Issue with M2P Raw DNG File

[SDTrojan]

Hello,

Just got my Mavic 2 pro a few weeks ago, so just learning the ropes.
I'm used to editing all my real camera pictures in Adobe Lightroom in RAW and tweaking them to my taste.
When I imported some images I took last week of my buddy rock climbing at dawn, I noticed there were some strange artifacts in the bright area of the image, near the sun.
Of course, the sun was blown out, and I'm okay with that.
What bothered me is that even in the raw, before ANY edits whatsoever, there are some strange orange gradient blobs right under the sun that look as if some sort of highlight recovery was attempted. This is before touching any sliders in Lightroom, which is why it bothered me.
I shot RAW + JPEG and the JPEG image straight out of camera does not exhibit this.

I've attached both the JPEG and the output of the unedited RAW, as well as crops of the sun, and the area of the unedited RAW circled where I'm seeing false color.
As you can see, there's awful orange gradient blob right under the sun that looks very unnatural.
If you've ever tried to slide the highlights or whites all the way down in Lightroom to try to recover a blown out area in the picture - that's what it looks like. BAD.

Any idea of what could be going on?

Someone suggested it could be flare from the lens filter, but it doesn't explain why the JPEG image looks fine and flare does not cause false color like that, nor does it cause Lightroom to attempt to recover highlight detail.

 

[Paul2660]

What color profile did you pick in LR/ACR, neither has a correct default color profile for the M2 Pro, you only get the stock Adobe ones, and the Modern series.

Not sure what is going on with the sun in the raw, but a blown highlight can do a lot of strange things. I always shoot in AEB mode especially into the sun as that shot was taken, or you could dial down the aperture to get the exposure down, as the change in DOF will be nominal.

The M2 Pro is very limited in DR, has almost no shadow recovery, maybe .5 stop and a bit more highlight recover, however the straight into the sun should be bracketed.

If the jpg doesn't show it could be a lot of things, but no doubt DJI is doing some processing to the files, as the lens distortion (just aim up) is not present in the jgps, but is in the DNG, (LR corrected it automatically so you won't see it as it's reading the exif info from the raw, as it does will all mirrorless cameras.

Paul C

 

[SDTrojan]

What color profile did you pick in LR/ACR, neither has a correct default color profile for the M2 Pro, you only get the stock Adobe ones, and the Modern series.

Not sure what is going on with the sun in the raw, but a blown highlight can do a lot of strange things. I always shoot in AEB mode especially into the sun as that shot was taken, or you could dial down the aperture to get the exposure down, as the change in DOF will be nominal.

The M2 Pro is very limited in DR, has almost no shadow recovery, maybe .5 stop and a bit more highlight recover, however the straight into the sun should be bracketed.

If the jpg doesn't show it could be a lot of things, but no doubt DJI is doing some processing to the files, as the lens distortion (just aim up) is not present in the jgps, but is in the DNG, (LR corrected it automatically so you won't see it as it's reading the exif info from the raw, as it does will all mirrorless cameras.

Paul C

Paul, this is the most informative and helpful answer I've received so far from multiple forums as most people replied "I don't see anything wrong with the image".
Huge thanks for that.

I used the default Adobe LR profile. I played with the calibration tab also which lets you select version 1-5 in terms of "process". Versions 1 and 2 do not show the strange orange artifacts below the sun. But switching to version 1 or 2 also changes the basic develop panel, with different sliders.

I'm thinking it may just be that Lightroom's interpretation of the RAW DNG image from the Mavic 2 is not good. The JPEG from the Mavic itself is fine, which would make sense because that's DJI's/Hasselblad's internal processing of the RAW with intimate knowledge of the camera characteristics. It worries me because in general in my photography I enjoy having the sun in the frame, so I worry that all my dawn/sunset RAW images will have these ugly color artifacts.

Since I haven't owned the drone for long, I'm not sure what AEB mode is. I'll have to read about it in the manual.
For the photo I had it in aperture priority, set to ISO100, f4, as I had read that f2.8-f4 are the sharpest apertures before diffraction sets in.
I was okay with the sun being blown out because I like the aesthetic normally in my dawn shots - it yiels a hazy glow in part of the image.

I didn't expect much dynamic range or being able to pull details out, certainly not on par with my Sony full frame, I just wanted to have control of the colors and being able to have a more true to life image. I found the out of camera JPEG had the shadows lifted too unrealistically, making for more of an HDR look.

I think I'll have to play with more shots at dawn and dusk and perhaps try a different raw processing program, which would be a pain in the behind as I'm very used to Lightroom/Photoshop.

 

[Paul2660]

Sorry, I should been more straight forward, AEB, is Expoure Bracketing. On the M2 Pro under the photo settings, you can pick either 3 or 5 shot, however you can't control the range, so the max a bracket will be is -1.34 to +1.34 in range. DJI only allow .7 per bracket and won't go up to 1.0. I have asked them multiple time to up date this is the firmware but it falls on deaf ears. DJI, really has very little knowledge of what is really needed for stills, but they do have a very good grasp for video.

I always use the AEB even in good daylight, as the files are small. LR will do a good job on a HDR bracket, just creates a exposure bracketed image, without all the HDR over worked look. Only problem with a sunset, is you will need 10 frames to really get the sun and still have some details in the shadows and still not blow out the sun due to the limitation on bracketing range. Drone odds are will slightly move (yaw) between shots, but this can be quickly fixed with a "align layers in CC"

I keep hoping that Adobe will eventually workup some dedicated profiles for DJI as they do for other cameras, "camera standard, Landscape etc.), but for now you are limited.

I only use Capture One for my DNG conversions, prefer the colors, less noise that LR (at least to my eyes), and better sharpening towards the edges, not to mention ability to use the full image LR/ACR crops your file.

More info in this post:

RAW file is cropped and different to remote controller

I think the main problem is, if you're using Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW (which I do), you lose the functionality of disabling or adjusting/tweaking the embedded camera profile like you can in almost every other RAW editor I've ever used. I use Lightroom because it's a fantastic database for...

mavicpilots.com

Paul C

 

[SDTrojan]

Sorry, I should been more straight forward, AEB, is Expoure Bracketing. On the M2 Pro under the photo settings, you can pick either 3 or 5 shot, however you can't control the range, so the max a bracket will be is -1.34 to +1.34 in range. DJI only allow .7 per bracket and won't go up to 1.0. I have asked them multiple time to up date this is the firmware but it falls on deaf ears. DJI, really has very little knowledge of what is really needed for stills, but they do have a very good grasp for video.

I always use the AEB even in good daylight, as the files are small. LR will do a good job on a HDR bracket, just creates a exposure bracketed image, without all the HDR over worked look. Only problem with a sunset, is you will need 10 frames to really get the sun and still have some details in the shadows and still not blow out the sun due to the limitation on bracketing range. Drone odds are will slightly move (yaw) between shots, but this can be quickly fixed with a "align layers in CC"

I keep hoping that Adobe will eventually workup some dedicated profiles for DJI as they do for other cameras, "camera standard, Landscape etc.), but for now you are limited.

I only use Capture One for my DNG conversions, prefer the colors, less noise that LR (at least to my eyes), and better sharpening towards the edges, not to mention ability to use the full image LR/ACR crops your file.

More info in this post:

RAW file is cropped and different to remote controller

I think the main problem is, if you're using Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW (which I do), you lose the functionality of disabling or adjusting/tweaking the embedded camera profile like you can in almost every other RAW editor I've ever used. I use Lightroom because it's a fantastic database for...

mavicpilots.com

Paul C

This is outstanding info, thank you so much again.

I've been mulling trying Capture One for a while as people on Sony forums have mentioned it works better for Sony RAW files as well.
Is the workflow much different from Lightroom?
Tempted to give it a try.

I'll also try the bracketing function next time and see how it goes. I've done the HDR in Lightroom many times with success, didn't know the drone had that function. So for ten shots of the sunset, you do a 5 shot bracket, then exposure compensate to -1 stop, and do another 5 shot bracket ?

 

[Paul2660]

Yes. I always use base ISO 100, as anything higher just pushes the noise envelope to far (sadly), and with noise comes loss of details. When shooting into the sun for a sunset, the drone can do a great job, but yes, I feel it needs at least 10 frames per section (I tend to shoot everything in a pano mode, either up or across) Sure wish DJI had figured out how to rotate the sensor to portrait mode, as it would be such a great asset for a pano.

C1 is free for 30 days, PRO is the version you need.

If you go there, PM me as there are some setting I prefer that may help out.

Paul C

 

[THE CYBORG]

Just looks like lens flare to me a normal occurrence shooting into the sun.

 

[SDTrojan]

Update: installed CaptureOne and imported the same raw image. The weird color gradient is gone.
It's Adobe and the way it reads the RAW file.
The bummer is I really don't want to learn another tool, as I'm already intimately familiar with Lightroom.

The CYBORG: there's absolutely lens flare in the image, quite a bit of it. That part doesn't concern me, I quite like it. It's just that odd orange under the sun that bugs me, it has too much detail for the raw file and a weird gradient, the JPEG doesn't show it and it looks unnatural.

 

[Citizen Flier]

I use Adobe Bridge -which I believe has mostly the same engine as LR. Be sure to process ALL files as 16bit -this can be made your default option. 16bit helps a lot w banding issues. Also, I have noticed that all digital capture has greater issues with sun flare than we did in ancient times with film cameras. As another poster pointed out, bracketing is an important tool for reducing flares etc. I would create an HDR file in post, rather than in camera which results in a JPG file. I typically expose most images for the highlights, then open the shads in post. Bracketing can help reduce noise. Do you know about removing noise by Image Stacking? You can remove noise, even PEOPLE in crowded locations. If you haven't tried this, just look for youtube tut's.

 

[Ralph thompson]

I doubt any of the issues relate to LR, as a pro user since inception (round 2006) I’ve never come across any issues yr describing. The jpgs are 8 bit compressed and loose a lot of detail which may explain the difference. I believe the M2P generates 10 or 12 bit colour depth DNG raw files and remember when u start tugging on the highlight and shadow sliders you may be generating artifacts. Both ends of the histogram will have RGB values but one channel maybe more blown out than the others, hence colour distortion in those recovered areas. You example is pretty challenging for any camera. This is why people spend $50k plus plus for 16 bit Phase 1 digital backs to get that extra bits of colour depth. But more down to earth, lens’ and in particular filters are notorious for colour distortion with anti reflective coatings creating all sought of flare, refraction and chromatic aberration (blue, purple, yellow on high contrast edges). One rule is never buy cheap resin filters.