Tips for processing G10 pics with Canon DPP

[drcolyn]

Hi All from sunny soccer crazy South Africa.
When I bought my Canon G10 there was a post on this site of the most amazing yellow blenny bmp image.(see attached photo). Try as I might I could not find the post but I really hope the owner spots this thread and gives me some pointers as the quality of his 1,8meg bmp file is way better than the best of my 6meg jpg pics. I attached an example of an anenomie. It seems my pics are a lot more grainy and I want to make sure that the problem is not with the conversion from raw to jpg.
I always use 60 000 dpi and Image quality 10. I am now at the stage where just having a decently lit,white balanced and in focus subject is a minimum requirement and not an option. The picture in question was shot with a Z240 on STTL, ISO 100, 1/100th and F2.8.

 

[AAdiver69]

Good question. Hope someone can help with this.

 

[HerraduraDivers]

Difficoult to guess why because there are too much variables,
but i guess that you make some mistake while processing.
When the .RAW picture looks good and only the .JPG not, the error must be there.
If the RAW file is grainy as well, there must be something wrong with the settings of your camera.

When you reduce the size of photos they may get pixled, try to reduce them with bicubic setting to the desired size and convert them only when you finished editing to .JPG
I have no idea how Canon DDP works, you may tray a try-out version of Adobe Lightroom or the free GIMP software if GIMP can process Canon RAW files.

Chris

 

[drcolyn]

Hi Chris - thanks for the advise. To answer your question - not the raw or jpeg image format gives the same kind of detail as the yellow blenny pic - notice the shiny texture of the fins? - no grainy effect. If I take the perfect picture - is there any important processing settings in Canon DPP that may be the cause of the problem? What other picture package options do I have to convert the raw files to something useable like jpeg. Below are my camera settings - is there any setting that will cause noise? Shooting Mode Manual
Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/100
Av (Aperture Value) 5.6
Light Metering Spot
ISO Speed 100
Lens 6.1 - 30.5mm
Focal Length 6.1mm
Digital Zoom None
IS Mode Shoot Only
Image Size 2885x2414
Image Quality Fine
Flash On
Shutter curtain sync 1st-curtain
Red-eye On
White Balance Underwater
AF Mode Single AF
AF Range Mode Macro
Parameters
Contrast Normal
Sharpness Normal
Saturation Normal
Color Space sRGB
File Size 6543KB
Strobe – Inon Z240 on STTL mode
Sure wish that yellow blennies owner will let me know his secret Regards

 

[Puffer Fish]

I know that image well, as it is mine.

First off, thanks for the data, that makes it a lot easier.

So, the concept is the same for a lot of camera's... I shot this with S90 last week, in about 10 ft of vis:

And this is with a G10..

First off, only shoot in raw...and raw only. Don't like the cannon software (make sure you have the latest version), then the new Paint shop Pro is affordable and does raw now.

If you have a strobe... use ISO 80. Not much difference, but it is slightly better.

More to follow...don't like making too big of a post, because it is easy to loose everything.

 

[Puffer Fish]

Next (the following are directions for using the Cannon software)... shoot a white card where you are diving. It could be just a small slate, in one corner of an image. If you dive different places, make sure you shoot one in each dive... if you dive the same area a lot, once or twice will do.

This allows you to color balance with the eye dropper function, then look at how the image was changed and apply that to all the images in a set.

 

[Puffer Fish]

My strobes are warmer colored light than the built in strobe is, so I adjust in the software for that.

But some images are part strobe and part natural light, so you may have to adjust each image a bit differently....

If you shoot general macro.. and do not need the absolute closest focus... zoom out to around half the zoom range. Then get as close as you can... but try to have enough space to allow for the correct angle for the strobe. I zoom in and out a bit for framing.

 

[drcolyn]

Hi Puffer Fish - I finally managed to track down your blenny on google images when you replied. Must confess - Im still scratching my head to to figure out if we have the same model camera - those pics are STUNNING but alass - let not the artisan blame his tools! 1. I shoot in Raw mode only. 2. Are you saying that the yellow blenny was not "developed" (converted from raw) in Canon DPP but another picture package? 3. I have an Inon z240 strobe yes - so I set the G10 to ISO 80? - all reviews of the G10 mentioned noticable noise from ISO200 upwards and I never tested it myself. 4. I'l do the color balance thing this weekend but will it help to get that shiny smooth high resolution low noise effect? Just got GIMP 2.6 this week but hope to keep the editing to remove minor backscatter problems only. Thanks a lot for the tips so far - if Canon use you to demo their compacts they won't sell DSLR's anymore.

 

[Puffer Fish]

So, you have an image in raw... reasonable exposure... sharp... in focus, and now want to make a final image.

Here is an example of one, before it got made smaller for posting:

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/data/500/flyg1000.JPG

If I post it, it would cause a major page jam.

At this point, a couple rules:

1. If you can adjust it in raw, do so. It will damage the image the least.

2. Water makes things blurry, so you will need to do your best to correct for this.

3. The camera works best, with an F stop of abour F5, but motion blur is more important that depth of field for the most part with a small sensor camera.

 

[Puffer Fish]

Hi Puffer Fish - I finally managed to track down your blenny on google images when you replied. Must confess - Im still scratching my head to to figure out if we have the same model camera - those pics are STUNNING but alass - let not the artisan blame his tools! 1. I shoot in Raw mode only. 2. Are you saying that the yellow blenny was not "developed" (converted from raw) in Canon DPP but another picture package? 3. I have an Inon z240 strobe yes - so I set the G10 to ISO 80? - all reviews of the G10 mentioned noticable noise from ISO200 upwards and I never tested it myself. 4. I'l do the color balance thing this weekend but will it help to get that shiny smooth high resolution low noise effect? Just got GIMP 2.6 this week but hope to keep the editing to remove minor backscatter problems only. Thanks a lot for the tips so far - if Canon use you to demo their compacts they won't sell DSLR's anymore.

Well thanks... the canon software works pretty good, and most of the time I use it. Every so often I want to tilt an image a small amount or some other issue and then use PSP for that.

Will get to the resolution and crisp issue in a moment.