Mixed messages from DPP, ZB and ACR - can you help?

nigpd

nigpd

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Nigel
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I am getting mixed messages from the exposure of an image depending on whether its in DPP, Zoombrowser or ACR

Here's what I'm getting

Zoombrowser

4607143004_4b1b9a6c51_o.jpg


DPP

4607142358_494dd8df31_o.jpg


ACR

4606528227_03dde2716e_o.jpg


As you can see, the indication from ZB and DPP is that the image is not overexposed, but in ACR there are clipped highlights showing where parts of the image are overexposed.

What do I take as gospel? Is this normal between 3 different software packages? I'm confused to say the least and dont know how to proceed with my PP

Can someone shed some light on what is happening here and lead me down the path of PP righteousness??

Thanks in advance
 
Hi Nigel

DPP and zoombrowser are basic (and free!) packages for RAW conversion and don't show the detail that ACR does. If you look at the histograms you may see that some pixels are at level 255. This isn't necessarily bad as a well-exposed shot can contain pixels at 255 without being overexposed. An overexposed shot will show many clipped highlights at level 255, which your fox doesn't. It looks well exposed. In ACR you can recover the highlights but this can reduce contrast. In the end all three are correct so you should not see a difference in the final result, its just that the level of control and detail differs between the three packages. Hope this helps.
 
Interesting.

My thoughts (just my guess, I know diddly squat about this) is that the packages may interpret the camera settings incorporated with the file differently, or maybe ACR is applying some edit function differently, or that the colour profiles used by each package are set differently.

The greens on the ACR version look a lot brighter.
 
To produce a visible image from a raw file there are all sorts of adjustments that the software has to make, such as applying a white balance correction, tone curve, contrast, sharpening etc.. Although both from Canon, DPP and Zoombrowser were not produced by the same development team and they do have subtle differences in how an image is rendered. They do, at least, both recognise and apply in camera settings for things such as Picture Style, which can have a big influence on how the image looks.

ACR has its own interpretaiton of how to render a Canon raw file, which is why you see bigger differences. You also have the option to apply different Camera Profiles, which much like Picture Styles can also have a significant impact on how the image looks, and the histogram that results. It's impossible to say that one is more right or wrong than the other, although one might expect Canon to know more about their own image data than Adobe, but the bottom line is that you can pick whichever PS/CP you like as a starting point and then adjust from there.
 
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