What free Windows software is effective for converting the DNG raw files to jpg??

[Gorlash]

I have a new Mavic 2 Pro, which is already disrupting my life because I don't want to do anything but fly around and take pictures !!

However, I've noticed an anomaly with the jpg images... images which have flowers in them, have a halo around all the blossoms; so everything in each image is razor sharp - except for the blossoms, which seem to all have this fuzzy halo around them (see the attached image, cropped from the full image).

So I switched it to shoot JPG + RAW, and tried converting the RAW images to JPG myself. I have always used Faststone Image Viewer for this task, which has been an excellent program in the past... but for *these* images, it is performing very badly - frankly, the resulting conversions from DNG are much less sharp than the jpg images...

So I guess I have multiple questions:
> can I change settings of some sort, to solve the blossom-halo problem??
> is there other (free, Windows) software that might do a better job of handling the DNG images?

I don't have any expectation of ever making money with this drone, I just got it for exploring and personal enjoyment, so I really don't want to spend alot on software if I don't need to.

 

[slup]

> can I change settings of some sort, to solve the blossom-halo problem??

The major reason for the halo is that the image is over exposed when it comes to the blossom ... the auto exposure (which I suppose you used for that pic) are averaging the whole motif, resulting going to much to the darker green tones. Go either manual exposure or go slightly negative on EV.

> is there other (free, Windows) software that might do a better job of handling the DNG images?

Sorry not a clue, I'm only using either Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop ... either is far from free.

- frankly, the resulting conversions from DNG are much less sharp than the jpg images...

Not at least surprised regarding that ... your in camera jpeg conversion always use some degree of sharpening. RAW on the other hand is always pure pixels directly from the sensor, completely without any sort of saturation, contrast, sharpening & white balance adjustments. If you think your present converter enhanced other RAW's during conversion it's depending on that settings used better applied to those other RAW's & suited better the finished jpeg. Other development settings in Faststone Image Viewer can possibly better suit your M2P DNG files.

 

[xspwhite]

I have a new Mavic 2 Pro, which is already disrupting my life because I don't want to do anything but fly around and take pictures !!

However, I've noticed an anomaly with the jpg images... images which have flowers in them, have a halo around all the blossoms; so everything in each image is razor sharp - except for the blossoms, which seem to all have this fuzzy halo around them (see the attached image, cropped from the full image).View attachment 92151

So I switched it to shoot JPG + RAW, and tried converting the RAW images to JPG myself. I have always used Faststone Image Viewer for this task, which has been an excellent program in the past... but for *these* images, it is performing very badly - frankly, the resulting conversions from DNG are much less sharp than the jpg images...

So I guess I have multiple questions:
> can I change settings of some sort, to solve the blossom-halo problem??
> is there other (free, Windows) software that might do a better job of handling the DNG images?

I don't have any expectation of ever making money with this drone, I just got it for exploring and personal enjoyment, so I really don't want to spend alot on software if I don't need to.

For working with photos use GIMP and DARKTABLE. Both are free and are excellent photo editors. You can open up raw files with Darktable and move them right into Gimp and turn them into what of type of photo you want like jpeg, exc.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

If you only want a program to convert DNG to JPEG, then Paint will do that.
None of the fancy stuff of the paid parogrames / apps, but this is a simple conversion.

 

[Evnbehr]

Another great option is using a free App called Snapseed which is available on Android or Apple. It's a great alternative with lots of RAW file editing tools. Check out several videos on YouTube about it.

 

[Gorlash]

The major reason for the halo is that the image is over exposed when it comes to the blossom ... the auto exposure (which I suppose you used for that pic) are averaging the whole motif, resulting going to much to the darker green tones. Go either manual exposure or go slightly negative on EV.

Ahhhh... very interesting... and yes, I'm still shooting on full-auto, it's only my third day with the machine!!
However, I understand your concepts, and will try again with adjusted EV, that's easy enough to do...

Frankly, if I can resolve this halo problem, I will otherwise be quite content with the jpeg images; frankly, they are almost as good as the images from my long-zoom hiking camera, which also has a 1" sensor, but of course, a much more sophisticated lens...
Thank ye for your comments!

 

[Gorlash]

For working with photos use GIMP and DARKTABLE. Both are free and are excellent photo editors. You can open up raw files with Darktable and move them right into Gimp and turn them into what of type of photo you want like jpeg, exc.

Thank you for reminding me about GIMP !! I haven't used it in awhile. DARKTABLE is new for me, I'll check it out too, though I actually have the impression that the RAW images themselves are not that sharp...

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

Home

rawtherapee.com

 

[xspwhite]

Thank you for reminding me about GIMP !! I haven't used it in awhile. DARKTABLE is new for me, I'll check it out too, though I actually have the impression that the RAW images themselves are not that sharp...

Darktable acts as Lightroom where Gimp is like Photoshop. I heard that that latest stable version of Gimp 210 is pretty good.

 

[Gorlash]

Okay, I've looked at the raw images with FIV, RawTherapee, and Raw Image Viewer... in all cases, after converting to PNG, the images are *far* inferior to the associated jpeg image that was generated by the camera. Very strange...

ITM, I shot a couple more images in the back yard, playing around with EV settings. Though the conditions were very different (too late in the day to have full sun on the bush), it *does* appear that reducing EV reduces the bloom on the images... I'll run some more experiments on our next sunny day.

ITM, I'll just turn off the RAW mode... unlike with my hiking cameras, the RAW images are *not* obviously of great value...

 

[xspwhite]

Okay, I've looked at the raw images with FIV, RawTherapee, and Raw Image Viewer... in all cases, after converting to PNG, the images are *far* inferior to the associated jpeg image that was generated by the camera. Very strange...

ITM, I shot a couple more images in the back yard, playing around with EV settings. Though the conditions were very different (too late in the day to have full sun on the bush), it *does* appear that reducing EV reduces the bloom on the images... I'll run some more experiments on our next sunny day.

ITM, I'll just turn off the RAW mode... unlike with my hiking cameras, the RAW images are *not* obviously of great value...

 

[Thomas B]

I have a new Mavic 2 Pro, which is already disrupting my life because I don't want to do anything but fly around and take pictures !!

However, I've noticed an anomaly with the jpg images... images which have flowers in them, have a halo around all the blossoms; so everything in each image is razor sharp - except for the blossoms, which seem to all have this fuzzy halo around them (see the attached image, cropped from the full image).View attachment 92151

So I switched it to shoot JPG + RAW, and tried converting the RAW images to JPG myself. I have always used Faststone Image Viewer for this task, which has been an excellent program in the past... but for *these* images, it is performing very badly - frankly, the resulting conversions from DNG are much less sharp than the jpg images...

So I guess I have multiple questions:
> can I change settings of some sort, to solve the blossom-halo problem??
> is there other (free, Windows) software that might do a better job of handling the DNG images?

I don't have any expectation of ever making money with this drone, I just got it for exploring and personal enjoyment, so I really don't want to spend alot on software if I don't need to.

Are you shooting in manual mode? If not that could allow settings to avoid overexposing the white in your pics.

 

[Dave Maine]

As posted before, DJI’s “raw” images are not what we normally consider raw. They are tiffs wrapped in a dng wrapper. Any program that is attempting to debayer raw sensor data will make hash of a tiff image I suspect. This may be the root cause of what you are seeing.

Look at a histogram display to make sure that the highlights are not clipped. Clipped highlights have no detail and are pure white, looking a little like halos. Properly exposed images should have no clipped whites or blacks. There is no way to recover clipping once it happens.

 

[lensimages]

Adobe DNG converter free from Adobe

 

[Gorlash]

Look at a histogram display to make sure that the highlights are not clipped. Clipped highlights have no detail and are pure white, looking a little like halos. Properly exposed images should have no clipped whites or blacks. There is no way to recover clipping once it happens.

Thank you !!! I completely forgot about histograms; I always have them enabled on my hiking cameras, for just this reason. I'll turn them on for the drone as well...

 

[Gorlash]

Adobe DNG converter free from Adobe

Adobe DNG Converter only converts TO DNG format... that's exactly the opposite of what I need.

 

[Gorlash]

Anyway, to summarize this thread:

1. The DNG RAW format is actually *poorer* quality than the JPG images that the drone is producing, as far as I can tell, after using several different programs to convert the DNG -> PNG. So at this point, I will just forget about this option. I've been spoiled by the hiking cameras that I have used (Lumix, Sony), where the RAW images were pure reference images which the JPG were generated from.

2. ITM, this thread offered several very useful suggestions on how I can attempt to resolve the 'halo around blossoms' problem that I originally was dealing with on the JPG images. I will apply these suggestions in further research with my drone.

Thank you all for your excellent suggestions and insights !!!

 

[slup]

Anyway, to summarize this thread:

1. The DNG RAW format is actually *poorer* quality than the JPG images that the drone is producing, as far as I can tell, after using several different programs to convert the DNG -> PNG.

Maybe I'm wrong here but I have already from the beginning in this thread been a bit puzzled when I read your different statement like that in the quote above ... I suspect that you misunderstand the use & benefit of a RAW image, but again I can be wrong.

It looks like you are searching for a "quick & dirty" raw workflow where you just take the DNG file through a converter without any picture specific adjustments & out comes a pic of higher quality then the in camera converted jpeg.

I mean ... the whole purpose with raw is to give you the possibility to make exposure changes after the picture is taken & ad on other enhancements ... all without degrading the pixel quality in the process. This is the great strength with raw ... editing doesn't degrade it as the same editing should do if you started from a jpeg. But a raw always need adjustments ... from start they all are more flat & uninteresting ... totally missing any kind of "pop".

When converting (or develop actually) a raw, that converter, if it's anything worth to spend time on ... should give you a lot of adjustment tools which sole purpose is to give you the possibility to enhance the picture to a greater quality then a jpeg standard processed in camera according to some Chinese engineers liking. Every raw development will for sure require completely different settings in the converter depending on light conditions, motif, what you like & how correct the exposure settings in the camera was when you took the picture ... once all adjustments are made in the raw development step you decide the output type depending on use ... going jpeg for small size & easy use but not so much further enhancement possibility without degrading ... or tif or something else.

If a converter don't give you this ability to enhance, the converter just change the file type with again settings according to another Chinese/Japanese engineer.

Why do you think you have so many sliders in Adobe Lightroom for instance ...

 

[Gorlash]

Hi @slup ;
Thanks for your comments; and I agree that my previous post likely reflects ignorance on my part, rather than issues with the RAW format.

When I spoke of 'poorer image quality', I was referring to *one* specific element - the fact that the elements in the raw image are very blurry (even after conversion to a lossless format such as PNG), whereas the jpeg images are quite sharp (except for my original posting issue). I tried doing some focus adjustment with various programs (FSIV, RawTherapee, and one other), and was unable to find any setting that restored the sharpness that the jpg image has.

I'm comparing these RAW images with the only other experience that I've had with RAW format, which was the images that I obtained in the past from my various Lumix long-zoom cameras (G5 and FZ1000 in particular). I sometimes would fall back to the RAW images, typically when I shot long-zoom shots in low light the jpeg output would sometimes be over-compressed, and I could generate new images from the RAW format - but I *never* had to tweak sharpness with those images, they were always perfectly in focus. I don't quite know why the Hasselblad RAW images differ, but I'll admit that I probably could fix that if I knew the tools better.

The *core* issue, though, is the original question, regarding washed-out blossoms on various plants. After reading other responses here, I'm convinced that this is simply a matter of the colored elements being over-exposed, and I will be researching fixes to that issue in my future flights. ITM, that is something that the RAW image cannot fix for me; the clipped data has been lost. So at this point, I don't think the RAW format offers me any solutions.

 

[slup]

Yeah ... the first to do is to master the fundamentals within exposure & the tools available for that (for instance the histogram in the GO4 app )

But my comments regarding sharpness is that all digital picture sharpness basically is a local contrast enhancement ... so a "good" raw isn't sharp. That gives you most to work with without introduce artifacts in the process ... equal with all other enhancements like saturation, contrast, tonality & white balance. The raw is unaffected & virgin.... & uninteresting & blunt at a first glance.

Then when it comes to overexposure ... well, the raw converter can fix that to a degree as the dynamic range in the raw generally is much larger then in a jpeg. That's why it's possible to generate one HDR picture out from one raw which have been developed into 3 pics, each developed regarding the exposure setting in the converter to -1 step under exposure, 1 on 0 & lastly one overexposed by +1 step... and lastly put together to a high dynamic range picture.

Good luck, just snap away ... sooner or later you're on top of the technicalities