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How to avoid thin lines turning into dotted or dashed lines in print or display?

apsheng

Member
I did a search on this and nothing showed up. In both printing and monitor displays the lines on a sailboat become dashed lines. This is true on my monitor and in my Epson 3800 prints @280 dpi for various sizes. I also noticed this problem is worse in the Windows 7 Screensavers display than Lightroom display.

Thanks for your help,
Alan
 

weinschela

Subscriber Member
I did a search on this and nothing showed up. In both printing and monitor displays the lines on a sailboat become dashed lines. This is true on my monitor and in my Epson 3800 prints @280 dpi for various sizes. I also noticed this problem is worse in the Windows 7 Screensavers display than Lightroom display.

Thanks for your help,
Alan
What kind of image file? Size?
 

apsheng

Member
What kind of image file? Size?
Hi Alan, DNG into LR3 then export as jpeg for monitor display in Windows 7, or export tiff to CS3 for print with Epson 3800.
I have discovered after my first post that the problem disappears if I exactly match (downres in LR) the image pixal size to my monitor. I have not tried the same for the print since I am away from my printer.
However another problem remain. There is also moire like color stuff in the lines (see attached heavily cropped image) which I believe is caused by the texture in the lines. I have emailed to Leica for there explanation.

Alan
 

weinschela

Subscriber Member
I've not had any of he missing line problem shooting raw and converting in ACR For CS5 regardless of camera (Leica M9,M8; Canon 5Dii, or even point and shoots and regardless of screen or print resolution. As for the color that you describe as moire, I would say more likely it is chromatic aberration, perhaps correctable or improved in ACR. I'm not sure which version of ACR you are running, but I think Adobe is up to v 6.4 now. I'd have some else develop your files in the latest ACR and then see whether you still have these artifacts.
 

apsheng

Member
CA is definitely another suspect. Perhaps the fog exacerbated it. This photo was shot with M9 and the previous vers. Lux 35 asph. Similar photos shot with Elmarit 24 in clear weather show much less of this artifact. It was also there, although to a much lesser degree, with the M8 and M8.2. With the A900 there is just the slightest hint.

Alan
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Couple of things re jaggies. First, try less sharpening in LR. Also try converting the raw file in C1 instead -- it seems to do a better job with CCD files. As for printing, if the jaggies show up in the native file, they'll also show up in the print. Finally it is better to print Epson files at 240 or 360 than 280 as it's easier on the print dithering engine.
 

weinschela

Subscriber Member
it is better to print Epson files at 240 or 360 than 280 as it's easier on the print dithering engine.
I agree with Jack on this. I happen to use 360 fpr Epson. But I have never noticed a difference in moire dependent on the printer setting. Maybe it is the nature/size of the files posted. I still see more CA than moire in what was posted (and I could be wrong) but looking at a file that was interpolated for the Internet is not the best way to examine. I also use a M9 and have done boat photos and not seen this by the way. I'll send you a photo of thousands of boats if you PM me --- but it was done with completely different lens -- 90mm Elmarit.

Alan
 

apsheng

Member
Thanks Jack and Alan. The jaggies are definitely not in the native file but the color stuff is there. Now that I know what to look for I can even see the color stuff in some (not all) of the boat shots taken with the A900. But that's at actual pixel level and totally not obvious.

Alan, just pm'ed you for your boat picture.

Alan
 

apsheng

Member
Here is a response from the Leica factory (Solmes):

“This is due to the combination of our high performance lenses and “no moiré filter”
If the lines hits exactly 1 Pixel width, it is tough to find the right color interpolation.
The positive effect is, that you see a line that is sharper than from any other camera, but the side effect is, that in some cases these color moiré effects can occur.”

“These artifacts are very sensitive to the image processing algorithms, therefore it is worth trying to use another RAW converter in this case, or some different settings in the RAW converter.”

Alan
 
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