PSP 2022 HEIF Quality

[FloridaDrafter]

I shoot a lot with a Canon EOS R5 and one of the output options is HDR PQ which will allow Raw files to contain HDR info. I guess it expands the color gamut or just enhances the highs and lows, but I'm not really sure about the technical aspects. This will allow the camera to record an Raw/HEIF (HIF) file instead of jpg and also allow me to convert my Raw files to HEIF in Canons Digital Photo Pro 4 (DPP 4). These images looks stunning on my HDR monitor when viewed with DPP 4 and on my sisters Mac. I'm using Windows 10 Pro, 64bit.

When I bring these HEIF files into PSP 2022, they look washed out. I can edit them to look like the originals, but IMO, they should come over like I exported from DPP 4. I'm not really sure what is going on here. Both files are unedited, but cropped. On a side note, I'm pretty disappointed that PSP will not save HEIF but will only export/save to jpg or tiff. This kind of defeats the propose of the higher dynamic range of HEIF.

The attached are the same file just viewed in different programs. Any thoughts?

Newton

[LeviFiction]

I don't work in HEIF but it makes me wonder if the files use a different color workspace than sRGB. Even worse if PSP can't support loading those in for HEIF files.

Try this

File -> Color Management -> Color Working Space

Set the working space to something other than sRGB. AdobeRGB is probably my first guess. It's usually available in the default list, though while the two laptops I work on have it, my work computer doesn't include that profile so not every computer has it.

[FloridaDrafter]

Thank you, LeviFiction! Sorry I didn't get back to this thread as I've since upgraded to 2023 and have been working on various settings. TBH, I am fairly new (less than a year) at this HDR PQ/HEIF and the EOS R5 and R6 are the first cameras that I have used that offer these formats. PSP 23, on my system, only offers AdobeRGB along with sRGB even though my system (Dell XPS 17) has dual GPU's, both of which support HDR. I tried setting my R5 to Adobe and just plain sRGB then once in Digital Photo Pro (DPP 4) tried all of it's color spaces from aRGB to RGB Wide gamut. PSP 23 still changes my color space even if set to use "as shot". However, I only am warned of this change when saving or exporting and not on import. I suspect that PSP 23 is forcing the profile for the monitor on the XPS 17, which is not HDR and can not see my other monitor which is HDR with a wider color gamut. DPP 4 has no problem displaying either HDR PQ Raw or HEIF on my external.
If I open the Raw CR3 shot with HDR PQ, enabled in camera, in PSP 23, the colors look a lot better as apposed to just opening an HEIF file exported from the HDR PQ Raw in DPP 4, but they still don't match what I get from DPP4 on my HDR external monitor or 4k HDR TV, it looses that extra bit of dynamic range.

What I've noticed is PSP 23 does not show in the selections list (in Windows 10 Pro) when I try to assign my NVIDIA to be used by applications. Most do, like CorelDraw, DPP 4, all of my Topaz Labs apps, etc., PSP seems to be absent. HEIF is new to Widows, so this may just be Widows related to some extent. In fact, besides DPP 4, PSP is the only app that I have found that will even open them on Windows. I just wish I could save them from PSP. As mentioned, at this point, they can be opened and edited, just not saved back to HEIF which destroys the dynamic range of the image. All that said, I do believe as HEIF and HDR becomes more common, PSP will catch up

Newton