Original image keeps being edited! Please help!

When I import a RAW image into DxO Photolab for a second it shows what the original image looks like but then the software automatically processes it or something so the image looks so dark and bad.


I just want to edit the original RAW. I emailed DxO support this but they didn’t help much. The default auto preset doesn’t change anything. Please help!

Welcome Ben
That’s what you do :wink: Edit the original RAW!
For the first second PhotoLab shows you the embeded JPEG thumbnail.

PL gives you all tools to edit your image in an other way than your Camera.
[Edited ] In a first place, Apply the 1- DxO standard preset for a better effect.

Pascal

Hello @drone31,

Pascal is correct and you will edit the original RAW image. But if you want it as pure as possible (with no auto corrections) - just apply “No correction” preset and then modify the image to your taste.

Regards,
Svetlana G.

I’m sorry Svetlana but I don’t share your point :frowning:
In a first way, and especially the beginner, better to begin his developpment with the preset (by default) “1- DxO Standard”.

Pascal

  • Agree, but as we can see he does not like the result.

Regards,
Svetlana G.

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The problem is, many people today have never used negative film and don’t realise that there is no such thing as “how I took the picture”.

With RAW files, there is no such thing as “the original image”; a RAW file is just a bunch of data, recorded to capture as much as possible, for later processing - it is not a visible image.

But it does contain a visible image, in the form of an embedded jpeg file, created according to the settings you made in the camera’s menus.

What you are seeing, for a fleeting second, is the embedded jpeg image, not the RAW file. As such, you then get to see a version of the RAW file, processed according to the preset you selected in the preferences for DxO.

There is no one true representation of the data in a RAW file. What you see on the back of the camera is a jpeg, processed by the camera’s software. What you see in any editing software on your computer is the result of that software’s processing, whether that be default or intentional.

Coming from a film background, with over 55 years of experience in photography, I expect the RAW image to look nothing like what I saw on the back of the camera; I expect something akin to a film negative, that is always going to need some treatment to match how I want it to look.

Always remember, RAW does not equal reality :sunglasses:

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