I’d like to compare Canon t2i jpg to raw on the screen of the camera. It looks about the same. Is every setting applied the same way before it is displayed? Of course it is permanently applied to jpg, and non-destructive to raw. Do they look exactly the same? Besides Lightroom and Photoshop how can I display the raw images with a PC applying those jpg settings quickly?
3 Answers
Checking the CR2 on the camera
Even if you have two files, you have taken one picture, so why would the camera display them differently? In practice, the CR2 file contains two JPEGs that can be extracted using exiftool
:
exiftool -b -ThumbnailImage IMG_9999.CR2 > IMG_9999-Thumbnail.jpg
exiftool -b -PreviewImage IMG_9999.CR2 > IMG_9999-Preview.jpg
- the thumbnail is a smallish 160x120px image for the gallery display
- the preview is a full size image, at JPEG quality 80 (compare with the separate JPG which is saved at quality 98), which is very likely the one used when you check the image on the rear screen.
Taking a picture from my collection (EOS 7OD) and comparing the separate JPEG and the preview one:
- there is very little difference between the two
- there is the same kind of difference between the separate JPEG and the extracted preview one than between the separate JPEG and this separate JPEG saved at quality 80
- there is even less difference between the preview and the separate JPEG saved at quality 80.
So you can safely assume that the same conversion settings have been applied and that what you see when you check the CR2 is what you see when you check the separate JPEG.
Checking the CR2 on the PC
Digital Photo Professional (aka DPP), the utility that comes with your camera (and can be obtained from the Canon site) is the only one I would trust to reapply the very same settings as a Canon camera to the CR2 files.
If you select a raw image to view on the back of your camera, you are viewing the embedded jpeg thumbnail in the raw file which has been processed by the camera. You can use a program called DCRAW to extract the embedded jpeg from your raw image file.
I’d like to compare Canon t2i jpg to raw on the screen of the camera. It looks about the same.
They look the same because they are the same. Raw files aren't viewable without processing. The image shown by the camera is a JPG generated from the raw data.
See What does an unprocessed RAW file look like?
How can I display the raw images with a PC applying those jpg settings quickly?
Shoot RAW+JPG and view the JPG. Some cameras can process raws in-camera.
Reprocessing the raws on computer to match the camera generated JPGs is more challenging because camera and computer software often don't perfectly match. Software from some manufacturers are better at matching the camera than others. If the results aren't close enough, you'll have to adjust settings until you're satisfied.