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Author Topic: Maintaining Resolution During RAW Conversion  (Read 4726 times)

Sojourns

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Maintaining Resolution During RAW Conversion
« on: April 27, 2016, 07:48:50 pm »

My apologies if this is redundant.  I've noticed that RAW Conversion, whether in Adobe DNG, Canon's Imagebrowser, or Digital Photo Processor results in converted images that are not as sharp as the RAW file.  RAW sharpening does not make up for the loss.  In fact, if I quickly process an image on my iPad in Snapseed it's often sharper than the same image converted on the PC.  Thoughts?  Advice? 
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Maintaining Resolution During RAW Conversion
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2016, 09:11:02 pm »

I am puzzled. What exactly do you call RAW Conversion? And what does it mean "not as sharp as the RAW file"? What are you comparing? You can not possibly see how sharp a RAW file is, as it is just a bunch of numbers.

As for iPad vs. desktop, the explanation is easier: Retina screen is about 3x sharper than a typical desktop monitor.

Sojourns

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Re: Maintaining Resolution During RAW Conversion
« Reply #2 on: April 28, 2016, 09:00:21 am »

G'day Slobodan.  Breezebrowser allows me to view my CR2 files, or it appears to, before I convert them into tiffs.  This is how I decide which images I want to invest my time in.  When I compare these to the tiffs converted in Digital Photo Processor, the tiffs appear to have lost some detail. 
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Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: Maintaining Resolution During RAW Conversion
« Reply #3 on: April 28, 2016, 09:06:31 am »

G'day Slobodan.  Breezebrowser allows me to view my CR2 files, or it appears to, before I convert them into tiffs.  This is how I decide which images I want to invest my time in.  When I compare these to the tiffs converted in Digital Photo Processor, the tiffs appear to have lost some detail.

Hi,

In that case, you are probably using different amounts of sharpening in the different programs.

Cheers,
Bart
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Maintaining Resolution During RAW Conversion
« Reply #4 on: April 28, 2016, 09:13:49 am »

I am not familiar with Breezebrowser, but any RAW converter, unless I am mistaken, only displays an on-the-fly created jpeg for display purposes. I too work with CR2 files and have never noticed a discrepancy you are talking about. If you can see it, you should be able to demonstrate it by creating screen grabs from each program.

kirkt

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Re: Maintaining Resolution During RAW Conversion
« Reply #5 on: April 28, 2016, 12:09:02 pm »

Also consider evaluating sharpness at 100% zoom, or full display resolution, regardless of which application you are using.  DPP has been known to downsample during preview in a way that appears to make the preview look "sharper" - it is the display of the preview, not the file itself. 

kirk
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Tim Lookingbill

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Re: Maintaining Resolution During RAW Conversion
« Reply #6 on: April 28, 2016, 06:24:56 pm »

And sharpening appearance has nothing to do with resolution. Thought I'ld mention that since no one else did.

I edit 6MP (3000x2000) Raw files in Adobe Camera Raw 6.7 viewed on a 1920x1080 27" LG LED display and I always get sharp images. Of course I'm aware of the improved preview sharpen appearance algorithm in ACR viewing my files at 25% zoom that looks slightly similar to viewing in Photoshop, but I still open in Photoshop to downsize to 700 pixels on the long end due to the softening of "Image Size..." Bicubic Smoother. For high frequency images with a lot of detail I'll turn on ACR's output sharpening set to Glossy Paper/High which helps compensate softening downsizing for the web in Photoshop.

This is just FYI for the OP to show there are numerous variables that affect sharpening appearance. Editing on an iPad is the last device I'ld use to to apply & judge sharpening.
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dwswager

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Re: Maintaining Resolution During RAW Conversion
« Reply #7 on: April 29, 2016, 11:23:37 am »

My apologies if this is redundant.  I've noticed that RAW Conversion, whether in Adobe DNG, Canon's Imagebrowser, or Digital Photo Processor results in converted images that are not as sharp as the RAW file.  RAW sharpening does not make up for the loss.  In fact, if I quickly process an image on my iPad in Snapseed it's often sharper than the same image converted on the PC.  Thoughts?  Advice?

1. Some programs will show sharpening in the preview while working the setting for conversion, but ONLY apply the sharpening in the preview and not the converted file.  ACR and Lightroom both have that option.

2. Each program may be adding a different amount of sharpening to the image as a default and even set to identical values, they may not represent the same amount of sharpening.  I suspect the iPad app is setup to sharpen specifically for display on the iPad!

3. As to resolution, each program may be set to a different resolution for opening the file.  For example, in Camera Raw I can set it to open at basically any resolution I want with the standard being the native resolution of the file.

4.  Contrast, sharpening, ect are really only visible at 100%.  You can get an idea at other evenly divisible multiples of 1:1 ratios, but it just isn't the same.
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