Digital Photo Professional (Canon)
 

I am so impressed, I hope I can route existing and experienced users out of their hides and add a bit as I learn.

1: download Version 2.2 from Canon downloads site for your part of the world if the version bundled with your camera is an older one. Free :D

2: I see no problem over creating storage & back-up problems. If you shoot jpg and then also save an edited version, you can end up with bigger combined file size than the .CR2 file including saved 'recipe' or settings used during the edit. Say 7MB for the latter on 350D as opposed to original 3.3MB jpg and PS edited file same size or bigger. No need to keep ginormous .psd files for boss-shots where you daren't lose what you have already spent 1/2 hour doing, yet hope to do better.

3: there will be exceptions eg where a minor adjustment of horizontal is needed or something else that cannot be done within DPP, even that I think I would do on the final edition just before posting or whatever as it takes seconds and no sweat doing again later. What else useful can't it do, folks?

4: it strikes me that actually very little editing is needed and any regular edits can either be saved for batch operations or fed back into the camera 'parameters'. Editing takes seconds for each operation as the interface is so visual/intuitive, reset instant for each sub-section and before/after display available parallel.

NB I am using a mac and have a prog called GraphicConverter which I use for downloading from camera, all filing & slideshows; it is also fine for horizontal adjustment etc; I think there are PC equivalents to avoid using Ghastlies like Adobe Bridge or Canon Image Browser. Once in a folder, DPP has folder sorting+access and thumbnail displays (nice with basic f & shutter speed so you don't need to grub around in exif to know why/how you did 2 or 3 takes).

I downloaded ver. 2.2 and I'm just as impressed as Chris. It's much easier to use and seems more comprehensive than the old version. In the past I preferred RAWShooter but now I'm going to switch completely to DPP. Save and convert seems a bit slow but I suspect that's my computer rather than the program.
I still have to figure out how to upload directly from my printer (with the built in card reader) to DPP.
I really need to settle to one simple way of doing things. I use either Picasa or HP Photosmart Premium for uploading my pictures from the card then have to open whatever editing program I want to use, DPP probably then switch to Photoshop 7 for some types of edits then sometimes to NeatImage. It's all just too complicated.:eek:

I can't quite see why it needs to go to the printer, why not just from camera to computer using the USB cable provided with the camera. Can't help with best import/sort software for PC as I use mac. Once in a folder, DPP picks up the folder as thumbnails and you can then either toggle between 1 image in the main window and the thumbnails or open N pics to edit each in their own edit window. The latter if you have several needing the same basic 'recipe', tho no 2 of mine ever seem to.

Although you appear to be working on fine tuning the pic 'real time' you are actually working on a high quality preview and it is only when you 'convert and save' that it takes a bit longer. But you can stack them up and do a batch convert while you have supper & until you do convert, any number of images in the 'thumbnail' folder stay exactly as you left them.

DPP is very memory efficient as it leaves the .CR2 files on the hard-drive and only caches the 'recipe' or changes, ie 200-300k per image as far as I can see. (As opposed to PSE4 which grabs the entire RAM, cache and anything else it can get hold of, which apart from making it slower for other progs to get moving, probably also accounts for why it flattens a battery faster than all the others put together).

The next piece of cunning is to see what tweaks you do regularly (eg sharp or saturation + 1 or 2 points) and re-set them in a camera 'parameter' set. So sometimes you do nothing other convert and save or maybe crop.

Can't see much call for NeatImage if exposure was correct(ish) and you leave off the RGB edit panel or use it very sparingly.

The more I play with DPP the better I like it.
The pictures don't go to the printer but to the built in card reader. Its no different than using a stand alone reader. The reason Neatimage is sometimes needed is that a lot of noise can result from operations like magnifying or sharpening an image.

Having caught up with my RAW editing, I thought it worth trying out the RGB pane of DPP on some .jpgs - 350D, Pana FZ7 and Nikon E4500.

This part works on .tif and .jpg as well as any RAW that have not come out 100% just using the RAW pane. There is a histogram window that combines Levels and Curves in one go and interacts with brightness and contrast sliders+numeric readout, very fine tuning. Then there are sliders+numeric for saturation and sharpness, the former also feeding back to the histogram window.

Result: better all round on all 3 cameras than previous best efforts using PSE4 (or in some cases equivalent mac progs) on the fairly random samples tried. And done in a couple of minutes rather than, what, 10-20 minutes for a medium tricky PS edit...now just need to go back over the few thousand other images. :eek:

NB once again the working window is good preview and only saves on command, but includes full facilities ie toggle to 50,100, 200% views and before over after. It tends to underplay changes, but as it remains there exactly as left throughout the folder being edited, quite quick to go back for a final tweak and resave.

For reduced forum images, both full size and reduced can be generated consecutively, but with the original left full size in case when image is printed or posted, a final tweak does prove necessary. Likewise when proceeding to another folder, the editing recipe can be saved just as on RAW and the high precision cloning tool is still available (and auto dust removal if needed) :) :)

Yesterday I had a mixed bag of RAW and jpeg and processed them all through DPP. Very pleased with the result. The Trimming Tool solves the crop problem nicely.
If there was a text command I think I would abandon PS 7 almost entirely.

I got an E-mail from Canon saying that their Web site was being updated and for users to back-up their own photos,as they might/would be lost in change-over. hb.

P S this applies to Canon Image Gateway,,hope this is helpful...hb

DPP ver 3.0 is now available for download. They've added some NR function plus other features.

On the Uk website they are still showing only ver 2.2

I can't find this either Dan, where did you get it from? Also what is NR?

I got it from the Canon Forums and have already downloaded it. I'll post the link. NR is noise reduction.

Try this link. http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/co...&modelid=11154
I find the Canon website tough to find my around in but this is the link that I was given and did find the download. There are alos updates for EOS viewr and
Zoom Browser.

Inspired.
 

You have inspired me to take another look around in DPP. After bumping my head a few times, I'm beginning to find my way around. It's different from other programs but seems to work well as I explore it's features. Thanks for giving me a nudge.

Thanks Dan: had passed over this page - anyone else you have to click on Drivers/software which is a link. Will report on it later; its a beta.

Ina Lisa: do keep trying with it. I have just updated one of my classic pics, but taken in a cave with E4500 and before discovering 'WPF learning shop' (f2.6 1/16 sec, loud groans). A whole handrail cloned out, everything much brighter and sharper. Then finished with NeatImage to reduce noise in darker areas where E4500 was not too clever
http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...500&ppuser=780

I find that between Faststone and DPP I now rarely use PS7. I still use it a bit for some special functions but sometimes less than once a week.

Have had a quick trial of DPP 3.0. (Thank you Canon for mac version at same time as PC).

The RAW converter now has highlight and dark-end control as well as previous controls and the crop line is added visibly to the image thumb-nails which is nice.

The highlight/shadow or whatever seems a good way of introducing noise to Canon shots where is has not been a serious problem before, though used ever so gently does complement other controls. Maybe good come summer with heavy shadow problems?

The additional noise reduction pane (for CR2 and/or jpg/tif) seems no competition for NeatImage.

I am rapidly becoming a NeatImage fan having discovered that its main strength is as much in sharpening up, but with less danger of introducing halo than using unsharp mask, and more directed to where it is neeeded. Also good noise reduction on wide open areas. Just wish it was a stand-alone, cos as it is one has to have all the ball-and-chain effects of PS(E) running on the computer to use it. But, without question, is an ideal complement to DPP.

Chris, I've downloaded a Neatimage standalone. Probably not as comprehensive as full-blown version, but not bad. It doesn't seem time-limited.

Chris the picture is beautiful, excellent, extreme...
Maybe one day I will learn all your tweaks, missing handrail you said? Great work.

Thanks Mike..if only. Unlike Canon, NeatImage availablility for Mac is way behind and still only v4 plug-in, even if one pays.

Will either have to find out how to stop PSE grabbing and trying to hold all available RAM or maybe get my final extra 256M ration

DPP still lacks one vital function and that is the ability to rotate an image. I don't mean flip 90 degrees but in increments so that images can be straightened. The other thing with the new NR controls is that they are limited to two levels rather than having true slider style control.
Chris!
Have you tried Noiseware? I don't know if it's available for Macs but is much quicker than Neatimage and does a reasonable job. If a search doesn't find it I can probably find a link although I think that I first heard of it on WPF.

The new crop feature in DPP 3.0 is even better than I noticed at first: if you do the crop first, subsequent full views only show the cropped part of the pic so it is much easier to do the RAW edit on the enlarged and relevent section, and, especially if it is a square crop or portrait, the window can be much larger too

I visited your gallery and posted a comment but it seemed to disappear. Perhaps I have to be a member of Pbase to post a comment.

Printing from DPP
 

Having done a lot more printing lately, I find DPP is also way ahead of any other prog that I have for accurate printing.(This may be slightly specific to my Epson printer)

1st in Preferences>colour management , the profile for ones actual printer & paper profile
can be selected in the drop-down menu

2nd print from the RAW file, test print say 70x70mm, which gives you 3 tests across an A4 sheet ON THE PAPER YOU ARE GOING TO USE

3rd any fine tuning of the brightness or colour bias (eg photos of black dogs :D ) can be altered very fine on the RAW, but this does not affect ability to return to last edit used for web display nor 'as shot' original

4th (Epson) In Colour management, set 'No colour adjustment'

The adjustments in RAW are infinitely more controllable than messing with CMYK sliders etc in the Epson printer control :) :)

I do very little printing but have not been happy with the bit that I have done, prints are darker than my monitor image. I've never used DPP for printing. I PP in DPP but then use a different program, Faststone, for file management and printing. I've tried calibrating my monitor/printer using the software that comes with the printer but I find it very difficult to do. A quick look at DPP's printing controls make it look quite promising, I'll definitely try printing that way.

DPP ver 3.2 is now available on the Canon USA site. I've downloaded it but haven't quite figured out what's new yet. The down loadable manual seems to be new as well.

the main new feature seems to be a lens abberation correction addition to the NR pane. It is blanked on my pics, which hopefully means you need a much worse lens for it to register...or it may be a 40D feature as it is also meant to be updated to cater for 40D. Haven't got mine yet, can't think why

You're right, that seems to be the main change. Disappointing! I was hoping for some sort of rotate function. The lens aberration thing is blanked for me too.

I am not 100% sure these features are new to 3.2, but the new manual tempted me to explore and find:
1 Quick check tool - enables slide show type run through CR2s and marker placement; useful when one has a lot of very similar ones to choose the best
2 Blown-highlight and dead-shadow area show-up in red. This is similar to a shifted operation in PS explained in Cambridgeincolour.com. Never wanted to use it myself
3 Really great - squared curves. Sounds daft, but converts curves which 'b-spline' thus causing unwanted effects beyond points, into jaggies. It is thus possible to first pinpoint exactly where a mod is needed then have the option of making the mod very local and without counter-effects further along. Tho maybe return to a nice smooth gentle curve after diagnosis stage; each pic varies
Only don't bother hunting in the manual for any detail on how to use.

I rarely use DPP as a RAW editor but have just downloaded v3.2. Main change for me is the Highlights/Shadow indicators. You can set your preferred values (default 255 and 0). Big downside to this is that there does not appear to be a way of keeping this feature permanently turned on - for each image you have to go into go into the view menu and tick both 'Highlights' and 'Shadows'. Once you close the image you are working on you have to go in and tick again for the next image.
For me DPP is a good RAW converter but compared to ACR and Lightroom I find the workflow quite painfull.

The Quick check was already there but mine just runs through DPP not PS. I haven't found the other features yet so I'll have to search.

As Roy says, you activate the Shadow & Highlight indicators from the VIEW menu and you can set the activation values in Preferences. The purpose of this tool is to warn you when you are cutting out information that is represented by 'peaks' in the histograms that are too small to register on the diplayed scale, yet may be of importance in a particular image. See CambridgeinColour. In a process like DPP editing where RAW editing and 'converted' editing (usingthe RGB pane) are combined the tool also warns you that you have squeezed the conversion curve to a dangerous extent, in this case the value is set by DPP to correspond to what you have done in the RAW pane. Probably why it is designed not to be left on with preset values.

Squaring the curves (and also changing from RGB to Luminance) is done when setting a point on any curve in the RGB pane; pressing control at same time as creating point shows the sub-menu.

Someone like Robert (Robski) or Sean (of CinC) understands the science of all this and is often kind enough to explain the rudiments to us lesser mortals. However the beauty of DPP, at least to Mac users, and other intuitive types yet to discover Mac, is that you can just play intuitively and get instant feedback of the results of what you are doing because the live preview is so good and immediate. Ideally, if one has the exposure etc correct, it is only necessary to choose the best RAW conversion curve or just leave the standard one. Shooting anything with very wide EV range like landscape, a bit more tweaking in RAW is required. Only when desperate does one resort to the RGB pane using 'curves' techniques to tease out something you know was there and hope the box has caught in its net if only you can find it. I only touch levels and anything other than curves in the RGB pane when re-editing .jpg from older E4500 and FZ7 images. It is brilliant for the latter for the simple reason that it is all done and dispayed concurrently rather than sequentially and battling with levels as in PS(E).

The danger of 'overcooking' frequently emanating from PS addicts is also present in the RGB pane of DPP.

Useful info. Thanks, Chris. I did find the Highlight Shadow commands when is tarted to explore the new version. As soon as i change the preferences the reds and blues showed up. Lately I find that if I go to PS levels after using DPP, there isn't any further adjustment to be done, the histogram is already ok so I must be getting better in DPP.