Washed out JPG outputs from Leica T?

[Vel]

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Hey all, I bought a Leica T a few months ago and am very happy with it. There's just one thing I've noticed that has been bugging me. It occurs regardless of lens and on a TL I was reselling as well, so it's not lens or camera body specific.

 

I shoot DNG+JPG high quality and I've noticed that about 80% of the time I prefer the DNG version over the JPG. The colours are much richer and the exposure is also a bit higher on the DNG. It's like the JPG version is washed out and lifeless.

 

This means I often end up opening the DNG in Preview and saving it as a JPG, but it feels wrong to be doing this since ideally the JPG output from the camera should be good to go.

 

Any ideas or thoughts on this?

 

I've got a number of comparisons to show what I mean, these are pairs of JPGs, one straight from the cam, the other the DNG saved as a JPG:

 

1 (DNG): http://imgur.com/FR3ZQcM

1 (JPG): http://imgur.com/6K31Lgw

 

2 (DNG): http://imgur.com/bNovEJz

2 (JPG): http://imgur.com/kcDxsz3

 

3 (DNG): http://imgur.com/WvCxSKP

3 (JPG): http://imgur.com/5Qf1Fs2

 

4 (DNG): http://imgur.com/WUQ0osC

4 (JPG): http://imgur.com/WfTjQAq

 

5 (DNG): http://imgur.com/wd5bRby

5 (JPG): http://imgur.com/JkYU1YI

[blueskyoveraquatic]

Hello Vel,

What you had experienced is normal for all camera systems, imho.  DNG is uncompressed data from a sensor (16-bit/14-bit/12-bit), and JPEG is compressed data in camera (8-bit) with manufacturer's own recipe.

For our Leica T, it seems to me that its metering system over-exposes about one stop in A-priority or S-priority.  As a result,  if your scene is 'bright', then most likely your photo's highlight will be washed out.

 

To make your JPEG pops with correct exposure, you may want to shoot in M-mode which you can control both shutter and aperture.  Furthermore, you also may want to select film mode per scene.

 

Fyi, T's JPEG needs a bit more contrast, but T's JPEG engine is good.

 

Dennis

 

P.S.  Your photos look good

I d/l'ed one of them and played with LR's sliders a bit:

 

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Edited June 18, 2017 by blueskyoveraquatic

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[Vel]

Hi Dennis,

 

Thanks for the knowledgeable reply!

 

The T is my first proper camera so I wasn't sure if it's supposed to be like that or I hadn't set some setting correctly. I think you're right about the slight overexposure, especially when I take my f/1.4 out on a bright day everything is way too bright with either P or A-priority. I mentioned in my post that 20% of the time I do prefer the JPG version, so perhaps I just need to go manual and figure out the right amount of light so the JPG looks good. Would you recommend playing with the default contrast/colours in the settings?

 

Do you process the JPGs from your T? It's certainly possible to make them have more contrast and saturation, but doing so for tens to hundreds of photos takes a long time! I've just found that the DNG often looks so much richer that my playing with the JPG doesn't usually get better than that without then over saturating.

 

Thanks for the compliment about the photos If you like them then you should probably visit Australia

 

Vel

[Belle123]

Think of the DNG, or raw image, as the actual photo you are taking, and the JPG as the edited version even if out of the camera. To get the JPG where you want it out of the camera, play with various settings on the camera and also figure what you see in the EVF or screen is close to what the JPG will be. I wouldn't bother ever editing the JPG. Use the DNG.

[blueskyoveraquatic]

Hi Dennis,

 

Thanks for the knowledgeable reply!

 

The T is my first proper camera so I wasn't sure if it's supposed to be like that or I hadn't set some setting correctly. I think you're right about the slight overexposure, especially when I take my f/1.4 out on a bright day everything is way too bright with either P or A-priority. I mentioned in my post that 20% of the time I do prefer the JPG version, so perhaps I just need to go manual and figure out the right amount of light so the JPG looks good. Would you recommend playing with the default contrast/colours in the settings?

 

Do you process the JPGs from your T? It's certainly possible to make them have more contrast and saturation, but doing so for tens to hundreds of photos takes a long time! I've just found that the DNG often looks so much richer that my playing with the JPG doesn't usually get better than that without then over saturating.

 

Thanks for the compliment about the photos If you like them then you should probably visit Australia

 

Vel

As Belle123 had said, I do not post-process JPEG since JPEG does not have enough data (no room for you to process).  I only process RAW.   If you satisfy with JPEG, then you just need to make sure your exposure is correct at the time of your photos are taken.

 

Welcome to this forum and being a Leica T shooter.  For me, I use 18-56mm AF for family photos and M & R lenses for others.

Dennis

Edited June 18, 2017 by blueskyoveraquatic

[Vel]

Thanks! Alright I understand, I'll play with the camera settings and exposure to try to make the JPGs more immediately useful and if post processing is required I'll use the DNG.

[jaapv]

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Hi Dennis,

 

Thanks for the knowledgeable reply!

 

The T is my first proper camera so I wasn't sure if it's supposed to be like that or I hadn't set some setting correctly. I think you're right about the slight overexposure, especially when I take my f/1.4 out on a bright day everything is way too bright with either P or A-priority. I mentioned in my post that 20% of the time I do prefer the JPG version, so perhaps I just need to go manual and figure out the right amount of light so the JPG looks good. Would you recommend playing with the default contrast/colours in the settings?

 

Do you process the JPGs from your T? It's certainly possible to make them have more contrast and saturation, but doing so for tens to hundreds of photos takes a long time! I've just found that the DNG often looks so much richer that my playing with the JPG doesn't usually get better than that without then over saturating.

 

Thanks for the compliment about the photos If you like them then you should probably visit Australia

 

Vel

Do you use Lightroom? Take one representative image, process it to your liking and save it as a default.

[Belle123]

The settings that are specific to the JPEG in the menu choices are the JPEG resolution settings, file format, and the Film Mode. In Film Mode there are all kinds of changes to be made including contrast, sharpness, saturation, and various film types including b/w. Since I am a monochrome fan, I use that a lot for composition but still use the DNG and do conversions to monochrome.

 

Other settings in the menus change both DNG and JPEG like ISO, white balance. And of course aperture and timing and focus settings. Pretty simple.

 

Would also recommend getting to know Lightroom if want to get the most out of your images. It is time consuming to learn, but lots of tutorials out there. But the JPEGs out of this camera are very good if that is all you need. DNG files almost always can use some tweaking.

[blueskyoveraquatic]

Just want to show you, Vel, a jpeg (Vivid film mode with default settings) and a post-processed DNG of a photo which I took this morning

JPEG (left)

DNG (right)

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Edited June 20, 2017 by blueskyoveraquatic

[Vel]

I had a play with the 3 Film Modes for normal, vivid and natural and to my tastes the JPGs produced should be somewhere between the normal and vivid in terms of colour saturation. I might make a custom mode and adjust the sliders manually to my liking. I can confirm that the DNGs remain identical regardless of Film Mode setting though! Thanks everyone for the useful information!