[Digikam-users] Opening raw file from different programs shows different results

[Remco Viëtor]

On Sunday 07 July 2013 21:02:19 Fabio wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I am using digiKam to manage the photo files. I am also using GIMP 2.8.4 
> on windows 7 and UFRaw to edit the raw files
> Since they are all on the same computer and same screen I expect to see 
> same results, however the picture on UFraw looks a lot darker than the 
> picture in digiKam... My question is which one should I trust and why 
> they look different ?

They are probably all correct, as there is no one correct way (as Gilles 
pointed out already).

Transforming a RAW file into a usable image has several steps: demosaicing, 
white  balance correction, noise reduction, brightness scaling, highlight 
recovery, gamma correction, ... Most can be done in several ways, and the 
best options depend on the image...

It's in the last two that you'll find the main differences in brightness.
Digikam's RAW processing module allows several ways of dealing with 
highlights (unclip, white, blend, rebuild) which give different results. 
None of these is 'right' for every image.

 So if your RAW developers use different methods to deal with 
brightness/highlights, you can easily get different results.

Remco