AIP4WIN - Canon raw images are extremely grainy

[PaulABS]

Hello All,

Are there any AIP4WIN experts out there that can help me with this:

When opening Canon raw files, the images are extremely grainy with multi-coloured pixels.  Below is an example.

When opening with the Canon software, the image looks just fine.  What am I doing wrong?

My settings for "DSLR & Bayer Conversion" are:

- VNG

- DeBayer, Auto white balance, Auto-stretch.

- AIP4Win version 2.4.0

I tried all the other settings in the Conversion menu to no avail.

Thanks,

Paul.

[Ramsay]

That does look noisy but won't the noise be dependent on which Canon camera you are using and the ISO you have your camera set to. Have you checked the noise in DPP or some other software that handles RAW files like Photoshop to see what the noise looks like? Isn't the picture a little overexposed?

[Ramsay]

OOPS! you have looked with DPP I'll shutup now 

[IanL]

I don't have a current version of AIP (bought my book back in the dark ages), but I'd wager it is the 'auto-stretch' setting that is the problem.  Doing an automatic STF in PixInsight produces much the same sort of image.  The problem is that the histogram has been stretched way too much and you need to set the black point higher and/or adjust the stretch so the background isn't so bright.

[Davey-T]

Mines old as well, could try posting on the AIP Yahoo group, supposed to be easier to post pic's on the new look sites but haven't tried it myself.

Dave

[PaulABS]

Hello,

Correct on the auto-stretch and regarding posting on the AIP4WIN Yahoo group!

Richard Berry (author of AIP4WIN) replied to my query and gave an explanation of what's going on. The bottom line is that I had to change the white point to 0.9995 in the DSLR & Bayer conversion settings box (the default is 0.995).  I have no idea how someone is supposed to figure this out on his own!  Especially when other programs, such as Photoshop and the Canon software (that comes with the camera) display the image just fine, and actually display it better than AIP4WIN, even with the adjusted white point.

Cheers,

Paul.

[PaulABS]

Further to my note above, see the examples below. Same image of M42, one opened with AIP4WIN the other with the Canon software.  These are raw images, completely unprocessed.  There is no way to make the AIP4WIN image similar to the Canon software image, and it's impossible to get a decent image with further processing (in Photoshop) with the AIP4WIN image.

Paul.