Empty histogram PSPP X3

[MikeFromMesa]

I live in the American Southwest and during the summers here the light is very harsh, the skies are usually completely clear and there are few, if any, shadows at mid-day. A couple of days ago a large red-tailed hawk had landed on a tree near where I live and I had the chance to shoot a lot of (Canon 7D) RAW images of the hawk with the bright sky behind. After processing I found I was not happy with the way the photos came out with my usual photo software (Dxo and Elements , so I re-installed a copy of PSPP X3 on my computer and thought I would try to use layers to darken the sky without darkening the hawk (if I can figure out how to use layers...).

But I noticed that when I opened the histogram palette that there was no graph display other than what looked like a single stright line (with no width) in the center of the photo. I tried several other RAW photos and they were pretty much the same - sometimes empty, sometimes very, very small curves, but so low on the graph that it was easy to not even see them. I then tried some of the converted jpgs from Dxo and Elements 8 and they seemed OK. Visible histograms with normal height. The other software I have displays the RAW histograms normally. The distribution is not pleasant because there is such a bright background, but the curves are easily visible and of normal height. I began to wonder if there was some issue with PSPP X3 processing RAW Canon cr2 images that might be causing this problem for me.

My PSPP X3 is up to date with all service packs, but I can find nothing of this issue in the knowledgebase. Is anyone else having this problem?

Thanks.

[Ron P.]

Welcome to the forums,

Simply put, do not rely on PSP's RAW conversion. It's probably the worst around. Use DXO to convert your RAW photos, then you can do any further editing if you wish, in PSP.

[MikeFromMesa]

Well I guess that is clear and straight-forward enough advice!

Thanks for letting me know. I will do as you suggest.

[ronzie]

In a somewhat related item I had blank histograms and color palettes when in soft proof mode if using version 4 .icc profiles for the printer. Version 2 profiles were OK. Some profile applications like ColorMunki Photo give you a preference on that.

I submitted a support ticket a long time ago but current patches have not shown any improvement.

It is not an operating system thing (XP SP3) as QImage Pro for printing works correctly.

[df]

If you want your RAW files to look like they did in camera and still retain the latitude of adjustments that a RAW files gives use Canon's Digital Photo Professional. For general edits it's about all most people need for their Canon RAW files. You may also be interested in Canon's Custom Picture files, there's a few that don't come with your camera that can be found on Canon's website at http://www.canon.co.jp/imaging/pictures ... index.html there's also instructions on how to install them.