RawTherapee and Camera/Colorprofiles from CR2 gets Corrected for no Reason

[Moriotz_Schlichter]

Hi folks, i have a question. I dont know for sure whats going on here, but im pretty sure its not a Bug, seems like more of a feature.

I just Installed Rawtherapee, attached no Profile, changed no settings.
then i took my Camera pictures that i´ve mad with the Canon 600D (Raw files in CR2), loaded them in RT and all of a sudden the Pictures look even better then in Camera Raw. I wondered, so i loaded them in XNView. It seems that RT makes a differen Target. I Tried to load some other pictures that laid around on my Disk, that were made also with a Canon but a Mark IV.
Loaded them and Boom better contrast, no “Irritating” poppy colors.

I deactivated black compensation and searched if there was any automation going on but i found nothing. All profiles are normal. I later tried setting the input to ARGB (files were in ARGB) and Output to ARGB or sRGB (tried both) but it didnt effect. I noticed that Sharpness, some Color Matrix things appeared to be applied or just ignored from the file. Because before i loaded them, in the thumbnail the looked the same as they were in Camera Raw, or XNView. But after Loading they just got more grey and neutral, loss of Sharpness. Almost like RT ignores Picture styles (not that i care, i deactivate everything to get as much dynamic and neutral colors anyway and set everything to manual)…

I heard the Term “Color Science” so that some Manufacturers write Development Target information into their Raw file, so programs can start interpreting these.
Is someone actual into the materia informed or can explain me whats going on ? Thx in advance.

A year ago i found an article about the CR2 File Format :

Inside the Canon RAW format version 2, understanding .CR2 file format and files produced by Canon EOS Digital Camera But im not sure if this can be helpful at my guess or not.

Camera Raw :

XNView (ignore the WB, it seems that Camera Raw and XNView doesnt like my Custom WB and behave different in the WB Target, XNView btw makes it correct, because my Custom WB is set to be more green and magenta ) :

RT :

And for a Quick Thumbnail explanation :

[afre (Alan)]

@Moriotz_Schlichter Welcome to the forum! Start here:

• Getting Started - RawPedia
• Editor - RawPedia

[ggbutcher (Glenn Butcher)]

@Moriotz_Schlichter

I heard the Term “Color Science” so that some Manufacturers write Development Target information into their Raw file, so programs can start interpreting these.
Is someone actual into the materia informed or can explain me whats going on ? Thx in advance.

Oohh, a customer…

In another thread, I’ve been working on a graphic that describes generically how color is managed during raw processing. Here’s a link to the post containing the latest (well @Claes and I worked on a subsequent version, but the differences are just editorial):

Color Management in Raw Processing - #92 by ggbutcher

I’ve also started accompanying prose for a blog post, but it’s not ready for prime time. Some of the “color science” that can differ from software to software is in the camera profile; most FOSS software seems to start with the primaries from dcraw, a command line raw processor that in turn gets a fair bit of it from the Adobe DNG Converter. RawTherapee has a file, camconst.json, that is worth a read in its own right; not only does it contain user comtributions for better color information, there’s a lot of commentary at the top as to what it all means.

Regarding thumbnails, a lot of software just pulls the embedded JPEG out of the raw file, already developed by the camera. Don’t trust them for comparison…

[Moriotz_Schlichter]

@afre Thanks for the Information. Im kinda ashamed i didnt saw this earlier. Whoops !

@ggbutcher Thank you as well !
now it gets technical and it suits my taste very well.
Better Color information ? so this sounds like tweak or better interpretation ?

nonetheless thats worth to be read by me. in the last days i thought about programming some stuff myself for Color Management, and your thread there can be very helpful.

Its so helpful. i was afraid i would be the only one in the Photography and IT Section who saw problems with the Color Management. Thanks !!

[ggbutcher (Glenn Butcher)]

@Moriotz_Schlichter, you lit a fire under my… ah, never mind that. I spent my day after shoveling snow finishing the article, and it’s now posted here:

Article: Color Management in Raw Processing

Color Management in Raw Processing Introduction There are two fundamental aspects of making a presentable image from raw camera data that require our attention: tone and color. From the time we step up to the scene with our camera to the presentation of a finished image, consideration of these two characteristics is fundamental and persistent through the workflow. The management of tone is probably more universally comprehended; it starts with the scene’s dynamic range and the camera’s expos…

It’s a wiki post, which means anyone can edit it, so I’m looking for a lot of correction to my misinterpretations… The diagram is the basis for its content, and is located about 1/2 way down…

[heckflosse (Ingo Weyrich)]

@Moriotz_Schlichter

And for a Quick Thumbnail explanation :

The thumbs with the green check marks are produced from the raw data using RawTherapee settings while the one without the green check mark is a downsized version of the jpeg embedded in the raw file.