Radioactive Images in Capture One Pro

[Matthew]

So, I’m revisiting some old images, now in Capture One Pro. I had previous processed these images in Lightroom a good many years ago, and back then I converted my raw files to DNG format as a standard part of my workflow. My regret is great.

I’ve found the process of revisiting these images to be somewhat frustrating. Capture One has been doing weird, wild things with the color. This image was originally shot raw using a Fujifilm X100S, and the DNG file looks like this in Capture One Pro:

Radioactive! Seriously, what is happening here?!

As you might imagine, attempting to process the image with this as a starting place has been difficult. I got through several images before finding the fix. It’s in the base characteristics panel:

Pressing the “Upgrade” button, and changing the curve to “Film Standard” has made all the difference.

Now I have this:

This I can work with …

[Jon]

I always converted to DNG as well Matt! Looks like I’m going to have fun when I switch…

[Colin-Robinson]

Your ICC profile has changed as well.

[Matthew]

You’re right. I hadn’t even noticed the ICC profile changing.

[Gary]

You may be able to extract the original RAW image from the DNG file. It depends on how they were converted. If you used “Adobe DNG Converter” you should be able extract the RAW image from the DNG. If you used Lightroom to convert on import I am pretty sure you cannot extract the original RAW image. I considered the DNG workflow when it was first introduced, but decided against it because I saw no real advantage in it. The current version of Lightroom will still open my RAW files from 2002.

[Matthew]

Mostly I wish I hadn’t because I’m no longer operating within Adobe’s ecosystem, and I am unlikely every to go back. Very recently, I’m also finding that DNGs cause some headaches trying to keep metadata synced between Photo Mechanic and Capture One Pro.