In Aperture, why do my RAW images momentarily preview well, degrade into extreme colour fringing

[DaventryMeers]

EOS 60D, EF 50mm f/1.4 USM.

Shot at f/1.4, ISO 3200, Auto white balance

I've loaded the images into Aperture 3.0, and they preview well while the images are loading (I'm assuming they're JPEG previews) then heavily degrade in quality after the image has fully loaded.

Is this a camera, lens, or Aperture issue?

[ebiggs1]

I have no experience with what you are seeing but I can offer, my Mac buddies complain about poor performance with some of the Mac OS's and certain post processing software. I would start troubleshooting there.

[RedKopczynski]

Hi -- I've been experiencing the exact same problem for the last 6-8 months.  I've noticed it typically affects photos shot in low light.  I've cleared every preset in Aperture.  When I load the photos using Canon's DPP, the RAW images display perfectly.  So I believe this is an Aperture issue.  Are you still having this problem.  If not, what did you do to fix it?  Thanks!

[hsbn]

This is normal with all the RAW processing software out there (beside the one provided with your camera in this case Canon DPP). When you first load your file into Aperture, it will display briefly the JPG. Then the software will render the RAW file.

Since it's a third party software, it cannot read all the settings you've applied such as noise reducing, lens correction,  ALO, HTP, etc... Thus you'll see almost "true" image of your RAW. You'll have to develope your RAW to meet your expectation. Same thing with Lightroom, Capture One, etc...

That's why it makes more sense to turn off all setting that doesn't have any effect on your RAW file. Then you'll get the JPG to look almost exactly like RAW file.

You can see in your first 2 images, the preview one has less noise and no CA (in camera settings), but the loaded image has more noise and no CA correction (but it has more detail). If you turns on NR and some lens correction, you'll get the same result (or even better) than your preview.

[Skirball]

It looks like you have some sort of color profile loading as well and it's over-saturating.  Anything in-camera should be applied to the jpg as well, so it must be a setting you have in Aperture.  I've never used the program, but I'm sure it's similar to Lightroom: there should be a menu where you can select everything it does, or doesn't do, on import.

[TCampbell]

hsbn is correct -- there's nothing wrong.  Everything is working correctly.  (BTW, I'm a heavy Aperture user.)

RAW images usually have an embedded JPEG "preview" image.  

When Aperture imports an image, TWO things happen:

1)  Aperture presents the "preview" image as soon as it can (at this point it may not even have finished loading all the RAW data).  

2)  Once it has all the RAW data, Aperture will automatically apply adjustments to your image based on the camera "profile".

Keep in mind that Aperture optimized for a RAW workflow (although it works with JPEG) and that when you shoot RAW, your white balance setting on the camera is ignored (white balance and other in-camera processing settings only apply to JPEG photos.)  A camera will normally do a certain amount of de-noising to a JPEG image and will also usually do some sharpening as well.  These will NOT be performed to a RAW image.  But this is why Aperture has a camera "profile" -- it actually will auto-apply *some* adjustments just because you imported the image.

In Aperture 2, I seem to recall the camera profile was actually called camera profile.  In Aperture 3 they renamed it to "RAW Fine Tuning" and... they HIDE they hide the setting by default.

Open your image, go to the "Adjustments" tab.  In the "Add Adjustments" pull down menu, select "RAW Fine Tuning" (this adjustment is applied to all RAW images even if you don't select and display it.)

It should indicate it's performing fine tuning based on your camera (the Camera box will likely display "Canon EOS 60D").  You'll find settings for Boost, Hue Boost, Sharpening, Edges, Moire, and Radius and a checkbox for Auto Noise Compensation.)  

If you click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the RAW Fine Tuning brick, you'll notice the setting likely reads "Apple - Camera Default", but you can choose the option "Edit presets..." and make your own preset (and select it).  

I normally do NOT change the presets... I leave them.  Because for 98% of the images, the presets are pretty close to where they should be and I can certainly override the adjustments in my own adjustment bricks.  There's no need to edit original presets because Aperture isn't technically editing your original image.  Aperture works by loading the base data (from your image) and creating adjustments which are ONLY RENDERED ON SCREEN.  (the list of adjustments is saved in the Aperture database, but never actually applied to the image.  Aperture applies adjustments "on the fly" as it displays an image and this way there's no such thing as a "destructive" change.   Aperture also applies adjustments to "versions" of the image that you export -- but it never touches your original source data.  You can't even force Aperture to alter your original source data -- Apple goes out of their way to protect it.)

Also... the adjustment to deal with color fringing in Aperture is the "Chromatic Aberration" adjustment brick.

Regards,

Tim