I tried to use UFRaw to convert my RAW files to jpg.

The problem is that the exported files are very blurry. The camera created jpg files are nice and sharp.

If i view the RAW file with IrfanView then this is sharp too.

Denoise is set to 0, and JPG comp level is at 100. There does not seem to be a sharpen option.

What could cause UFRAW to mess up the images? Am i doing something wrong or is it just crap?

I don't think that UFRaw has messed up your image - it is simply that UFRaw doesn't have a sharpening option whereas your camera is sharpening the jpeg (quite strongly) in camera.

If you use UFRaw you have to accept that you need to sharpen in GIMP afterwards (I normally use the Unsharp Mask 2 V0.12 plug-in for this).

Alternatively use Darktable, RawTherapee or, if you have a Fuji camera, S7raw.

Also note that UFRaw is giving you slightly more information at the edges of the image (more pixels in both dimensions) than the camera jpg.

On 08/25/2015 04:56 PM, programmer_ceds wrote:

What could cause UFRAW to mess up the images? Am i doing something wrong or is it just crap?

I don't think that UFRaw has messed up your image - it is simply that UFRaw doesn't have a sharpening option whereas your camera is sharpening the jpeg (quite strongly) in camera.

Shouldn't we have seen some sample images and know the UFRaw settings in order to judge that?

Regards,
Michael
GPG: 96A8 B38A 728A 577D 724D 60E5 F855 53EC B36D 4CDD

Please see the attached images in my fist post.

If it is just the blurry nature of the UFRaw jpg then the answer is in your original post - no sharpening has been applied, so you might expect it to be blurry.

Have you tried processing the image with UFRaw but saving it in tif format, then using something like Unsharp Mask 2 V0.12 in GIMP to provide the required level of sharpening?

(Have UFRaw output lossless tif files, rather than jpgs which (usually) lose image information and (can) introduce artefacts - only save the finished image in jpg format.)

I will try to use the tif. But could you try to answer this as well:

If the original CR2 (RAW) file s sharp as nails (looks exactly the same as camera generated JPG) then how can the UFRaw generated picture be less sharp than the original RAW file?

I believe that the CR2 files contain not only the raw image data but also a jpg thumbnail - at a guess the thumbnail may be sharpened (in camera) and it is probably the thumbnail that Irfanview is showing you.

The point with raw files is that you (in theory) get (something close to) the raw sensor data which you can then process with a different set of parameters/controls to those used by the camera - this includes sharpening.

Try loading the image into RawTherapee where you can turn the sharpening on or off - when turned off I would expect you to see a similar level of blurring to that produced by UFRaw (which has no sharpening feature).

I tried the tiff format but it does not seems to make a lot of sense with Gimp.

Gimp cannot handle 16-bit tiff images and i lose a lot that extra information from the 14-bit RAW file.

Or am i missing something here?

Also, why does my windows show that the jpg files are 24bit - should they not be 8bit? Or is it 8 bit per channel * 3?

The current release version of GIMP (2.8.x) will only operate in 8-bit colour depth. The next version of GIMP is said to handle 8, 16 or 32-bits colour depth (I only say "is said to" because I haven't tried it). You would therefore have to export an 8-bit tif from UFRaw for further processing in GIMP, or use the development version of GIMP (2.9.x) which is not recommended for 'important' work.

If you want to work in more than 8 bits until any final conversion to jpg you have, at least, the following two alternatives - use Photoshop/CS (which I don't have) or process your raw files in something like RawTherapee (available for Windows, Linux and Mac) or darktable (Linux and Mac only) - both of these programs are open source and available for free.

I stand to be corrected on this but there is no 16-bit jpg format - so if you want to produce a jpg as the final result of your processing you will have to degrade to 8 bits at that point (keeping the file with the 16-bit colour depth from which the jpg was generated (in the same way that you work with xcf files in GIMP and just output a jpg at the end)).

As you surmise the 24-bit colour relates to 3 channels, each of 8-bits.

GIMP 2.9.1 (current experimental builds) handle 16/32 bit images just fine. Feel free to download from my website as it comes with UFRaw included.

In any case, you have not provided the RAW CR2 file and so it's hard to see what is happening here. When you say that your CR2 image is "tack" sharp, you are probably using Canon supplied RAW decoder which probably is applying it's version of "Picture Controls" prior to displaying your image.

Hope this helps.

Partha

On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 11:41 AM, programmer_ceds wrote:

I tried the tiff format but it does not seems to make a lot of sense with Gimp.

Gimp cannot handle 16-bit tiff images and i lose a lot that extra information from the 14-bit RAW file.

Or am i missing something here?

Also, why does my windows show that the jpg files are 24bit - should they not be 8bit? Or is it 8 bit per channel * 3?

The current release version of GIMP (2.8.x) will only operate in 8-bit colour depth. The next version of GIMP is said to handle 8, 16 or 32-bits colour depth (I only say "is said to" because I haven't tried it). You would therefore have to export an 8-bit tif from UFRaw for further processing in GIMP, or use the development version of GIMP (2.9.x) which is not recommended for 'important' work.

If you want to work in more than 8 bits until any final conversion to jpg you have, at least, the following two alternatives - use Photoshop/CS (which I don't have) or process your raw files in something like RawTherapee (available for Windows, Linux and Mac) or darktable (Linux and Mac only) - both of these programs are open source and available for free.

I stand to be corrected on this but there is no 16-bit jpg format - so if you want to produce a jpg as the final result of your processing you will have to degrade to 8 bits at that point (keeping the file with the 16-bit colour depth from which the jpg was generated (in the same way that you work with xcf files in GIMP and just output a jpg at the end)).

As you surmise the 24-bit colour relates to 3 channels, each of 8-bits.

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