Why does my phone's RAW photo look good on the phone but very noisy on my PC?
Asked 6/29/2018
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2 answers
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I shot a 10-second night-sky image on a OnePlus 5 and saved it as a RAW/DNG. On the phone, the image looks great: very dark sky with lots of visible stars. But when I transfer the same DNG to my laptop and open it in Picasa or an online RAW converter, it looks much brighter and full of yellow-green noise, with the stars harder to see.
Why does the same RAW file look so different between my phone and PC? Is the phone showing a preview instead of the real RAW data? And is there a way to view or process the file on a computer so it looks closer to what I saw on the phone?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
3
Picasa is automatically applying exposure correction to your very dark image. Since this scene is intentionally very dark, this automatic is going wrong. It brightens the image up considerably, thereby making the noise, which was hidden in the shadows previously, visible.
You can easily change this by editing the picture and turning the exposure correction down (sorry, don't know how it is called in picasa specifically).
Note that the phone apps most probably simply show the embedded JPEG preview image. Some image viewing programs on your PC will do that as well. But you should be able to get an even nicer image with a bit of work in a decent raw processor.
Originally by user32110. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user32110
8y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes — this is normal. A RAW/DNG file is not a finished image, so different apps can display it very differently.
What you’re likely seeing on the phone is the embedded JPEG preview, or a phone app’s own processing. That preview has already been tone-mapped and noise-controlled, so the sky stays dark and clean.
On the PC, Picasa or the online converter is probably rendering the RAW data itself and applying automatic exposure correction. Because your scene is intentionally very dark, the software brightens the shadows too much, which makes the hidden noise very visible and shifts the color.
So the file is not necessarily bad — it’s just being interpreted differently.
To get a result closer to the phone version on a computer:
- use a proper RAW editor rather than a basic viewer
- reduce exposure/brightness or shadow lifting
- apply noise reduction
- compare against the embedded JPEG preview if your software can show it
There is no single “correct” look for a RAW file. It always needs rendering.
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