

Glad you’ve found the site, and thanks for the kind words. My interaction with Apple is largely one-way, meaning I can feed them information and I know that it is received and processed, however I rarely get information back. That’s simply due to Apple’s policies on secrecy. So while I can say with confidence that they are aware of the issue, I can’t give any inclination to when or how it will be addressed. I can say though that this is NOT an isolated issue, so I’m confident it will be addressed sooner rather than later.

The files you shared are interesting; there is obviously a difference between the three files, but seeing a difference between the in-camera JPEG and the Lr-processed RAW file could be a few things. Lr will always process differently than Aperture, for sure. That’s just the nature of having different RAW decode engines. And they will always process differently than the camera as well. The only way to get something reasonably close from the camera’s JPEG to what you’ll see in any RAW processor is to remove all “enhancements” to the in-camera JPEG. If you look in the menus on the camera and see adjustments for saturation, contrast, etc., those should all be set to zero if you want the JPEG to look as close as it will on the computer.

The difference between the camera JPEG and the Lr-RAW is subtle enough that it could be either way — it could be a simple difference in processing, or you could have something set in-camera. I’d check your camera settings, just to be certain.

Anyway at the end of the day, there is clearly an issue. Your solutions for now include shooting RAW+JPEG so you get the JPEG as the camera intended it, knowing you can go back to the RAW when this problem is addressed… you could overexpose by a stop in camera to see if that resolves the issue, but I don’t think that’s ideal (and you’ll have the reverse problem when this is addressed), you could import RAWs using Lr, export TIF files, and bring those into Aperture, but that is a pain as well. Or the easiest, since the difference with the highlight protection disabled isn’t massive, is to raise the exposure of every shot in Aperture and to do it as an Effect preset, and apply that at the time of import.

-Joseph

@PhotoJoseph
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John James's picture
by John James
August 21, 2012 - 2:57am

Thank you Joseph.

The reason I bought the new camera is because I am anticipating a trip to Africa next year and want to have more flexibility than I had with my Canon G-12 with regards to lenses and control of my images. So frankly there is no urgency since I’m not out taking once in a lifetime photos at this time. I just want to get experience with the new camera and learn more about manipulating the images in Aperture and your site here is going to help me do that. Yea!

So the bottom line to this *I hope* is a little patience. Apple always seems to come up with a fix. I just wonder how frustrating this is for people who are professionals and are affected by this issue? Time, in that case, is probably of the essence.

Thanks for you help and nice reply. Will you please update this thread as you hear of more information?

~John

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
August 21, 2012 - 3:31am

John,

I certainly will update. If not to this thread, it will absolutely be on the front page.

And the answer to your question about professionals is “EXTREMELY”.

Africa, nice!

-Joseph

@PhotoJoseph
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FranCesca Shearcroft's picture
by FranCesca Shearcroft
August 29, 2012 - 9:18pm

I am having the same problem with the Aperture 3.3.2.
Thumbnail looks OK then when I go to full view it loads and when loaded is instantly darker.

Not happy with this automatic conversion.
I am using a NIkon D90. Shooting RAW. And have Mac OS 10.7.4

Please Help!!!

John James's picture
by John James
August 29, 2012 - 10:18pm

@FranCesca…

I’m afraid the only thing that can be done is to wait for Apple to make adjustments.

Upon further review, there is nothing wrong with my exposures. Aperture 3.3x is simply processing the RAW files darker for whatever reason. It’s a real bummer as it calls for a lot more adjustments on every single image. The thing that bothers me most is when I view the processed RAW images they really have no semblance of what the scene really looked like.

Andrew Mumford's picture
by Andrew Mumford
August 30, 2012 - 4:30am

So is the below statement true even in Canon’s Raw Converter ?!

“It’s just that the RAW images are no where near the scenes that are captured in bright sunlight. Colors are all muted, flat and otherwise nowhere near what I was shooting. Makes me think I didn’t see what I thought I saw while shooting.”

If so it’s hardly Apple’s fault - I would be more aggrieved at Canon for baking in an extra level of processing in their “in camera” jpg’s that is then not reflected in the raw camera file ?!

Just looking at your screen grabs it’s apparent there is a lot more highlight compression together with a an overall gamma shift upwards - looks like Canon’s trying too capture more dynamic range in the JPG’s by fudging their processing some.

On my Nikon I have the JPG processing set too “Neutral” because it’s the closest to the default decode - however if it’s not exact I don’t care, the RAW hold’s the real data, how it is processed is up to me. That’s the point isn’t it … If I really thought the JPG’s were that much better I wouldn’t bother shooting RAW.

My Tuppence.

---
Andrew Mumford

John James's picture
by John James
August 30, 2012 - 8:10am

Hey Andrew…

First, don’t shoot the messenger. I am not that experienced with this stuff but am just saying that in almost two years of working with Aperture and RAW files I have never seen this happen until Apple decided to update their RAW processing ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3946 ) When it happened after upgrading to 3.3x it was so dramatic it could not go unnoticed.

I am using Canon but as you see in this thread others who are using Nikon gear are complaining about the same issues. While the RAW files contain a lot more information, when I shot RAW with my small G-12 there was no such extreme darkening of the images. You could very well be correct in all you say it’s just not something I (and others) are used to seeing.

Andrew Mumford's picture
by Andrew Mumford
August 31, 2012 - 5:54am

Mea Culpa - not intending too shoot anyone.

You implied - if I read your response correctly - that the same “darkening” was occurring in Canon’s own in house software.

Reading this post and Joseph’s post about the highlight tone priority it seems like there could be more than one thing going on.

1. All of Aperture’s / OSX RAW decode engine has been tweaked to provide darker images/more headroom.
2. Canon’s own HTP setting / schema is fooling people into thinking Aperture is decoding their images wrong.

Reading the post’s here and DPreview’s testing of the T4i - particularly the section on Dynamic Range, it’s apparent that Canon is indeed trying to mess with the tone curves to get more dynamic range into their JPG’s.

The disconnect seems to be that to get to it’s nominally “normal” HTP exposure it first produces a RAW file that has less exposure than it implies it has - so it really is “underexposed” in the traditional sense and then applies a tone on tone curve correction in order too …

a. correct middle grey back to middle grey and
b. apply the normal “user” selected curve to produce the JPG.

The net result would be kind of like under exposing and then pushing your neg some in the bath in traditional film terms.

This is bad because your RAW file is truly not the exposure you thought it was and the “secret sauce” curve Canon use to restore middle grey is not available anywhere in the RAW data.

I guess you could also say it’s good because you get JPG’s with seemingly extended highlight range and normal exposure.

In this scenario I’m simply saying I would never expect the JPG to look like the RAW since Aperture has never provided “look’s” or profiles that attempt to replicate in camera jpg’s and the RAW file IS truly underexposed - however you could reasonably expect to fairly easily “roll your own” curve adjustment to get back to where the JPG is.

In the scenario where Apple’s RAW decode is off it should be fairly easy to determine by seeing if you’re seeing a consistent -ve exposure shift on a correctly exposed middle grey card, (with HTP “off” for canon users).

In that case I would agree that Apple is at fault since it would seem reasonable to expect a correctly exposed and metered 18% grey to reproduce faithfully in the digital realm regardless of JPG curve settings that mainly affect the top and low end.

The key points for me seem to be :-

1. Canon HTP files are indeed somewhat underexposed by maybe as much as 1 stop.
2. Canon RAW HTP files need a secondary “curves” adjustment to correctly mimic the in camera JPG’s.
3. Apple engineers may have tweaked the entire raw decode process to produce darker results - more testing is needed.

This is all a very long winded way of what I was trying to say in my first post but I guess I screwed it up and came across in the wrong way - how very UK of me. my apologies.

Addendum: Please don’t interpret anything I’ve said as implying “Aperture is right and you’re wrong” - As Joseph said already, “The customer is alway’s right” - it’s just that there could be a lot of conflicting technical thing’s going on behind the scenes to create the “problem” and I would like to understand them if I can - I am a pedant …

---
Andrew Mumford

John James's picture
by John James
August 31, 2012 - 8:25am

Good stuff Andrew.

I think on balance you’re right. I am not trying to blame anybody for what is happening and really have resigned myself that the RAW image as it is rendered is OK. It just needs to be processed. And no I don’t want the RAW image to look like a processed jpg. I was just saying than in previous versions of Aperture, at least using my small G-12, the RAW image looked closer in tonal value to the jpg and whatever Canon was doing with the RAW files, Not to say that is right or okay it is just what it was and therefore I was used to seeing it that way.

Things like this usually turn into a company like Apple and a company like Canon pointing the finger at the other saying it’s the other’s fault. And, it’s why Apple likes to control everything with their hardware and software. Works better for them and probably the end user. Not possible in this instance.

I’ve turned off HTP and ALO and wonder if it even mattered but nevertheless they are turned off. Heh.

Thanks for the additional information — makes a lot of sense.

SHAUN AGUILAR's picture
by SHAUN AGUILAR
September 17, 2012 - 7:13pm

I’m having a similar issue but my pictures have a yellow tone after ‘loading’. This happened sometime within the past 2 weeks because I was able to import photos on 8/31/12 with no problems. I uploaded pictures today 9/16/12 and aperture added the yellow tint. I have made no changed to the camera or aperture settings and I have always had “highlight tone priority” set to off. I am using a Canon 5DmIII

Here is the JPEG version:
http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o559/thrillhouse210/ab725a52.jpg

And here is the RAW version:
http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o559/thrillhouse210/cf426089.jpg

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
September 18, 2012 - 1:21am

Shaun,

Honestly that image just looks like a bad white balance. Neither image is accurate really. Do you have an example shot in daylight?

-Joseph @ApertureExpert Have you signed up for the ApertureExpert mailing list?

@PhotoJoseph
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SHAUN AGUILAR's picture
by SHAUN AGUILAR
September 18, 2012 - 4:38am

Thanks Joseph,
I thought it was a white balance problem as well. If I select auto white balance on the photo’s that were taken indoors then they are represented more accurately. I will include photo’s taken outdoors to show the difference. Upfront, any and all help Joseph is much appreciated!

JPEG Version
http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o559/thrillhouse210/fb5b55b6.png

RAW Version
http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o559/thrillhouse210/66315b67.png

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
September 20, 2012 - 1:17am

Shaun,

I don’t understand the problem. In these samples, the JPEG version is quite cold for a daylight photo; the RAW looks properly balanced. Where did the JPEG come from; the camera?

Remember, the JPEG will look different than the RAW. The JPEG has camera-added correction; the RAW does not. And in this case, I believe the RAW looks much better.

@PhotoJoseph
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English Bay Chick's picture
by English Bay Chick
September 12, 2013 - 10:19am

Hi Joseph

Any resolution to the darkening of the imported images. I have Nikon d600 which I have had for 2 months, I am using the same card for the last 2 months and it has never been full so no need to reformat. I haven’t updated Aperture recently. Prior to two days ago I had no issues with importing to Aperture but I’ve just started having this issue. When I import the pictures I couldn’t actually find the project even though I had labelled it in the usual ymd format. I did put in metadata on import. I was able to find the images when I did a search for the project. However I can’t see the images in thumbnail frames (ie dotted rectangle) with the picture reference number below. The frames are there just no pictures. When I click on the frame then I can see the image but when I try to see the image in single frame format the image is ++ dark. What is interesting is that when I try to look at the ‘info’/metadata there is none. Totally blank. No ISO, no aperture nothing.

I love Aperture so I am hoping that there is a solution.

Thanks,
English Bay Chick

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