RAW Files

[Ed Fritzen]

I shoot with a Nikon Z5 and have been playing around with the Picture Controls feature of this camera. I have been shooting RAW files. It’s my understanding that when a RAW file is taken, a separate JPEG is generated along with the RAW File. It is this JPEG that is displayed when the RAW Photo is opened in Nitro, or in Apple’s Photos. Any Nikon picture controls are also baked into that JPEG. If I wanted to see the RAW file, I would edit the JPEG displayed. Once I hit the editing sliders button, the image displayed would revert to the RAW without any adjustments to the image. I would then do my usual editing. I must have changed something unknowingly because now I can’t display the RAW image anymore. Some adustments are added immediately when I try to edit. How can I prevent this from happening?

Ed

[Nik Bhatt]

It’s hard to tell from your description, but it seems most likely that you don’t have a RAW image. Is it possible that you changed the camera setting to shoot JPEG? If not, when you look at Info in Nitro, what is the file extension and is there a RAW badge?

[JoJu]

@Ed Fritzen Nikon Picture Control only affects JPGs out of camera. RAW are only affected if you use the dedicated Nikon RAW converter. All other RAW converters (to my knowledge, which is outdated in terms of Nikon) ignore Picture Control settings. These settings are relevant for JPG-only shooters.

You can set up your Z 5 to save RAW + JPG. What happens with these two files when you edit in Nitro, I can’t tell – I only use JPGs out of camera on very few occasions, i.e. if there’s no compatibility with a very new proprietary RAW format, I use RAW + JPG until the converter gets an update and accepts the new RAWs. Else, I see no point in shooting JPGs. It’s like using a Polaroid camera instead of a film camera – quick results, but rather limited use.

[Ed Fritzen]

Thank you for the prompt reply, Nik,

I checked and my camera is set to shoot RAW, and the info for the file shows it as a .NEF file and the Raw badge is displayed on the thumbnails. It seems that when I open the RAW file some sort of preset is applied immediately to the image. I can reset all the sliders or revert to original to get to an image without any adjustments but it reverts back to the “adjusted” image if I close the image, or hit the sliders adjustment button. This wasn’t the way the program was working for me in the past. Like I said, I might have changed a setting in Nitro to cause the behavior, but I’m not sure what I might have done. I’ve seen this with a number of RAW images that I’ve added to Photos, and then opened Nitro for editing.

Thanks for your help.
Ed

[Ed Fritzen]

Thanks for you reply Joju.

I used to shoot RAW+JPEG, but wanted to try shooting only RAW. I was trying to find a workflow that allows me to shoot RAW, and apply a Preset in Nitro that would emulate the Nikon Picture controls to give me the same looking image in Nitro as I see on the camera. I don’t think that is possible though.

Ed

[Nik Bhatt]

Ed, perhaps you have assigned a “camera preset” in Nitro. Those automatically get applied when you open an image in Edit.

To find out, you can go to the Preset interface, and click the little camera icon at the bottom.

[Ed Fritzen]

Hi Nic,

That was it. I had forgotten about setting a camera pre-set. Once I removed it, things are back to normal for me. Thanks again for your help. I really enjoy using Nitro for my photo editing.

Ed

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