Post-processing RAW image: Trying to match my camera’s output (specific colour tone on rocks, lightening shadowed area)

I shot a raw photo (Sony Alpha-5100) of a landscape. I like the camera’s automatically-generated jpg image, and I’m struggling to recreate the effect by processing the raw image. (Both images licensed Creative Commons, By-Attribution, Share-Alike. (I’m using Darktable, but I think the steps will be similar in any editor.) The camera’s image achieves the following:

  • The shadowy foreground is not too dark
  • The bright parts of the cliffs on the horizon keep some detail
  • The rocks in the centre of the image have a strong orange tone, not too yellow, red or purple.

When I try to process, I start with the RGB curve (linked channels). I can lighten the shadowy area in the foreground by raising the curve, but this also causes the distant cliffs to appear grey and flat.

For the colour of the rocks, I tried adjusting global vibrance, chroma, and saturation, but the rocks end up much too yellow. I also tried adjusting the RGB curve (separate channels), but the overall image colours started to look very strange.

Please can anybody suggest how to achieve the attached JPG by processing the attached RAW image?

(I also posted this question on Stack Exchange.)

Here are a couple of quick versions… I admit I didn’t work too hard on a great color match… the shadows are easy to make as dark or light as you want … with the tone eq and here these two versions are only different by the addition of some negative shadow brillance or I could have tweak the tone eq…
Its a great image and could go many directions with color and the degree to which you might let it look hazy or not…


DSC08665.ARW.xmp (16.2 KB)

EDIT: PS welcome Harry I hadn’t noticed it was your first post… I look forward to seeing more of your photos…

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DSC08665.ARW.arp (13.6 KB)

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Very nice image!


DSC08665.ARW.xmp (11.0 KB)

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This seems tailor made for @s7habo latest tutorial showing the Linear Invert preset he made for the Tone Equalizer module. Here is what I came up with.

DSC08665.ARW.xmp (17.4 KB)

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With my camera, which is a canon R7, I found I had to play with the color zones module to get my colors closer to the camera’s JPG. I also played with this module for your camera. I also took saturation away from the highlights, not because I liked it but to get closer to the JPG. I feel it would be better to not try and match the JPG but to exceed the jpg.
DSC08665.ARW.xmp (16.5 KB)

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For what its worth, this would be my edit if I wasn’t chasing the JPG.
DSC08665.ARW.xmp (23.2 KB)

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DSC08665.ARW.xmp (20.2 KB)

My effort (inspired by the OOC jpeg, not an exact copy) using only scene referred modules.

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Thank you (I am a new user so cannot mention you all in my post). These are some lovely edits and really helpful comments.

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I already asked myself when I read the thread title, what could be the reason for doing that. If you like the ooc jpg, why don’t you use it. If you think there is room for improvement, use darktable and don’t waste time by comparing with the ooc jpg, but make the edit the way you like it the most.

As I like bright and saturated colours, I would go more into this direction:


DSC08665 (1).ARW.xmp (25,4 KB)

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That was the challenge for me too. However, I have made the processing of my Canon R7 images an easier task by creating a style that gives a reasonable approximation of the cameras JPG. This gives me a nice starting point for most of my images. It doesn’t mean I am chasing the JPG look but the camera’s JPG look is often a nice starting point and I can 99.999% of the time then beat the JPG for detail and overall look. There are also some darktable camera styles now available in DT which is what inspired me to create my own.

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