How do you convert your Mavic's .DNG photos to JPEG format?

[Brockrock]

I still use the old standalone version of Lightroom which I had a quick hunt for and seems you can't buy it any more only the subscription version. I initially chose Lightroom because it's extremely well supported with easy to find books and guides.

I often wonder about this new 'Subscription' based approach many of the media editing software companies are going with. I think there are a lot of folks like me who would never pay for a subscription, especially when I may not use the service for months at a time. Adobe had a good thing going with their standalone software - as you seem to know - and it built them an empire despite the certain level of piracy no doubt involved. Then they went and alienated themselves from folks like me who refuse to pay a subscription.

 

[Maviac]

I don’t use Affinity but have been meaning to check it out. Looks like all apps are half price right now. For $25 for the full version, might be worth a look, since that’s 2.5 months of Ps/Lr.

 

[jonpetersen]

I still use the old standalone version of Lightroom which I had a quick hunt for and seems you can't buy it any more only the subscription version. I initially chose Lightroom because it's extremely well supported with easy to find books and guides.

I've posted this shot quite a few times here but I think it's an easy example to show what's possible with raw, the top shot is the automatic processed shot and the lower one is with the shadow detail recovered:

This isn't from the drone but shows how much a difference WB makes, the first shot is the automatic WB and the second is it adjusted:

You can set the white balance in camera to get the same result but crucially you have to remember to change it each time and it can be difficult to get the white balance correct at times, in this case I simply chose a white spot on the image and it correctly adjusted it for me.

Very impressing and convincing examples!

 

[Johnmcl7]

I often wonder about this new 'Subscription' based approach many of the media editing software companies are going with. I think there are a lot of folks like me who would never pay for a subscription, especially when I may not use the service for months at a time. Adobe had a good thing going with their standalone software - as you seem to know - and it built them an empire despite the certain level of piracy no doubt involved. Then they went and alienated themselves from folks like me who refuse to pay a subscription.

Unfortunately people like you and I don't make money and people who pay subscriptions do, I'd hoped Adobe would change tact and go back to offering standalone versions but apparently Adobe are raking it in with the subscription model. I can certainly see for some commercial uses the subscription model can make sense to temporarily pay for more expensive packages but it makes no sense to me as a personal user, I previously paid around £60 every three or so years when I had a new camera that was unsupported but now it would be around 360 pounds but with nothing better. It's frustrating as there's newer cameras I've been considering but decided against because I'm not paying a subscription fee nor wanting to have to convert all my files.

Short version, I can't recommend Lightroom

 

[JAW]

I use Irfanview. Quick, effective, and free. Also has a 64-bit version.

 

[Dale D]

G'day everyone,

Can anybody recommend a program to convert .DNG photos from Mavic 2 Pro to .JPG for upload to Shutterstock?

I've googled it, but it comes up with many converting online options, which I wouldn't really like to use as I'll be sending my images away with no control of what happens with them later, and a number of codecs to download. The downloadable codec looks like a good option, but I'm not sure which ones are the genuine pieces of software not loaded with trojans, spyware, etc.

P.S. I do not have any expensive photo/video editors like Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, etc. so using one of those programs is not an option.

Cheers

Have you tried IRFANVIEW? It is only for PC, not MAC. I hd a PC for many years and loved Irfan view for reducing the RAW (DGG) filters to other formats such as HPG.. Here is the link. It used to be free. Not sure about that. If yo have, Google it.

 

[LazerMan]

From the first glance, Rawtherapee looks like exactly what I need at this stage. I'll read more about them and hope it'll get me sorted.
Thanks for your advice!

If you can shoot both at the same time why bother with a converter?

 

[Palmary]

I use Affinity Photo on my iPad. It is very intuitive to use once you get used to it, and I see now that it's $9.99 on the App Store. That's half what I paid. Highly recommended.

Affinity Photo allows you to open and edit your RAW images as you would like, and then they can be 'Developed' into whatever image format you would like, including JPEG.

Affinity – Professional Creative Software

Thanks for your advice. I'll take a closer look at it.

 

[Palmary]

I still use the old standalone version of Lightroom which I had a quick hunt for and seems you can't buy it any more only the subscription version. I initially chose Lightroom because it's extremely well supported with easy to find books and guides.

I've posted this shot quite a few times here but I think it's an easy example to show what's possible with raw, the top shot is the automatic processed shot and the lower one is with the shadow detail recovered:

This isn't from the drone but shows how much a difference WB makes, the first shot is the automatic WB and the second is it adjusted:

You can set the white balance in camera to get the same result but crucially you have to remember to change it each time and it can be difficult to get the white balance correct at times, in this case I simply chose a white spot on the image and it correctly adjusted it for me.

Wow, the difference is truly impressive. "A picture is worth a thousand words," they say

 

[Palmary]

Have you tried IRFANVIEW? It is only for PC, not MAC. I hd a PC for many years and loved Irfan view for reducing the RAW (DGG) filters to other formats such as HPG.. Here is the link. It used to be free. Not sure about that. If yo have, Google it.View attachment 98088View attachment 98088

Thanks for your recommendation, but I predominantly use MAC, so unfortunately it wouldn't work for me :-(

 

[Palmary]

If you can shoot both at the same time why bother with a converter?

It's because I've just realised that I can shoot both

 

[Palmary]

Hi, if you use (only) JPG, make sure the settings in the GO app are correct. IMH "1/0/0" works fine.

I do use Luminar 4 for processing DNG; very good tool, but not free. Approx 80USD. Results are far better than the JPG's as produced by the Mavic. See The world's biggest drone photo and video sharing platform | SkyPixel.com for some examples

Jon,
One more question about Luminar 4. Does the "stand-alone" version of it allow to work with HDR or one must purchase the Luminar 4 + Aurora HDR bundle?
Cheers

 

[jonpetersen]

Jon,
One more question about Luminar 4. Does the "stand-alone" version of it allow to work with HDR or one must purchase the Luminar 4 + Aurora HDR bundle?
Cheers

Hi, sorry, I don't know. Never used Luminar with HDR photo's.

Edited:

in Luminar (and Adobe tools of course also), you can tweak the contrast for highlights and shadows independently. Starting with a RAW (DNG) image and tweaking the contrast is, although not the same as real HDR processing, for me sufficient to process difficult light conditions. (But I'm not a pro..).

 

[Hegemone]

I use the Adobe photography plan +1tb cloud storage. Considering what's included it's a good deal. 9 pieces of continually updated software for use on desktop, mobile, web including Photoshop mobile and ipad? I know not everyone appreciates the software-as-service model and I was a slow convert but the recent shift in attention to updates (frequent valuable updates) adding new AI features made me a convert.

I shoot 5 pic aeb brackets and 2 click stacking and hdr conversion is, by itself, worth it to me. And the cloud backup makes my current library available everywhere. I have tried everything from Luminar to Gimp and Irfan and always end up back at Adobe. Adobe also isn't associated with any hardware manufacturers so they it plain works with a lot of equipment and file format.

I get your arguments and don't really want to hash it out again with the buy a CD folks, but it's the best solution for me and if I didn't have the whole suite at work I would get it at home for premier. Call me a fanboy or whatever else but it is a good ecosystem and industry standard products. You do you.

 

[Johnmcl7]

If the cloud storage is useful or your demands frequently change (one of the key components of a cloud model) to you then I can see the pricing isn't so bad but everything else you've mentioned is not a benefit of a subscription model, it was all possible with the previous standalone model. If you look at the Lightroom release dates you'll notice it was irregular as they brought out new versions when they had new features but took longer when there wasn't anything to add. I've seen people compare the Adobe subscription to Spotify or Netflix but with those you're getting access to a vast amount of data which would cost a large amount to purchase just the content you use so it does work out cheaper. It's cost me £350 over the last ten years to have every version of Lightroom compared to £1200 on the cheapest subscription.

Perhaps the most crucial point though is there is no choice since Adobe removed the option of a standalone version, it's great their current solution works for you but I doubt you'd be still singing their praises if they removed all the options that work for you and charged you a massive premium for a package that doesn't do anything more for you. Especially as you're now tied to Adobe so the moment you stop paying you're going to lose access to all your editing and histories whereas regardless of whether I pay a penny more to Adobe or not I keep all the features I have right now. Aside from the cost that's another major disadvantage of the subscription model which is why I wouldn't use it.