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The NEF files look normal when using windows photo viewer, but on the same monitor the JPEG that the camera has converted looks yellow. If I view the NEF on different software it looks yellow also.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Easiest way to tell if you don't have a calibrated monitor is...upload the file. Someone here with a calibrated monitor can then tell you if it's a monitor issue or a WB issue or something else entirely. \$\endgroup\$
    – OnBreak.
    Commented Mar 28, 2019 at 19:53

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This is probably a whitebalance problem. NEF or RAW files don't have a white balance setting yet. They are a recording of the data before any settings such as whitebalance are applied. If you load the NEF file in a viewer, it will make some assumption on what whitebalance to use, that is why it looks different in different programs.

Try opening the NEF file in Nikon View NX-i or Capture NX-i, they are both available for free on the Nikon site. These programs read the settings used in the camera, and will make the picture look yellow too. Then use the whitebalance slider to get the colors right.

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    \$\begingroup\$ This is wrong, or at least very misleading. Even if no white balance correction is applied to the image data in the NEF file, the camera's white balance detection is saved as meta-data in the file and this setting is used by most image viewer software when displaying the file. \$\endgroup\$
    – jarnbjo
    Commented Mar 29, 2019 at 13:19
  • \$\begingroup\$ If this is the case why do the images look correct on certain applications and no others. On the camera screen the photos look normal however on the computer certain software makes it look yellow \$\endgroup\$
    – Jaymin Patel
    Commented Apr 11, 2019 at 15:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ White balance cannot be measured by the camera. In auto mode, the camera takes a picture, analyzes it, makes a guess for the white balance, applies the corrections and then saves the image to card. Viewers do the same thing, they guess, and then correct, that's why they are all different. Nikon saves the white balance settings in the NEF file, but not all programs may be able to read it. In your case the setting was probably wrong, so if the maker of a viewer put time in to figuring out how they store the settings in the NEF file, that viewer will give a yellow image like your jpg. \$\endgroup\$
    – Orbit
    Commented Apr 15, 2019 at 20:06
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The answer is probably simple. Either your computer monitor is uncalibrated or your camera screen is.

Here is a really old tutorial I made on how you can manually calibrate your monitor:

But several things can come into play, for example:

  • Are other images taken with different lenses ok?

  • Is the lens new? Is it clean?

  • Are the working conditions of the camera normal? (Not overheated for example)

  • Did you change your camera settings, did you perform a white balance test on your scene? Color issue: studio images have a pink hue

  • What are the values of the RGB file?

  • Does your "other image viewer" support color profiles?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ So the NEF file looks fine when I use windows photo viewer on the same monitor its the JPEG that the camera has converted that looks yellow. If i view the NEF on different software it looks yellow also. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jaymin Patel
    Commented Mar 28, 2019 at 17:27

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