Raw images strange border

Hi

Just been to the beach and shot some raw images, this camera continues to disappoint. some of the raw images when viewed in UFraw had a strange border around them, could someone explain what this is? I have converted one to jpeg to show. I am constantly getting poor results with this camera, I used a Pentax sp500 film for years and got some great results, just can't seem to get to grips with this one :-(

Cheers.
Mike

Looks like a simple demosaicing error. Typical for 3rd-party raw converters. Crop it out and edit as usual.

I have shot with this camera since February, (just recently moved to different camera, but I have not seen this before.
Sorry, but someone with a bit more knowledge will be along shortly to help you sort this out.

this camera continues to disappoint

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What else disappoints you with this camera? Maybe we can help.

Yes I agree with my buddy Blacktop! Some of my favorite photos were taken with the D3100, so maybe some of us here can help!
This may not be a truly great shot, but it is one of my favorites!



This one is also one of my favorites, and also the D3100 photo!

Cheers guys.
I guess it must be me, but everything I shoot seems washed out, lacking sharpness and colour and just has no 'punch' I could not imagine getting results like the ones above, excellent stuff.
I have the kit lens and the 55-200 and I must have deleted 90 percent of the pics I have taken.

Mike Whyton said:

Cheers guys.
I guess it must be me, but everything I shoot seems washed out, lacking sharpness and colour and just has no 'punch' I could not imagine getting results like the ones above, excellent stuff.
I have the kit lens and the 55-200 and I must have deleted 90 percent of the pics I have taken.

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It could be that your raw converter doesn't apply the camera setting to the image as part of the process. Maybe you need to change the settings of the software.

Mike Whyton said:

Cheers guys.
I guess it must be me, but everything I shoot seems washed out, lacking sharpness and colour and just has no 'punch' I could not imagine getting results like the ones above, excellent stuff.
I have the kit lens and the 55-200 and I must have deleted 90 percent of the pics I have taken.

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What camera mode are you shooting at? A-S-P-M ?
Also metering will play a big role in how your shots turn out.

You're using UFRAW. Are you on a Linux distro?

Try shooting the same scene in RAW and .jpg. If the .jpg looks fine, then the problem is not with the camera but whatever you are using to convert your RAW file.

I use Photoshop CS5 and it's RAW converter works perfectly. I have never had an issue with it.

I think for the photo you took, I would have set the camera to F/11 or so and 100 iso and then work from there in post processing. But I'm still very new to shooting raw, that others could be of much more help there!

But with the bright washed out look, I'd stop down the F stop and I so to give the photo some sharpness, color, and contrast!

Mike Whyton said:

Cheers guys.
I guess it must be me, but everything I shoot seems washed out, lacking sharpness and colour and just has no 'punch' I could not imagine getting results like the ones above, excellent stuff.
I have the kit lens and the 55-200 and I must have deleted 90 percent of the pics I have taken.

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Thanks for all the replies, yes it's probably UFraw that's the issue. I shoot in aperture priority mainly and set the iso for the conditions. Never used auto, I've read it's appalling I'll take some blame for not being the most accomplished snapper, but some of the results I've had have been truly terrible.
Still, I'll stick with it and see if hard work and this forum can sort it out
Cheers guys.

I think it's a software issue. Plus, there is a learning curve when working with RAW files. If you can find a better software package for your computer, I'd bet anything you can get great results!

Also, as suggested, shooting a few JPEGs will tell you a lot about how well the camera is functioning without having to depend on software so much.

Mike Whyton said:

Thanks for all the replies, yes it's probably UFraw that's the issue. I shoot in aperture priority mainly and set the iso for the conditions. Never used auto, I've read it's appalling I'll take some blame for not being the most accomplished snapper, but some of the results I've had have been truly terrible.
Still, I'll stick with it and see if hard work and this forum can sort it out
Cheers guys.

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Once you know your in the bottom of the barrel there is only one way out, going upwards. The only way to learn is to practice and learn from your past mistakes.

Welcome to Nikonites and enjoy your Nikon!

Try jpg from the camera. For some extra punch, set your picture control in camera to Vivid and turn the sharpening up a bit. Vivid is probably a bit much for most people, but it should give you a quick 'wow' and you can back off from there. Raw files are pretty dull. You need to work with them. Nikon ViewNX2 software will show you your raw file with camera picture settings applied, but most other Raw converters ignore the in-camera settings and will give you very dull and unsharpened pictures until you tweak them up.

It looks like (or: reminds me of) the photo with preserved, not automatically corrected distortion. Awkward.

On another note: Bill16, shame on you - this photo of a spider is one of THE BEST insect-related photos I have seen lately! And you dare to make a remark like "this may not be a truly great shot...". It is AWESOME, man, AWESOME!:cheerful:

The dog, slightly corrected:

One way to verify it being the software is to look at the image dimensions in pixels.

Let's say your camera is supposed to have a 5000 x 3200 pixel sensor. But your software always throws out a 5079 x 3263-pixel image. That's a sure sign it's the software.

Thank you very much buddy!!!

DraganDL said:

It looks like (or: reminds me of) the photo with preserved, not automatically corrected distortion. Awkward.

On another note: Bill16, shame on you - this photo of a spider is one of THE BEST insect-related photos I have seen lately! And you dare to make a remark like "this may not be a truly great shot...". It is AWESOME, man, AWESOME!:cheerful:

The dog, slightly corrected:
View attachment 92452

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It definitely looks like pincushion correction with all the original details preserved. In other words, if you have lens correction selected it will apply pincushion correction, but not crop out any details in case you want to apply smart fill or something. I suspect there's a setting somewhere.

The sensor has more pixels than used in the image. Most of the software know that and strip the extras. Some third party RAW conversion software may not be taking that into account and using all the pixels available. As recommended in previous post, check if the number of pixels in your image match the numbers of what is published.

One way to verify if it is the software that is to be blamed for bad photos, is to use the Nikon View NX. Nikon software gives the best colours for RAW, and has distortion data base built in. Use it to view and convert to jpeg, and then analyse the results.

Even the D3100 has a good DR, so expose for the bright areas and then boost the shadows in post. One thing to be careful of is that the focus may not be spot on in some cases. It may be due to confusing back ground or back/front focusing issues in the lense. Just verify the focus using Live View (zoomed up a lot).

If you do not use any other software for processing RAW images, try Capture NX-D beta, by Nikon. It is still a free download, and has extensive controls for manipulating the RAW image.