I'm coming to grips with the wonderful Convert utility but I think I'm doing something wrong.
I'm converting a batch of Nikon RAW images (.NEF) to .JPG, resizing to 1500 pxl wide. If I view the .NEF image and perform File | Convert Image, I get a perfect reduced sized copy. But if I select, say 30 images, in the lister and perform Tools | Convert Images | Convert, and use exactly the same parameters, I get 1500 pxl wide images but they are all dark.
The screenshot below demonstrates the issue: left - right: the original NEF, a batch converted JPG, and a singly converted JPG. Is there another parameter I'm missing?
Under Preferences / Viewer / Plugins, configure the Raw Digital Camera plugin and you'll see it has separate settings for the viewer and the image converter (tabs at the top):
By default, the image converter does a full, slow decode of the raw image while the viewer uses the embedded JPEG preview inside the image so it can display something much faster.
If you run the image converter on a set of files directly, it will respect the settings on the "Raw Image Converter" tab. However, if you open a file in the viewer and then use File > Convert Image from there, the conversion is done by feeding in the bitmap currently in the viewer (since it may have been cropped or edited in other ways, and also since it's only the special case of Raw images where it might make a difference).
(n.b. You can change this by editing the Convert Image menu item and removing @useimagedata. It will then act on the file itself, the same as running a conversion from the lister, and not use the bitmap currently in the viewer.)
So in one case you're converting the JPEG preview and in the other you're converting the actual raw image.
If the full raw decode doesn't look right, you might need to adjust the settings in the plugin, e.g. to change the white balance or add a color profile.
There is also the option of setting the "Raw Image Converter" tab to use the JPEG preview image instead of doing a full decode, if you want it to match what the viewer shows. That will probably be the camera's idea of what the photo it took should look like as a JPEG; what you'd probably get if the camera was set to shoot JPEG rather than raw.
Thank you, currently in the bush so have limited internet - thanks for your comprehensive reply: I'll save it to my laptop to fully digest this afternoon.
