Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u

v2013.119    03/04/13

Priority: Low

v2013.119 includes a codebase update and adds Image Examiner to auto-instaview options.

Mike

Wow we have now had seven updates in seven days. I cannot remember this happening before.

Dennis,
It has been chilly here this past week. It barely made it to 72.
So he keeps busy indoors.
Fred

I am very impressed with the development of Qimage Utimate raw processing capabilities and other features.

I have been a user of Qimage as my printing software of choice since 2001 or 2002 I believe. When I got involved in shooting raw with my cameras in early 2004 Qimage was not involved in providing further development of raw file processing.
I have kept abreast of further developments and upgraded to Qimage Studio and eventually to Qimage Ultimate.
I presently use the following for my processing of raw files. Lightroom 4.x is presently used as my first choice, but I also use several other raw processing software including QU..

Since 2004 I have shot in raw mode with my cameras Olympus (4) and recently a Panasonic m4/3. My normal procedure is to set my camera to Auto WB and make adjustments as necessary when processing the raw files.

While the majority of my files do not normally require major adjustments to WB, it is very help full to use the choice of selecting automatic adjustment settings to correct to "daylight, cloudy, shade, flash etc" with other software there is no similar option in Qimage "Raw Refine" mode.

The auto default setting are normally very good but if the auto setting from the camera is "fooled" by the scene its is easier to get back close to reality by selecting one of the auto settings from other software than having to adjust the WB slider from cool to warm in QU. Also there is no kelvin numbers to indicate where you are at in terms of the expected WB (e.g 5300 or close for sunny conditions)

I would appreciate some options for WB adjustments included.   

Hi Dennis,
I would agree that getting the white balance right for an image is crucial and is always the first step in the refine process.
I understand that there is problem with showing the colour temperature value accurately, a profile for every camera is required. I've noticed that different software gives different values for the same image. Where I am in the UK, 5500K is about right for Summer sunny day WB but my camera set to daylight says it's 5200K.
I usually find the WB tools in raw refine quite adequate and using the CTRL key to highlight areas on an image that are near grey and possible areas to correct WB; it can involve a trying a few sites.
I've never liked using auto WB on my camera and always set to one of the fixed settings, daylight, cloudy etc.
To get WB as close as possible to being correct, I now nearly always photograph my mini colour checker card, see attached - it's kept in an old credit card wallet as it's an valuable item! Here in the UK, ambient colour temperature can change by the minute due to passing clouds etc. so I may takes several shots of the colour checker while out with a camera. Although I try to set the camera to the nearest ambient conditions, it does not matter if it's the wrong one, as long as I have a checker image. If I'm not able to use the colour checker, there's plenty of samples from previous sessions as well as the QU Refine tools.
There are some images where a true white balance is not required, such as an early morning or late evening shot, where the warm ambience need to be retained or enhanced.
Terry

Hi Dennis,
First of all, White Balance is a very subjective thing, scene and moment dependent.
I, frankly see no value in knowing the Kelvin reading. I am not setting to a time of day or what I think the color temperature is at high noon .
I find REFINE to be very adaptive. Many scenes that I shoot have no obvious white or gray to use as a standard. I do a lot of Roses, or water scenes.
The CTRL key in refine will pop up all the spots that will work as a gray standard, and also all the whites that have one or all channels exceeding 255, and block them out.
So I have the ability to click a spot as a standard, and even tweak the result by a tick or two to "warmer" or "cooler"

That having been said, let's have some discussion on what is "right" for WB.
Here are three samples...

006 is a bridge I shot close to noon; clear day.
007 is same bridge, shot when I got there before 8:00 am
008 is 007 with a couple of clicks to the cooler side..

So that's why I say is doubly subjective; subjective by the light at the time you shot it, and what was the scene you wanted to capture, plus  the technical Kelvin Temp.
The correct WB is the one YOU like best.

On the other hand, there are shots that need the White Balance corrected just because the lighting fooled the camera!  That's different from the camera actually capturing a warm morning color.
Screen snap 009 shows a really badly lighted scene where the shooter's camera was fooled by the mixed lighting.

There are a number of locations in that shot which might appear to be useful to use as your White Balance standard, but in truth, the ghastly skin tone is what we want to repair.
The proper approach would be to find something white which is lit by the same light that lights the faces.
You will not get the same result by using the salt shaker on the table, lower right as your white standard, as you will get using the collar of the lady on the left just below the little pendant.
This was a JPG and the same  principle applies as did in REFINE. 
Even after you do the WB in the Editor, you can try a few spots for a better sample, or adjust the numbers manually in the WB boxes.
As you can see, in my examples, I have no need to know the color temperature, nor would having a slider instead of a clicker make it work better.

Thanks,
Fred

Thanks Fred and Terry for your clear and informative posts. I am well aware of all the points you have raised and they are quite valid. I developed my photographic skills and techniques in the film days of the 70's and 80's when there was no settings for WB available an one would decide on what film to use for a particular shoot. I am sure you both also remember those days.
When I started to shoot digital I found it a real pain to remember to set the WB to match the changing scenes, which was important when the files were saved as jpeg. My second digital camera (2003) had the option to save the raw files to disk and I quickly aborted the practice of doing this in camera since the raw converters I used all had the same type of options as the camera. This made it simple to change in post processing if the camera Auto WB was fooled. My more recent camera models do a very good job for Auto WB but if it is fooled and the raw converter software displays a kelvin it signals a "red flag" for me that adjustments may be necessary. I have therefore become accustomed to use the selective WB options to get me in the ball park and then I would manually adjust as necessary. That said my cameras auto WB probable fine for 90% of the shots.  What can I say old habits die hard.
QU has developed a first rate raw processing pipeline. Keep up the great work you both do on this forum to inform and support other users.

Thanks, Denis.

i just downloaded some sigma dp2m raw files from this site http://pond.org.uk/galleries/DP2M/ and both the preview and the finial image have the wrong color balance, everything is green

They look fine on my monitor. You may need to check your Monitor profile.

Good morning,
I did as suggested, and the RAW file (I just took one) I downloaded has an .X3F suffix.
Yes I confirm that is it a greenish aquamarine coolor here. The JPGS look fine.
But I ask a question. Is a DP2 M the same camera as a DP 2 MERRILL?
I am not familiar with Sigma.
Does anyone have a DP2 M? What is the suffix of your RAW file?

Fred

Thanks for the link.  Sigma DP2 support is relatively new in DCRAW and I believe some fixes are needed.  I've sent a bug report up through the chain so that it can be fixed in DCRAW in a future version.

Mike

Hi Fred,

sigma dpXM is 'M' for 'Merrill' - the inventor of the Foveon X3 sensor. So far there is a dp1M, dp2M, dp3M which all have the larger sensor area, compared with the earlier dp1, and dp2 cameras. As well as these fixed lens cameras, there are also slr's, but afaik all sigma foveon sensor cameras have a raw file extension of X3F, but it seems that only Sigma's own software is capable of reading all the raw files within the x3f type extension.

Best wishes,

Ray 

Thanks Ray.
I found out that Photo Shop wont open it at all.
I get this!
Fred

Hi Fred,

When Sigma produced the earlier dp1's and dp2's they worked closely with photoshop, and adobe bridge could open the files OK - debatable if they got the best out of the files, though. I'm not sure if they have done the same with the M's. Perhaps it works fine with the latest version's of bridge - it used to be free upgrades for bridge, iirc - not sure about now. cs5 is a few years old.

Best wishes,

Ray

Just checked - http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/extend.html   no Merrill support in Bridge or lightroom. Does dcraw/quimage  now support the earlier dp1's etc?

It's on the list of supported cameras, and I suspect that someone would have complained  by now.
The DP2 is very new. The 1 has been around a while.

Fred

hi mike, would u also help me understand this one, when the print proprieties window is open and u change the view to another image in the queue, the focus of the print properties is still the previous image and i have to click on the image to get the print property windows to change focus to the current image. is there a default i can set

Not really sure what you expect here - it sounds like you have only one image per page and expect the focus to change when you click the arrow to go to the next page - is that correct?
If that is the case, you are forgetting that many QU users have multiple prints per page and it's essential the user chooses which image they want to change. After all, that is the normal thing to do in any application: select the object first before editing. How else would you do it !  ???
Terry

but once the page is changed, qimage is aware of the change and can easily reset the focus to the current one.

I don' think you get it  ::)
Which page is showing is irrelevant, what matters is the image and if there are several images on a page, QU, despite Mike's great programming abilities, cannot read your mind as to which image you want to change with respect to print properties.
Would you expect a word processing  or graphics program to select text or an object on a new page that you moved to? - I don't think so - you have to select it.
I said in my previous post that it's common for QU users to have multiple prints per page; expecting a program to work in a non-standard way for one user's perceived needs, is, I think, unreasonable and likely to make it confusing for other users.

Terry

I do get it, I think u r having tough time with this, from a ui of point of view once something is off the screen , either the window need to go away or refocus. At all points qiamge knows the count/number and particular images on a page, once on a new page then the first image on that page needs to be the focus. This has nothing to do with the number of images on page. So even though when u go through the queue to a new image and the new image is on a different page, u still have to get the attention of the print property window, so it is a two click to choose an image to work on.

Why? I may want to change the print properties of the 3rd image on a page.
Your request, as I said, is for YOUR way of working only. Selecting the image your require on a new page is not difficult  ::)
Terry
EDIT.
Actually, QU does that in the page editor, first image on a new page is auto selected.  ;D
T

Perhaps I can help a bit.
There are many ways to do something in every program.
Here's what you are doing: You have 4 images in the queue set to 8 x 10 prints.  That makes 4 pages... You are with me so far?
OK, now for the sake of explanation, put the 4 images in the queue at 4 x 5 print size, It is conceivable that you may want to put a different color border on each one, or change the size of only one print to wallet size/
Therefore, you must be able to select the print and as Terry succinctly explained. Qimage cannot read your mind.!
Now let's switch back to 4 pages and 4 8 x 10s.
I see that you like to use the left and right arrows on the screen. Fine!  That allows you to scroll through your images without selecting at this point.
If you see you want to change something on a print (border size or color on one print), ** There is a unique to the image print properties button (gray striped) on each print.
Click it. That's what it is for!! It selects the image to which you want to make changes!

Next item, for your preferred work pattern, simply click the Print queue tab and leave that open.
Now, you can click on a filename, you can scroll through using the keyboard up and down arrows, you can scroll using the scroll bar, and the current image showing will be selected.

The open Print properties box has two jobs.
1) it allows you to change a property of a *selected* image, and it is mainly to anticipate the size or borders of your next image to be inserted into the queue.
If you want to change something, select the image, or click the unique properties button on the individual print.
If you want to scroll through your image selections and print properties for each print and you want them selected for you, use the arrows on the keyboard or the print queue tab.


Now the simplest way for you to achieve bliss is to make one right click on the preview panel, then click SELECT ALL.

Now they are all preselected.

Hope this helps

Fred

Today I updated from 115 to 119.
Now I have a problem with the edit images window where the image flickers and goes blank white as per the attached.
Left clicking the image create a flicker of the image through the white "curtain" when the mouse button is released. A right click bringsup the filter box showing a segment of the image.
Do I have access to the updates I missed??
Has anyone else experienced this?
Have rerun the download and downloaded and rerun a fresh copy to no avail.
I'll do a System Restore to get back 115 if no one can assist.

John,
The first thing I would suggest is for you to see if there is any Video card driver update that you could get for your card.

Before you do a system restore, I would re install 115 without a system restore to see if any Windows updat or other software may be bothering.

Fred

Thanks Fred.
The first thing I did this morning after reading your response was to update the video card.
Started Q Image Ult again and the problem is gone.
Maybe it was the driver or maybe the machine overnight dispelled the demon after the shut down and restart.
Thanks for the suggestion Fred.
I'll carry on enjoying printing with The Q.

You are welcome!
Sometimes, things get fixed coincidentally when we do something else. 
We never get bored by this crazy box.

Fred