I've just started using RAW/NEF files and came across this problem with dark images. I've been reading a bit and I know that an application I open my NEFs with must do some processing to show what camera usually shows on previews. I also know DCP profile files can be used to show the photo in right colors.
As a beginner I've decided to try post processing of photos on a free program called RawTherapee 4.2.73. I'm fairly sure it's not programs fault because I've seen those kind of issues from other people on other programs. I also tried using the DCP profile file (from Adobes DNG converter) but there was barely any change.
Anyways below is an example of two very similar pictures, the left one was loaded for editing thus showing RAW data, and on the right only a preview (only as thumbnail) which is displayed correctly.
So what do I have to do to load NEF files correctly?
UPDATE
OK I'm confused now, I just took another picture and This picture is opened correctly also in RawTherapee. This is the picture (I uploaded NEF to tinypic.com but it got converted to jpg):
I made a picture of Histograms for previous picture that still isn't shown correctly:
From the picture above you can see very different histograms on camera and in program.
One last thing that I noticed is when I took intentionally an underexposed photo, it produced dark greenish NEF, but when I took properly exposed photo the NEF looked pretty normal maybe a bit bleached out.
Thanks!
Answer
I overcame the problem by converting NEF files to DNGs with Adobes converter. And I conclude that RawTherapee just doesn't know how to handle NEF files properly, since AFAIK with DCP profile file it should work correctly.
While this is not a solution to the problem but a workaround, I'll leave an option open for others to solve the problem and this answer will server and alternative solution to help others.
The Solution
I came across THIS post and there was the answer to switch to 14-bit. I just tested and it work great now.
Regards
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