I created a little program that loads our .NEF images into OpenCV Mat objects. I also tried to use the samples coming with the source for converting to tiff or ppm. All 3 gave the same results, that the image looks like its been normalized in some way.

The image can be seen at https://04o62a.dm1.livefilestore.com/y2p7TPrRkirmyRkqZWfcwKZCK0Htr9OwJMe...

The left is the photoshop opened nef. It looks like we would expect from how the wether was the day we was flying. But using libraw gives the image to right which looks like its been normalized?

We would like to be sure that the images look like when they was taken and can manipulate it in any way our self.