linux + dcraw: color profile for Nikon D60?

[timothee]

Hi all,

[disclaimer: I'm a total newbie with DSLR photography and raw formats]

I purchased recently a Nikon D60 and I was happily shooting in jpeg. After reading an article about how saving to jpeg discards a lot of info compared to what was captured from the CCD, I decided I would shoot in RAW.

Thing is: I shoot in RAW as safety for the just-that-one-pic-I-desesperatly-need-to-edit cases. The rest of the time, I am actually quite satisfied with the jpeg pics saved by the D60. Because of that, I need a flow to easily transform all my RAW back to jpeg. By "easily transform", I mean automatically, without input/interraction from me.

I'm a full time linux user, and I found a short script to convert my raw pics to jpeg like this:
================================
#!/bin/bash

DCRAW="dcraw -w -c "
while [ $# -ge 1 ]
do

OJPEG=${1%.*}.jpeg
echo "${DCRAW} $1 | cjpeg > ${OJPEG}"
${DCRAW} -q 3 "$1" | cjpeg -quality 95 -optimize > ${OJPEG} || echo " *PROBLEM*"

# transfer EXIF data from the original raw file
exiftool -overwrite_original -TagsFromFile "$1" "${OJPEG}" >/dev/null

# set timestamp to shoot date
dcraw -z "${OJPEG}"

shift
done
================================

However the resulting jpegs look all washed out compared to the vibrant colors that the camera preview shows. I tried ViewNX on my wife's laptop and true enough viewNX was also able to automatically get the correct colors out of the raws.

So I assume I'm missing some way of providing a color profile during the conversion to jpeg but I'm not sure how to do that and the dcraw options confuse me :/

Are there any linux user out-there shooting raws with the Nikon D60? What is your workflow to get correct-colored jpeg images out of them?

Thanks in advance,
Tim.

 

[astrise]

Try RawStudio. It's GUI'ed and allows for batch processing with your color adjustments. I've been using it on Debian Etch on my notebook, and it does the job quite well although it doesn't exactly fly.
EDIT: I don't use a D60, but since RawStudio imports Raws using dcraw, I believe as long as your version of dcraw supports D60 raw files it should work fine. Hope this helps

 

[IAmMarian]

Hello timothee,

I am searching for these secret parameters for the Nikon D60, too.
Did you found them?

Are you sure, when you compared the calculated picture with the one from your wife's notebook (ViewNX), that the picture was not the low-quality jpeg included in the RAW-File?

I did this mistake, I saved a RAW-File in Irfanview (my girlfriend's notebook) and it turned out, that this is the jpeg included in the RAW.

Marian

 

[timothee]

Hi Marian,

Sorry I missed your reply entirely.

Unfortunately no, I still have not found that secret sauce either. I've kind of halted my searches since my initial post because the photo management software I use in linux (kphotoalbum: http://www.kphotoalbum.org/) was able to show me the raws just like I wanted them, and so I figured I'd stay at that and leave the raws to pile up until I find a way to convert the not-so-great shots to jpeg later, to save space.

I found out TODAY that, indeed, kphotoalbum show me the pics like I want because it is able to extract the low quality jpeg which is embedded in the raw . I didn't even know there was a low quality jpeg in the raw, I thought only a thumbnail was present. I was especially confused by this since the D60 has a raw+basic mode and just-raw mode. Turns out the just-raw mode does keep the basic jpeg embedded anyway.

On viewNX, I cannot remember exactly but I do believe viewNX was processing the raw data, not just using the low quality jpegs. It look a long time for the conversion to be done. I unfortunately can't test it again because my wife's laptop is now dead and we have no windows machine at home at all. Still, I'll see if I can get more info on this.

I did find today an article on how to generate a custom icc profile for my D60 by myself, at least to match sunlight condition:
http://blog.pcode.nl/2008/10/color-profiling-your-own-dslr
So now I'm considering going that route, but I really wish I could find a profile published by someone qualified in making it.

Good luck in your searches too. I will post here again if I come up with something.

Tim.

 

[Octarine]

I think there's a fundamental flaw here. You shoot in RAW to preserve valuable information that are only in the RAW files but then you want to have a dumb and uncontrolled batch run to convert everything into the limited jpg file format again? What sense does it make? Another thing: your images might look washed out because the jpg image shown on camera LCD also includes picture style settings, a RAW file never does.
The basic workflow with RAW is to have an image editor that can import / read your RAW files with all the valuable image information. Then you start adjusting from there (whatever parameter you want / need: exposure, saturation etc) and finally you will export into a new file, which can be jpg, tiff or whatever you need for the next steps like additional editing, printing or posting online.
The reading and interpretation of RAW files is the 'secret saucer' of the camera manufacturer. It's the 'holy grail' about how the sensor works and how to interpret the data captured. Obviously, no camera manufacturer wants to release such information. Companies like Adobe do some reverse engineering with results that are acceptable to many people. Manufacturers of other tools (higher rated, higher pricing; e.g. Capture One, DxO) either have better reverse engineering or get some additional information.
One tool for RAW import on Linux is UFRaw which can be combined with GIMP. Here you can import the RAW files and do basic adjustments before you create the export file which is saved or handed over to GIMP. Again, batch run seems to be possible but defeats the purpose of shooting RAW.
Irfanview can read RAW files as well, you might need to install the respective plugins / addons. Irfanview also helps to get an overview about all your images when you use the thumbnail view. So you can select which image to open in the RAW tool.
Hope that helps