CR2 photos darker than jpg

[Tintype_18]

I downloaded 49 photos of an outdoor shoot today. After downloading, I sent them to the dedicated file and started to scroll through them. The CR2 photos would be light but after a couple of seconds would darken in comparison to the jpg photo. Never seen this before as both have been the same before today. Any ideas as to cause and the cure? As always, thanks.

[Danny]

Hi, Tintype_18!

So that the Community can help you better, we need to know exactly which applications you're using to view your CR2 files. That, and any other details you'd like to give will help the Community better understand your issue!

If this is a time-sensitive matter, click HERE search our knowledge base or find additional support options HERE.

Thanks and have a great day!

[Tintype_18]

Danny, I would have to dig into  the archives for the program/software that I was told to use to view CR2 photos along with the jpg photos. Might take a while. The situation is this just now popped up!

[Tintype_18]

Danny, checked the archives and got Windows Photo Explorer as d/l.  Does this sound right?

[Tintype_18]

Noted another issue: When viewing the CR2, it is smaller top to bottom compared to the jpg. But when I double click on the CR2 it is larger side to side than the corresponding jpg.😫

I'm going to be out and about tomorrow. Will take some photos in the backyard and see what happens. Will go over the settings and make sure they are all correct for the type of shot, etc.

[Tintype_18 · Accepted solution]

Update: Just finished a shoot of 16 photos. CR2 does not darken as I had experienced. The size differential between CR2 and jpg still exists but I can live with that. I checked several other photos with CR2 and jpg being the same size when viewed. Many thanks for your concern and advice!

[Peter]

The raw viewer uses the embedded JPEG file first. After that when the CR2 file has loaded you will see the raw file without an added tone curve. This is kind of how all raw converters work, but some have profiles (which includes a tone curve).

[ebiggs1]

"I was told to use to view CR2 photos along with the jpg photos."

Did you d/l DPP4?  If you will just do that and start using it, your issues will go away. An, option to DPP4 is to buy Photoshop Elements. DPP4 is free. PSE has a reasonable price to buy.

[Tintype_18]

I have both DPP4 and PSE 2021. I don't see that is the issue. I view the photos on Explorer (file folder icon at the bottom of the screen, W10) and scroll through them with CR2 first, followed by the jpg photo. When I click on the CR2, it is light for a couple of seconds then darkens. The jpg never changes. This is before any editing of any kind. It just started with this batch of photos taken yesterday and downloaded last night. Can't figure out why CR2 is light and then goes dark.

[Peter]

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@Tintype_18 wrote:

I have both DPP4 and PSE 2021. I don't see that is the issue. I view the photos on Explorer (file folder icon at the bottom of the screen, W10) and scroll through them with CR2 first, followed by the jpg photo. When I click on the CR2, it is light for a couple of seconds then darkens. The jpg never changes. This is before any editing of any kind. It just started with this batch of photos taken yesterday and downloaded last night. Can't figure out why CR2 is light and then goes dark.

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https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Camera-Software/CR2-photos-darker-than-jpg/m-p/361595/highlight/t...

Here is one sample without lens correction, but it is corrected the first two seconds (embedded JPEG) before it switches over to the raw file.

Here another sample from the free raw database raw.pixls.us. Raw file from EOS R. To the left the raw file. To the right the embedded JPEG extracted with Exiftool. The raw file looks like the JPEG before it goes dull:

As you can see when the raw file is loaded in darktable, a tone curve is needed: