Rawnalyze

Raw Image Analyzer User's Guide

Table of Contents

The dialog

Dialog elements

After starting Rawnalyze, following dialog window appears:

The capture has been created in the initial state


The first step after having started the program is usually locating the raw file and opening it. The file specification can be typed in directly; clicking on Process starts opening and reading the file. However, more often the Browse subdialog will be used to select the raw file to process. After a file has been selected, it will be opened and read immediately, there is no need to click on the Process button; in fact, there is no need to click on Process any more while analyzing the same raw image. The only exception is, when switching between analyzing modified and unmodified raw data, see Changing the original raw data later. Clicking on Process initiates opening and reading the raw file again, causing a considerable delay in response time.

The shortcut for starting the file browse dialog is Ctrl-O.

Displaying the manual through a Web browser via the Help function may become necessary, but if someone is reading this page, then that goal has been accompished already.

As there is not much else to say about this screen shot, let's skip ahead through opening an actual raw file.

point 1 point 2 point 3 point 4 point 5 point 6 point 7 point 8 point 9 point 3 again point 10 point 11 point 12 point 13

Resizing the dialog window (click to display this section)

Beside being minimized, maximized and restored, the dialog frame can be resized by dragging the right or the bottom edge, or the bottom right corner. The new size can not be narrower, nor shorter than the respective initial dimension.

The size of the image window changes together with the dialog frame size; this way the image can be viewed with less scrolling in a larger image window. Here are two examples for different dialog frame sizes:

Click to hide this section

Magnifying, reducing the image size (click to display this section)

In the normal view each pixel of the raw image is displayed as a pixel on the monitor. The image can be magnified by typing in + (plus) character; repeated typing can increase the magnification to up to ten times.

Typing in the - (minus) character reduces the magnification. In composite color and greyscale display mode the display size can be effectively reduced, so that each color filter array block is represented by a single pixel.

The normal view (no magnification, no reduction) can be reinstated immediately by entering Alt, Ctrl and S.

The current magnification/reduction state is displayed above the top left corner of the image frame.

Examples:

This is the image from the selection example below in reduced size

and here the same image in six times magnification

Click to hide this section

Scrolling, positioning the image

Raw images from newer cameras are quite large, some of them are very large. Looking through the image, even in reduced size view can be tedious. A multitude of scolling/positioning options are available to make this task faster.

Working with the sliders

A slider can be adjusted by dragging it: left-clicking on the slider pointer, holding down the left button and moving the mouse. Clicking on the trackbar (the line going in the length of the slider) at the left or right to the slider pointer moves the slider by one "page".

While the focus is on a slider, it can be moved just like a scroll bar, using the arrow keys, PageUp, PageDown, Home and End. The magnitude of change the arrow keys or PageUp and PageDown cause depends on the slider.

The slider becomes focused after having clicked on any part of it, and it remains focused until clicking on another control (a button, an input field, etc.) If the slider is focused, it is framed by a thin dotted rectangle, like this one:

Each sliders is accompanied by a Reset button, which sets the slider to its initial position.

There are other, very special ways to control the black point and white point values, and thereby the respective sliders; those are described in the Pixel selection.

Changing the original raw data

The raw data remains unchanged in memory in the entire duration of the analysis. However, the raw pixel values may be changed on a particular way immediately after having read the data. That change can not be reversed, the raw file has to be opened and read again in order to work with the original rax pixel values.

Following options are available:

The special key combination has to be kept pressed down when clicking on the Process button or when starting processing of a raw file in the Browse dialog. It's enough to keep these keys pressed one or two seconds long.

Note, that

Pixel selection

When displaying the image in normal size, a rectangular area of the display can be selected by right-clicking at a point of the display, holding down the right mouse button and dragging the selection in the direction and to the size needed. The selected area is marked by an orange rectangle. Another selection can be made at any time; the previous selection will be released. The selection can be removed by the keyboard action Ctrl-D.

An important aspect of the raw pixel analysis is determining, which pixels should be involved in it and how. The selection is based on the color and value of raw pixels.

The effect of pixel color and value selection is described in other chapters, here we deal only with the way the selection occurs.

The tools of pixel selection are:

Area selection

When displaying the image in normal size, a rectangular area of the display can be selected by right-clicking at a point of the display, holding down the right mouse button and dragging the selection in the direction and to the size needed. The selected area is marked by an orange rectangle. Another selection can be made at any time; the previous selection will be released. The selection can be removed by the keyboard action Ctrl-D.

The unit of selection is the color filter array pattern, i.e. a block of 2x2 pixels, not individual pixels. Thus a single pixel can not be selected.

The selection remains active between different display modes. When changing to histogram mode or to reduced size display, the selection remains defined but not displayed, nor is the related statistics displayed. When changing back to normal size display or to image or exposure display mode from histogram display, the selection will be shown again with the related statistics.

It is important to understand, that a part of the display area is selected, not a part of the image. When the image position is changed, the selection remains on the very same place, i.e. another part of the image gets selected, and the statistics is recalculated.

The selection remains unchanged even when opening another image; this is useful when comparing two images of the same scenery.

The use of a selection is:

Following screen capture helps explaining the display associated with a selection:

The orange colored rectangle frames the selected area;
the red rectangles mark the associated information.
The red markings do not appear on the dialog window,
they are drawn only for the sake of explanation.


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Modified: 2008-04-29

Tooltips:

display mode:

The initial selection is composite. Any selection remains effective after opening another image.

display mode:

The black arrow represents the image orientation, relating to the normal orientation of the camera, which is landscape for most cameras (wider side horizontal), but some cameras' normal orientation is portrait.
denotes the normal orientation,
denotes the left turned orientation, which is how most cameras are held for portrait orientation,
denotes the right turned orientation, which is how a few people are shooting in portrait mode,
denotes the upside down orientation.

The initial orientation is the one recorded in the raw file. If the orientation is not recorded, then the initial orientation is upright. When clicking on an arrow, the displayed orientation is changed to the one corresponding to that arrow.

The image can be rotated by 90° to the left with the keyboard action Ctrl-L and 90° to the right with the keyboard action Ctrl-R.

The black point control group and the white point control group are explained further down. Click to jump at Pixel selection.

The unlabelled slider is for lightness adjustment. The adjustment can be made at 1/3 EV, 1/2 EV or 2/3 EV points. (Note, that this adjustment is often referred to as exposure adjustment, however that is an incorrect usage of the term, for the exposure can not be adjusted after the shot has been made.)

The initial position of this slider is usually at null, but in some cases it shows an adjustment, which is indicated in the raw file. Example: Canon 40D images shot with the Highlight Tone Priority (HTP) option start with an adjustment of +1.

Depending on the selected display mode, different checkboxes appear as selection of further options. These are described with the related display mode.

Selection of the mapping function decides, which mathematical function will be applied, when transforming the linear raw data in a more displayable form in composite color, channel or greyscale mode. Some of the functions are designed to vastly increase the contrast in the highlights, while creating strange side effects.

Note, that only the color intensity of the displayed image is affected by the selected function. The colors themselves are of the camera's color space and don't get transformed in sRGB, etc.

The shooting data consists of the camera maker and model, camera body serial number, date and time of the shooting, image dimensions, ISO, aperture, shutter time and lens focal length; some of these may be missing.

Notes:

The statistics under Black Point shows the number and proportion of the selected pixels in the lower range. This statistics is affected by the black point value and by the Outside range selection.

The statistics under White Point shows the number and proportion of the selected pixels in the upper range. This statistics is affected by the white point value and by the Outside range selection.

Notes on the pixel statistics:

The current zooming indicator; for example indicates 3x magnification, while shows, that the reduced size image is displayed.

In the normal view each pixel of the raw image is displayed as a pixel on the monitor. The image can be magnified by typing in + (plus) character; repeated typing can increase the magnification to up to ten times.

Typing in the - (minus) character reduces the magnification. In composite color and greyscale display mode the display size can be effectively reduced, so that each color filter array block is represented by a single pixel.

The normal view (no magnification, no reduction) can be reinstated immediately by entering Alt, Ctrl and S.

The position and size of the current area selection, see Area selection below.

Pixel statistics of the current area selection, see Area selection below.

Example of area selection.

When displaying the image in normal size, a rectangular area of the display can be selected by right-clicking at a point of the display, holding down the right mouse button and dragging the selection in the direction and to the size needed. The selected area is marked by an orange rectangle. Another selection can be made at any time; the previous selection will be released. The selection can be removed by the keyboard action Ctrl-D.