Canon G9 X Mark II RAW colors not correct

[phil_k]

Some colors are not accurate during the developing of the Canon G9 X Mark II RAW files.  Attached is the CR2 RAW file, the cameras creation of a JPG, and a screen capture from Affinity Photo with the area of color difference circled. Note the flags have lost their yellow colors.

IMG_0033.CR2

[Dan C]

Hi @phil_k,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble!

On 4/20/2021 at 6:18 PM, phil_k said:

Some colors are not accurate during the developing of the Canon G9 X Mark II RAW files.  Attached is the CR2 RAW file, the cameras creation of a JPG, and a screen capture from Affinity Photo with the area of color difference circled. Note the flags have lost their yellow colors.

I can confirm this is simply the difference between opening a JPEG that has been processed by the camera compared to an unedited RAW file.

When the JPEG is processed by the camera, this applies automatic exposure and colour corrections to the image to enhance the output, resulting in the 'yellows' of the flags being clear.

The Develop Persona in Affinity Photo on the other hand doesn't apply any corrections by default leaving it to the user to decide how to enhance the image, hence the differences you're seeing.

This can be seen by opening your RAW file in other image viewers, such as Apple Preview - 

I hope this clears things up!

[phil_k]

Dan,

I am not sure I understand your explanation. The colors of the flag are yellow.  The colors from the camera jpg ( I understand its been processed) are yellow which matches the colors of the real flag.  The colors of the flag displayed using Canons Digital Photo Professional software without any corrections are yellow.  But the color of the flags in Affinity Photo are washed out and mostly clear.  I cannot open your image.png file as it asks for a login.

[emmrecs01]

@phil_k

It's now the weekend in the UK where @Dan C and Serif are based so you may not get a quick reply.

However, I believe Dan's point is that Canon's own DPP software does make corrections automatically to its own RAW format images in order to ensure that what the user sees on screen is what he/she expects, or as close as it can be.  Serif's RAW engine, on the other hand, makes absolutely NO "corrections" at all, leaving it entirely to the user's discretion and choice to make any of those corrections he/she feels are necessary.

HTH

Jeff

[phil_k]

Yes it is possible that Canons software provides some kind of correction but how would it know to replace an almost non existense (per affinity) color of the flag with yellow. And I have tried everything I know to regain the yellow with affinity to no aveil. If you have a few minutes try to regain the yellow on the flags without masks because I do not believe the camera when it generates a jpg applies masks.

Thanks,

Phil

 

[h_d]

You may be able to improve things somewhat by turning off the default Tone Curve and applying exposure bias by default in Develop Assistant:

(It doesn't help that the flags are up against a large area of blown highlights.)

Above is using the Serif Labs RAW Engine.

(A bit OT this next bit...

This is what I get in Develop Persona when I switch to Apple's Core Image RAW:

I made this second grab immediately after opening the .cr2 file in Affinity Photo, Develop Persona, without any adjustments except for the exposure bias in the Develop Assistant. The flag actually looks more saturated on my screen than it does in the grab.

And this is the exported .jpg, of the image after development, with absolutely no adjustments:

I appreciate that this probably doesn't solve the problem for you as you look to be on Windows, so Core Image won't be an option for RAW development. But it does show that the data is there in the original .cr2 as opened by Affinity Photo.)

[phil_k]

Thanks so much for helping explain the issue. So is my understanding that the raw file produced by the camera does contain the information, the Apple raw engine produces the correct interpretation of the image but the Serif raw engine is lacking.  If so, than my recommendation to Serif would be to improve  upon their raw engine.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, phil_k said:

So is my understanding that the raw file produced by the camera does contain the information, the Apple raw engine produces the correct interpretation of the image but the Serif raw engine is lacking. 

Not quite right. There is no one "correct interpretation" for how a RAW file should be developed. While that may sound absurd, why this is so is explained in great detail in the Spotlight article RAW Actually.

[h_d]

2 minutes ago, R C-R said:

There is no one "correct interpretation" for how a RAW file should be developed.

Absolutely.