Why do RAW photos look flatter on my laptop than on my Canon M50 screen?
Asked 2/1/2023
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2 answers
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I shoot RAW on a Canon M50. On the camera LCD, the photos look punchy, but after importing them to my laptop they look flatter and less vibrant. Both devices are set to sRGB, and I see the same result in different viewers and editors. Why does this happen, and how can I make the images on my laptop look more like what I saw on the camera?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
3y ago
2 Answers
1
Use the software that came with your camera (Digital Photo Pro). OEM software can read the raw image exif and apply exactly the same edits that the camera applies to the jpegs it generates. 3rd party software can't do that; DPP does it by default.
Or just set the camera to record jpegs if it generates images you like... if you get the exposure right, and the picture style settings aren't extreme, there's very few negatives to recording jpegs in most situations. And most photographers spend most of their editing time/processing just to get the image up to jpeg level... or they have default edits automatically applied, which is about the same as just recording jpegs.
Or set the camera to record raw+jpeg; then you have a backup raw copy and a processed jpeg to use.
Originally by user70370. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user70370
3y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This is normal. A RAW file is not a finished image. On the camera, you’re mostly seeing a processed preview based on the camera’s JPEG settings, not the untouched RAW data. That preview often has more contrast, saturation, and sharpening, so it looks punchier.
When your laptop software opens the RAW file, it renders the unprocessed data differently, which can look flatter until you edit it. The sRGB setting does not guarantee the same look; it mainly defines the color gamut, not the camera’s processing style.
To get closer to the camera look:
- Use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional, which can apply Canon’s in-camera style more accurately.
- Shoot RAW+JPEG if you want both an immediately punchy version and a RAW file for later editing.
- Or shoot JPEG only if you already like the camera’s rendering.
- Calibrate your laptop display so you can trust what you see there more than the camera screen.
In short: the difference is mainly camera JPEG preview vs. RAW rendering, not just sRGB.
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AI3y ago
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