Fast editing of RAWs to "camera like" Jpegs

[sootzzs]

Hi all,

Not trying to start another RAW vs Jpeg debate here. We all know the advantages shooting RAW has over Jpeg.
However, as an amateur shooting solely for my and others pleasure I'm having more and more photos mostly stuck imported to my Lightroom and never getting out of it as I don't have the time to edit them and unedited RAWs rarely look better than in camera Jpegs. Currently I shoot only RAW and was trying to find a way for creating a "decent looking" or as in camera looking Jpegs conveniently and quickly. I've tried to using the Sync in LR for multiple photos with similar shooting conditions, but most of the Sync'd photos just don't look good enough and need re-tweaking anyway.

I know I can shoot both RAW+Jpeg and only edit the best photos from RAW while publishing the rest quickly. Maybe I will do it eventually, but it seems to be really cumbersome and taking a lot of space on card while shooting and quite some time and mess in LR while trying to separate the Jpegs from RAWs (maybe I'm doing it wrong though).

I guess a lot of us encountered the same problem with "volume shooting" and was wondering is there an easier way in LR (or maybe DPP which I never used before) just to push a button and get these "camera like" Jpegs without hassling around to much.

Please help me set my photos free !

Thanks!

 

[Northstar]

Hi all,

Not trying to start another RAW vs Jpeg debate here. We all know the advantages shooting RAW has over Jpeg.
However, as an amateur shooting solely for my and others pleasure I'm having more and more photos mostly stuck imported to my Lightroom and never getting out of it as I don't have the time to edit them and unedited RAWs rarely look better than in camera Jpegs. Currently I shoot only RAW and was trying to find a way for creating a "decent looking" or as in camera looking Jpegs conveniently and quickly. I've tried to using the Sync in LR for multiple photos with similar shooting conditions, but most of the Sync'd photos just don't look good enough and need re-tweaking anyway.

I know I can shoot both RAW+Jpeg and only edit the best photos from RAW while publishing the rest quickly. Maybe I will do it eventually, but it seems to be really cumbersome and taking a lot of space on card while shooting and quite some time and mess in LR while trying to separate the Jpegs from RAWs (maybe I'm doing it wrong though).

I guess a lot of us encountered the same problem with "volume shooting" and was wondering is there an easier way in LR (or maybe DPP which I never used before) just to push a button and get these "camera like" Jpegs without hassling around to much.

Please help me set my photos free !

Thanks!

When you shoot RAW and JPEG do you save them separately to two different cards? And then load the RAWSs and JPEGs to two separate folders?

 

[sootzzs]

When you shoot RAW and JPEG do you save them separately to two different cards? And then load the RAWSs and JPEGs to two separate folders?

I'm shooting with 60D so unfortunately have only one SD card slot. While importing I think I just imported them both simultaneously into the same folder (it was long ago since I've tried it last time).

 

[jebrady03]

Try DPP. It loads the RAW files with all of the in-camera settings so if you decide not to edit an image in any way, all you have to do is convert it to JPG. If you have many that you want to convert, highlight all of the ones you want and then click "batch process". You can either save them in the same folder or designate a different folder.

 

[Badger]

Great question! I have actually just started thinking about that myself. I shoot 100% RAW and I use LightRoom with no intentions of switching to a different platform. Most of my pictures don't ever see the light of day because creating the perfect picture takes so much time. There is actually a setting in LR now that I think about it that attempts to mimic the in camera process. Let me check...

In the develop module of LR, click on Camera Calibration (on the right). You will see Process, and right under that you will see Profile. Yours (like mine) is probably set to Adobe Standard. You can switch that to several different Camera profiles including Camera Faithful, or Camera Portrait. You might be disappointed in the results but for fast and dirty, give it a shot.

I think our problem is that we want every picture to be the best it can be and while the rest of the world doesn't care, we do.

 

[AmselAdans]

I often suffer from the same problem, as I haven't yet found a generic "one fits (almost) all" conversion/ACR setting, which produces decent results.

As I think that this might be the right place to ask: Is there any good tutorial for ACR conversion, which focuses on "basic" image improvement? Most tutorials overachieve by fancy-overdriven colours, gradients, far too aggressive sharpening so that the result looks like a photo made with a smartphone and some Instragram filters added.
I would like to see a "enhance a photo with nice composition but dull vibrancy"-tutorial. Any suggestions?
I would also appreciate if some forum members might share their (secret secret) conversion recipes (as I know that many pros earn their money based on their experience and findings regarding the RAW processing, I completely understand if some refrain from sharing this infos)

 

[Khnnielsen]

Hi all,

Not trying to start another RAW vs Jpeg debate here. We all know the advantages shooting RAW has over Jpeg.
However, as an amateur shooting solely for my and others pleasure I'm having more and more photos mostly stuck imported to my Lightroom and never getting out of it as I don't have the time to edit them and unedited RAWs rarely look better than in camera Jpegs. Currently I shoot only RAW and was trying to find a way for creating a "decent looking" or as in camera looking Jpegs conveniently and quickly. I've tried to using the Sync in LR for multiple photos with similar shooting conditions, but most of the Sync'd photos just don't look good enough and need re-tweaking anyway.

I know I can shoot both RAW+Jpeg and only edit the best photos from RAW while publishing the rest quickly. Maybe I will do it eventually, but it seems to be really cumbersome and taking a lot of space on card while shooting and quite some time and mess in LR while trying to separate the Jpegs from RAWs (maybe I'm doing it wrong though).

I guess a lot of us encountered the same problem with "volume shooting" and was wondering is there an easier way in LR (or maybe DPP which I never used before) just to push a button and get these "camera like" Jpegs without hassling around to much.

Please help me set my photos free !

Thanks!

Hey,

I have tailored my workflow in an effort to avoid that problem.

First I empty my SD card to folder called "Work in progress and create subfolder with a generic name. Then I quickly sort out the pictures, which are clearly not keepers - wrong focus, exposure etc.

Then I open the folder DPP and make quick adjustments to contrast, sharpness, and WB. DPP allows you to copy recipes, which make is easy to copy the same adjustments to pictures of the same scene. This way, I can fairly quickly process a lot of pictures.

Then I batch process the whole lot to another folder called "processed pictures". At this point I decide which pictures have deserved the full Photoshop treatment.

I hope this is helpful.

 

[JPAZ]

Could use DxO. It will do an automated conversion using the basic settings or whatever ones you pick. The processing takes a while so you can set it then go have supper. upon return, there will be the processed photos listed with "DxO" in the title. They won't all be to your liking but will achieve your goal.....a group of JPEG's processed in batch with an output equivalent to what a camera might do. And you will still have your RAW fles intact.

 

[DanThePhotoMan]

You could also open up all of the Raw images in ACR, adjust the first image to your liking, then sync all the corrections to the rest of the images. You'd still probably need to tweak a little bit if you'd like, but a little contrast and saturation goes a long way.

 

[Crapking]

Remember with LR you can apply previously used develop settings during the import.
I created very basic profiles as a rough starting point then tweak as needed.
Consider including as a starting point....(depending on camera/lens)
Lens calibration on
contrast +5
highlights - 50-75
shadows + 25
detail + 5
vibrancy +10
Sharpness + 50
NR +20
Camera profile to any of the factory options (portrait/landscape/standard) or better yet a ColorPassport custom profile for each lens.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Could use DxO. It will do an automated conversion using the basic settings or whatever ones you pick. The processing takes a while so you can set it then go have supper. upon return, there will be the processed photos listed with "DxO" in the title. They won't all be to your liking but will achieve your goal.....a group of JPEG's processed in batch with an output equivalent to what a camera might do. And you will still have your RAW fles intact.

DXO has default settings for processing raws that look very good to me. I don't use it because its slow. There is a free trial, and it will export images to lightroom for additional processing if you wish.

 

[helpful]

Despite having options to mimic camera settings, Lightroom so far does not have this capability, nor do other non-OEM RAW processors that I have tried (all the ones that usually come up in a Google search).

Digital Photo Professional is the only RAW processor I know of that truly has the ability to instantly match the standard out of camera JPEGs of the Canon DSLRs. In fact, when you shoot RAW and JPEG together, DPP will by default process the RAW output to be the equivalent of the JPEG output, with the exact same settings applied and using the same algorithms.

And then, starting with a result that looks as great as the SOOC JPEGs, you can then do so much more for the photos that need it.

This works so much better than spending all your effort struggling just to get the RAW files to look as good as the JPEG images that you barely have any energy left over to make them even better.

The only problem is that DPP is really slow. For example, exporting is a 30-second process for one RAW image, so I can't use it for the purpose that you desire, of quickly allowing all of your RAW photos to see the light of day.

Yet herein lies the other benefit of shooting RAW + JPEG. For the photos that don't need to be taken beyond standard processing, you will already have the time-consuming conversion process done by the camera.

Of course, if your original JPEG images are shot with awful settings, like the wrong white balance, etc., then you are back to square one. So in a sense, learning how to make the SOOC JPEG images look good by your shooting technique is just as much of a part of this method of RAW processing as doing all the tweaking afterwards, and it saves so much more time.

 

[Lee Jay]

I haven't uses Canon's software in many years, but they used to provide something called Raw Image Task which would convert a raw image into a JPEG that was bit-for-bit identical with an out of camera JPEG taken in camera using raw + JPEG. Do they still do that, or does DPP have similar functionality?

 

[Marsu42]

Despite having options to mimic camera settings, Lightroom so far does not have this capability

The results of ACR's (Lightroom,Photoshop) camera calibration profiles might not match Canon's in-camera settings pixel by pixel, but as far as I tired they are rather good at mimicing them, so imho it's certainly worth to look at this option.

 

[dak723]

Try DPP. It loads the RAW files with all of the in-camera settings so if you decide not to edit an image in any way, all you have to do is convert it to JPG. If you have many that you want to convert, highlight all of the ones you want and then click "batch process". You can either save them in the same folder or designate a different folder.

As mentioned here and in another reply - Canon's DPP software sounds exactly like what you want. You can save in JPG or TIF.

 

[sootzzs]

Thank you all for your time and advice, guys! I've really learned from this.

I think I'll give a try to DPP (it is about time). I guess being an original Canon software cannot be bad to my JPEG conversions. Also, the profile change in LR sounds like a great advice. Never thought of it before.

Shooting in camera JPEGs can be great and fast, if you do it correctly of course, as helpful mentioned. But the possibility to to correct the some basic settings like WB and let the software to do the rest sound like and ultimate answer to me.

Thanks!

 

[Marsu42]

Also, the profile change in LR sounds like a great advice. Never thought of it before.

Few people have, it's unfortunate one of the most important setting is at the very bottom of the list. Unless you rtfm you'll only get to it when it's too late and you have to red-edit loads of old shots with a sub-optimal profile :-\

 

[photennek]

Thanks for the excellent question, sootzzs!!!

Remember with LR you can apply previously used develop settings during the import.
I created very basic profiles as a rough starting point then tweak as needed.
Consider including as a starting point....(depending on camera/lens)
Lens calibration on
contrast +5
highlights - 50-75
shadows + 25
detail + 5
vibrancy +10
Sharpness + 50
NR +20
Camera profile to any of the factory options (portrait/landscape/standard) or better yet a ColorPassport custom profile for each lens.

I created for myself a preset, which has somewhat similar settings as Crapking lists above. In addition I found that in Lightroom I got a step closer using the Tone Curve and changing it from linear to medium contrast or strong contrast (actual appears to be somewhere between...). I use this for 5d3, not sure if that matches to the jpegs that other canons create in camera.

I also tried DPP very briefly, but it was slow like h**l, and I didn't manage to create jpegs that matched those SOOC. Maybe I missed a click somewhere? Also turned out that the SOOC jpegs were smaller in file size, although I use the highest quality L setting in camera. Summing up, maybe I didn't use the software correctly (never opened the manual...)

 

[photennek]

Coming back to my previous comment...

I guess this only goes to prove that I don't know how to use DPP (tried version 3.14 now), but here are examples of a 1) SOOC jpg, 2) jpg gained by converting in DPP (no settings changed, just straight convert to jpg), and 3) Lightroom default (no development at all). As you can see 3 is very far from 1, but neither is 2 like 1 (1 is darker). I tried to mimic 1 in LR (result not shown here) but I was unable to get the contrast that appears for example on her face. Images resized in LR to max 1600 px for long edge.

1) SOOC jpg: image file #40

2) jpg from DPP: image file # 40-7

3) jpg from Lightroom: image file # 40-2

Perhaps needless to say, but in this particular case I quite like the SOOC jpg best, and makes me a bit sad I cannot create it or even a better one in LR / Photoshop. I'm lacking the skill in those as well it seems...