Poor quality RAW pictures

[Abfly]

It seems that my RAW pictures shot by MP2 are worse in quality compared to the JPG version. While the size is around 40Mb . Am I doing something wrong in the setup, or do I need special software to handle it ? The largest picture in RAW is in 960x640 p. while the JPG version goes to way more pixels......

 

[Paul2660]

What software are you using to view the raw files? They should be a .dng file extension. You need a software like Photoshop CC (which uses ACR) or Adobe DNG converter to convert the file to a true jpg or tif, or Adobe Lightroom, or Capture One, or Raw Therapy, or Irident Developer.

Output file should be around 5664 x 3640, different software will apply slight crop depending on lens selection.

Paul C

 

[THE CYBORG]

Darktable is a decent free open source program similar to Adobe lightroom.

Click THIS for details

 

[Abfly]

What software are you using to view the raw files? They should be a .dng file extension. You need a software like Photoshop CC (which uses ACR) or Adobe DNG converter to convert the file to a true jpg or tif, or Adobe Lightroom, or Capture One, or Raw Therapy, or Irident Developer.

Output file should be around 5664 x 3640, different software will apply slight crop depending on lens selection.

Paul C

Hi Paul,
I view the RAW on my HP Notebook with Microsoft Photo. Checking the properties of the picture always say the filesize is 960x640. The resolution is 96dpi horiz. and vertic. bit depth 24 b. So I think the drone is not producing the right quality.
Bert

 

[Andyc240]

I was going through my photos last night as I have recently got photoshop and I notice the difference when flicking through Microsoft photo but when I open the dng file in photoshop its definitely a lot better looking and the sizing of the picture is different as well

 

[Keule]

Hi Paul,
I view the RAW on my HP Notebook with Microsoft Photo. Checking the properties of the picture always say the filesize is 960x640. The resolution is 96dpi horiz. and vertic. bit depth 24 b. So I think the drone is not producing the right quality.
Bert

The drone is producing the correct quality.

With Microsoft Photo you are only looking at the low res. embedded preview image.
Use Ligthroom, Darktable, Photoshop, PhaseOne or similar to work and edit RAW images

 

[Paul2660]

As the others have stated, the software you are using is only seeing the embedded jpg. All raws have one so you can view the file on the camera LCD, or in this case through DJIGO4 on your tablet, or phone, SC, etc.

Download Raw Therapee it's free, and you should be able to see the true raws. Note the spelling.

Or sign up for Adobe monthly, photo plan, 9.99 per month for new users, allows use of Photoshop and Lightroom,

Or download Capture One (by Phaseone.com) you get 30 days free trial, full license is around 299.00, but will be on sale soon.

Also look at the files in windows explorer, the full sized dng should be around 41mb in total size. If yours are that size, nothing wrong with drone, just need to get the correct software to view raws.

Paul C

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Also, once you do get the proper RAW bits into an editor, you may need to process it for it to have the vivid color / contrast / etc. that you see in the JPG. That's what RAW is all about -- not actually doing all the final processing, giving you the chance to make tweaks to the settings on an image by image basis.

I say "may need" because some apps can now apply a default, camera specific settings to the RAW file when you load it (giving it a similar look to your default JPG). Or you can set it up that way (search for Lightroom Camera Specific Presets). That way, the RAW file will look good when you first load it into the app, but you still have the ability to adjust settings before exporting to the publishing format (JPG, PNG, etc.).

Chris

 

[Johnmcl7]

I agree with the replies above, you're seeing the properties of the embedded jpg within the raw file which is there to make it easier for software to preview the raw image. The raw file itself is an unprocessed digital negative keeping as much data as possible for you to process the photo as you wish later on whereas a jpeg is a result of processing the image at the time and while convenient, a lot of data is lost in the process.

Processing the raw file means loading it into suitable software, changing the parameters to suit the image then exporting to a jpeg or similar. It can be a bit daunting to get started with but it means you can maximise the image quality from the Mavic 2 Pro's larger sensor. In particular it's possible to push the dynamic range recovering detail in bright and dark areas, for example the photo below is a single raw image (rather than multiple images stacked together) with the lower shadow detail recovered: