9224-2766-21 H-B109 (V11) E INSTRUCTION MANUAL
• This instruction manual may not be copied either in part or in its entirety without the prior permission of Minolta Co., Ltd. © 2001 Minolta Co., Ltd. • Every precaution has been taken to ensure the accuracy of this material Please contact Minolta if you have any questions, find any mistakes or notice missing information. • Minolta cannot accept responsibility for any loss, damage or other problems caused by use of this software.
This instruction manual does not provide instructions for the basic operation of the personal computers, or the basic operation of Windows® or Mac OS operating systems. Please refer to the manual that came with your computer for information on the above mentioned topics. • Microsoft® and Windows® are registered trademarks in the United States and other countries of Microsoft Corporation. • The official name of Windows® is Microsoft® Windows® Operating System.
TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS..................................................................................................4 BEFORE YOU BEGIN.....................................................................................................6 TERMS USED IN THIS MANUAL..............................................................................6 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (Windows®).......................................................................8 INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE (Windows®) ...............
TABLE OF CONTENTS COLOR CORRECTION ................................................................................................46 Corrections using the tone curves ...........................................................................47 To Draw a Free Hand Tone Curve ...........................................................................48 To Correct Images Using the “Black Point” Button...................................................49 To Correct Images Using the “White Point” Button .....
BEFORE YOU BEGIN TERMS USED IN THIS MANUAL • This manual assumes that your computer’s operating system (Windows®95/98/98 Second Edition/Me/2000/NT 4.0 or Mac OS) as well as other necessary software such as device drivers have been installed, and are operating properly. • In general, the descriptions in this manual are illustrated by the displays for the Windows® version.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN • If you are using Macintosh OS, the term ‘Command Key’ refers to the key located next to the Space Bar. • Command names shown in this manual which are common both to the Windows® and Macintosh systems do not indicate any of the shortcut keys found in Windows® command names. Example No. 1: The File command appears as “File” on Windows® and “File” on Macintosh menus, but in this manual it is shown as merely as “File.” Example No.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (Windows®) The system requirements for the operation of this software are as shown below: IBM PC/AT and their compatible computers CPU Intel Pentium® Processor 133MHz or higher OS Windows®2000 Professional, Windows®Me, Windows®98 / 98 Second Edition, Windoes®95, Windows®NT4.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (Macintosh) The system requirements for the operation of this software are as shown below: Apple Macintosh Series computers CPU PowerPC 100MHz or higher (except a non-Macintosh Mac OS-compatible computer) OS Mac OS 8.6 / 9 / 9.0.2 / 9.0.4 / 9.
INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE (Windows®) Follow the procedure below to install the software on your Windows PC. RAM stationed programs such as anti-virus programs or installation monitoring programs may cause the installer to fail. Uninstall those programs from your system or temporarily disable them before starting the installation, and then put them back on your system after completing the installation.
INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE (Windows®) 4. Click “Next >”. The “License Agreement” (figure-left) appears. Read the entire “License Agreement” carefully before continuing the installation If you do not agree to the terms of the “License Agreement”, click “No”. The installation procedure will be terminated. 5. Click “Yes”. The window that lets you select a destination folder of the software (figure-left) appears. 6.
INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE (Windows®) Click “Next >”, and the “Select Program Folder” window (figure-left) will appear. 7. The name of the program folder where you will add the program icon is shown in the window. Click “Next >” to add the icon in the default (reversed) folder. To add the program icon in a new folder, type the folder name in the box under “Program Folders:” and then click “Next >”.
INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE (Macintosh) Follow the procedure below to install the software on your Macintosh computer. Functional expansion programs such as anti-virus programs or control panel documents may cause the installer to fail. Remove those programs/documents from your system using the utility such as the functional expansion manager or temporarily disable them before starting the installation, and then put them back on your system after completing the installation. For Macintosh: 1.
INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE (Macintosh) 6. Click “Next >>” in the Installer’s initial window. The “License Agreement” (figure-left) appears. Read the entire “License Agreement” carefully before continuing the installation. If you do not agree to the terms of the “License Agreement”, click “No”. The installation procedure will be terminated. 7. Click “Yes”. The window that lets you select a destination folder of the software (figure-left) appears.
INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE (Macintosh) 8. Make sure that you have selected a proper folder for installation, and then click “Next >>”. The software installation starts. Follow the instructions shown on the screen. When the software installation has been completed, the window shown in the lower left-hand corner (Operation 9.) appears. 9. Click “Quit”. The software installation procedure is complete.
STARTING THE SOFTWARE For Windows®: 1. Turn on your PC to start Windows®. 2. Select “Start” “Programs(P)” “DiMAGE Image Viewer Utility”. “DiMAGE Image Viewer Utility” The main window of the utility (figure-left) appears.
STARTING THE SOFTWARE For Macintosh: 1. Turn on your Macintosh to start Mac OS. 2. Open the folder where you installed the application software (the folder that you selected or created during the software installation), and open the “DiMAGE Image Viewer Utility” folder in the same way. 3. Double-click the “DiMAGE Image Viewer Utility” software application icon. Double-click the “DiMAGE Image Viewer Utility” software application icon (the icon circled in the lefthand figure).
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS This software reads all image files (or one file) in the selected folder, and displays their thumbnails (100 x 75 pixels) on the screen. Since the software also has color matching capability, you can select the output color space when image files are read so that you can control colors for the monitor or the color space that you use. Note: Subsequent parts of this document assume the following three items: 1 The computer and digital camera are connected by the USB cable.
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS To Display Thumbnails of All Images in the Folder: 3. Click the “Load All Images” button of the main window. The OS (operating system) standard folder selection dialog box appears. (The left-hand figure is for Windows®.) 4. Select the folder where image files are stored, and then click “Select”. For Windows®: 1 Click the plus (+) sign located on the left of the disk icon described as Removable Disk. 2 Click the plus (+) sign located on the left of the folder named Dcim.
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS 5. Image files in the selected folder are read, and their thumbnails are displayed (figure-left). * If Minolta-RAW files (image files with the .mrw extension) exist in the selected folder, thumbnail filenames of Minolta-RAW files that the “RAW File Processing” (see page 23) has not been performed are shown in “red”.
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS To Display a Thumbnail of a Certain Image in the Folder: (continued from page 18, Operation 2) 3. Click the “Load an Image” button in the main window. The OS (operating system) standard folder selection dialog box appears. (The left-hand figure is for Windows®.) 4. Select the image file that you wish to see, and click “Open”.
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS * If you select Minolta-RAW files (image files with the .mrw extension), thumbnail filenames of Minolta-RAW files that the “RAW File Processing” (see page 23) has not been performed are shown in “red”. * If you click a thumbnail of a Minolta-RAW file and then click the “RAW File Process” button, the “Open the Minolta-RAW File” window appears so that you can adjust its saturation, contrast or sharpness. See page 24 of this document for details.
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS To Open Minolta-RAW Files (RAW File Processing): When thumbnails are displayed, Minolta-RAW files that their thumbnail filenames are shown in red indicate that the “RAW File Processing” has not been performed yet.
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS 1. Click the thumbnail image of the Minolta-RAW file that you wish to perform the RAW File Processing. If you wish to select more than one thumbnail image of the Minolta-RAW file, press and hold the Ctrlkey (the Command key in case of Macintosh), and then click those thumbnail images.
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS In the “Open the Minolta-RAW File” window, you can perform the different processing to Minolta RAW files for their white balance/saturation/contrast/sharpness settings. If you wish to perform the RAW File Processing according to the white balance/saturation/contrast/sharpness set by the digital camera during recording, skip the Operation 3 and 4, and go to the Operation 5. 3. Select a white balance option to apply from the white balance selection menu.
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS If you click “Reset”, you can clear all settings you set in this dialog box. If you checked the “Color Matching ON” checkbox when you opened the folder/file, saturation/contrast slide bars are inactive. If you used the “Portrait” or “Night portrait” option of the digital subject program selection, the sharpness buttons are inactive. 3. Click “OK”.
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS The dialog box shown in the left appears during the “RAW File Processing” (the left-hand dialog box shows the case when 4 Minolta-RAW files are processed). If you click “Cancel”, all the “RAW File Processing” from that time on are stopped, the software closes the “Open the Minolta-RAW File” window and the procedure is put back to the main window.
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS To Save in the Minolta-RAW File Format: If you click “Save” instead of “OK” in the “Open the Minolta-RAW File” window, the OS (operating system) standard file save dialog appears. (The lefthand figure is for Windows®.
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USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS To Rotate, Flip and Sort Thumbnails: Sorting-Order Switch button Sorting-Target Specification list box Flip-Vertical button Flip-Horizontal button Rotate-Clockwise button Rotate-Counterclockwise button [Rotate] Select a thumbnail and click either the “Rotate-Counterclockwise” or the “Rotate-clockwise” button. If you click the “Rotate-Counterclockwise” button once, the thumbnail will be rotated by 90 degrees counterclockwise.
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS To Change the Image Size: 1. Select the thumbnail that you wish to re-size, and then click the “Image Size” button in the main window. The “Image Size” window appears. 2. Type the width or the height value of the re-sized image in pixels. If you change either the width or the height value, the other value will be changed automatically according to the width/height ratio of the current (before resizing) image. When you re-size the image, you can only reduce the size.
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS To Display the Image (Recording) Information: 1. Select the thumbnail for which you wish to see image information, and then click the “Image Information” button in the main window. The “Image Information” window appears (lower-left figure). If you have selected more than one thumbnail image, this window appears as many times as the number of thumbnail images that you selected. See page 41 for how to select more than one thumbnail image.
USING THE SOFTWARE – THUMBNAILS To Delete Thumbnails: 1. Select the (thumbnailed) image that you wish to delete in the thumbnail display area of the main window. 2. Press the “Delete” key on your keyboard. The selected thumbnail will be deleted. This only removes the selected thumbnail from the thumbnail display area of the main window, and does not have any influence on the actual image file. (The image file exists as it is.
USING THE SOFTWARE – COLOR MATCHING The color matching function of this software is to reproduce a subject’s color on your monitor screen or on the specified color space. If you wish to reproduce a subject for photography as close to original colors as possible, you should select the “Color Matching ON” option. * If you selected the “Color Matching ON” option, the software will reproduce images as close to the subjects’ original colors as possible.
USING THE SOFTWARE – COLOR MATCHING 2. Select the desired color space from the “Output Color Space” drop-down list. If you wish to reproduce images on your monitor as close to the subjects’ original colors as possible, select the “Use ICC profile” option from the “Output Color Space” drop-down list, and then set the ICC profile of your monitor properly. * ICC profiles are the files that describe color monitors’ color reproduction characteristics, and they are provided by the monitor manufacturers.
USING THE SOFTWARE – COLOR MATCHING 2. Click “Load…”. The Windows® standard file open dialog box appears. 3. Select your color monitor’s ICC profile, and then click “Open”. ICC profiles are normally stored in the following folders (if your system startup disk drive is C): • Windows®95/98/98SE/Me C:\Windows\System\Color • Windows®NT4.
USING THE SOFTWARE – COLOR MATCHING If you use Macintosh, follow the procedure below. 1. Select the “Use ICC profile” option from the “Output Color Space” pop-up menu. 2. Click “Choose” of the folder selection dialog box or “Open” of the file selection dialog box. The folder selection or the file selection dialog box is closed automatically, and the Mac OS standard file open dialog box (figure-left) appears. 3. Select your color monitor’s ICC profile, and then click “Choose”.
USING THE SOFTWARE – SAVING IMAGES The following describes how to save thumbnailed images as image files in your desired location. To Save an Image File: 1. Select the thumbnail that you wish to save. 2. Click the “Save an Image” button in the main window. The OS (operating system) standard file save dialog appears. (The figure in the lower left-hand is for Windows® and that in the lower right-hand for Macintosh.
USING THE SOFTWARE – SAVING IMAGES 3. Select the location to save the image file from the “Save in:” drop-down list (the pop-up menu on the top of the dialog for Macintosh), and then type the file name to save in the textbox next to “File name:” (“Name:” for Macintosh). If you do not type the extension here, the corresponding extension to the type of image file that you will select in the following Operation 4. will be automatically added at the end of the filename (.tif for TIFF, or .jpg for JPEG).
USING THE SOFTWARE – SAVING IMAGES If you selected “JPEG”, set the compression ratio within the range of 1 (“High Image”) through 100 (“Low Image”) by dragging the slide bar with the mouse. 5. Click “Save”.
USING THE SOFTWARE – SAVING IMAGES To Save Multiple Images at One Time: 1. Select the thumbnails that you wish to save. If you wish to select more than 2 (thumbnail) images, click those (thumbnail) images while holding the “Ctrl” key (“Command” key for Macintosh). If you wish to select more than 2 (thumbnail) images listed continuously, click the first and the last (thumbnail) images while holding the “Shift” key (“shift” key for Macintosh).
USING THE SOFTWARE – SAVING IMAGES 3. Select the destination folder to save images. 4. Select the type of image files to save from the “File Type:” drop-down list (“File Type:” pop-up menu for Macintosh). Select either “TIFF” or “JPEG” . Select the TIFF format Bit length by clicking either the “24Bit” or the “48Bit” radio button when you save 48bit TIFF images (TIFF image/RGB 16bit each) or (processed) Minolta-RAW image files in TIFF format. 24bit – RGB 8bit each, save as a 24bit image.
USING THE SOFTWARE – SAVING IMAGES All images selected at Operation 1 in the previous page will be saved as image files with the fil type (and the compression ratio) specified in this window.You can not specify those to each image separately. If you save multiple images at one time, those filenames will be original names (without original extensions) plus specified file type (.tif for “TIFF” and .jpg for “JPEG”).
USING THE SOFTWARE – SAVING IMAGES 6. Click “OK” (click “Choose” for Macintosh). The saving process is started. The dialog box shown in the left appears during the saving process (the left-hand dialog box shows the case when 4 image files are saved at one time). If you click “Cancel”, all the image saving processes from that time on are stopped. If you click “Cancel” when it shows as “Saving 3/4 “PICT0003.JPG”. . .” in the left-hand dialog box example, the 3rd and the 4th images will not be saved.
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COLOR CORRECTION If you click the “Color Correction” tab, the following “Color Correction” window appears. You can add various corrections (retouches) using tone curves and histograms, or corrections of brightness, color balance, saturation, lightness and so on.
COLOR CORRECTION Corrections using the tone curves 1. Click the “Tone Curves/Histogram Correction” button. The “Tone Curves and Histogram” window (figure-below) appears. 2. Select the desired tone curve channel to correct from the “Channel” dropdown list. If you select the “RGB” channel, each color will be corrected based on the same ratio. If you select “R”, “G” or “B”, you can correct each color separately. You can also select the channel from your keyboard (shortcut).
COLOR CORRECTION To Draw a Free Hand Tone Curve: 1. Click the “Tone Curves/Histogram Correction” button. 2. Select the desired tone curve channel to correct from the “Channel” dropdown list. 3. Click the “Draw Tone Curves” button, and then move the mouse cursor over the tone curve. The mouse cursor changes to a pen shape. 4. Drag the mouse to draw the tone curve. The tone curve correction result will be reflected in the preview image in the corrected image display area.
COLOR CORRECTION To Correct Images Using the “Black Point” Button: You can correct images by specifying the shadow point (the point that you wish to reproduce in black) on the preview image in the corrected image display area. 1. Double-click the “Black Point” button. The “Point Value Setting” window (figure-left) appears. Initial values of black point values are all set to zero for “R”, “G” and “B” (deep-black). 2.
COLOR CORRECTION To Correct Images Using the “White Point” Button: You can correct images by specifying the highlight point (the point that you wish to reproduce in white) on the preview image in the corrected image display area. 1. Double-click the “White Point” button. The “Point Value Setting” window (figure-left) appears. Initial values of white point values are all set to 255 for “R”, “G” and “B” (pure white). 2.
COLOR CORRECTION To Correct Images Using the “Gray Point” Button: You can correct images by specifying the gray point (the point that you wish to reproduce in monochrome) on the preview image in the corrected image display area. 1. Click the “Gray Point” button. The mouse cursor changes to a syringe shape. 2. Click the point that you wish to reproduce in monochrome (gray) on the preview image in the corrected image display area.
COLOR CORRECTION Histogram Correction – Auto Setting: You can correct images by specifying the “Input Level” and the “Output Level” ranges in the “Histogram” palette in the corrected image display area, where the color level distribution of the preview image is displayed. The color level is divided into 256 levels from 0 through 255. You can find the “Input Level Setting” slide bar under the “Histogram” palette, and the “Output Level Setting” slide bar under the “Input Level Setting” slide bar.
COLOR CORRECTION Histogram Correction – To Correct RGB Channels Separately: 1. Click the “RGB Histograms” button. The “Tone Curves and Histogram” window is expanded to the right and each histogram for “R”, “G” and “B” (figure-lower left) appears. You can close the histogram for each channel by click the “RGB Histograms” button again. 2.
COLOR CORRECTION To Correct Brightness, Contrast and Color Balance: 1. Click the “Brightness, Contrast and Color Balance Correction” button. The “Brightness, Contrast and Color Balance Correction” window (figure-lower left) appears. 2. Drag the control of each slide bar with the mouse, or type an appropriate number in each box. For each control, the farther you move the control to the right from the center (the larger a positive number you type in the box is), the larger the effect of the correction is.
COLOR CORRECTION If you click “Auto Setting”, “Brightness” and “Contrast” will be automatically adjusted based on the lightness information holding the RGB color balance. You can cancel all kinds of correction performed in the “Brightness, Contrast and Color Balance Correction” window by clicking “Reset”. The preview image in the corrected image display area will return to the original status where no corrections are performed.
COLOR CORRECTION To Correct Hue, Saturation and Lightness: 1. Click the “Hue, Saturation and Lightness Correction” button. The “Hue, Saturation, Lightness Correction” window (figure-lower left) appears. 2. Drag the control of each slide bar with the mouse, or type an appropriate number in each box. If you move the “Hue” control, the hue shown by the “Adjusted Color Sample Before Corrections” in red, blue and green changes to the status shown by the “Adjusted Color Sample After Corrections”.
COLOR CORRECTION If you click “Auto Setting”, “Saturation” will be automatically corrected focusing on conspicuous parts of the image and holding “Hue” and “Lightness” as they are. You can cancel all kinds of correction performed in the “Hue, Saturation, Lightness Correction” window by clicking “Reset”. The preview image in the corrected image display area will return to the original status where no corrections are performed.
COLOR CORRECTION Variation Correction: You can perform corrections of “Color Balance”, “Brightness & Contrast” and “Saturation” while checking the finishing (the image after corrections) on simulation images. 1. Click the “Variation Correction” button. The “Variation” window (figure-lower left) appears. 2. Select the desired variation option from the drop-down list of the “Select Variations” combo box. You can choose one out of three kinds; “Color Balance”, “Brightness & Contrast” and “Saturation”.
COLOR CORRECTION Variation Correction – Color Balance: “Adjust Correction Level” slide bar “Display Limit” checkbox If you selected the “Color Balance” variation option, showing the “Current” image in the center, six other simulation images are displayed for “Red (R)”, “Magenta (M)”, “Blue (B)”, “Cyan (C)”, “Green (G)” and “Yellow (Y)”, where each simulation image has been corrected by one level up to the “Current” image.
COLOR CORRECTION Variation Correction – Brightness & Contrast: “Adjust Correction Level” slide bar “Display Limit” checkbox If you selected the “Brightness & Contrast” variation option, showing the “Current” image in the center, eight other simulation images are displayed, where each simulation image has been corrected by one level (“Less”, “Current” and “More”) for “Brightness” holding the same status in the horizontal direction and for “Contrast” in the vertical direction to the “Current” image.
COLOR CORRECTION Variation Correction – Saturation: “Adjust Correction Level” slide bar “Display Limit” checkbox If you selected the “Saturation” variation option, showing the “Current” image in the center, two other simulation images are displayed in the horizontal direction, where each simulation image has been corrected by one level (“Less” and “More”) to the “Current” image.
COLOR CORRECTION To Undo the Correction: Click the “Undo” button. You can cancel the current image correction and return the image to the previous status. You can keep cancelling corrections you made by clicking the button repeatedly as far as your computer memory capacity allows. To Redo the Canceled Correction: Click the “Redo” button. You can perform the canceled operation again. To Undo All Color Corrections: Click the “Reset All” button. You can cancel all color corrections.
COLOR CORRECTION Snapshot: You can save the preview image displayed in the corrected image display area temporarily in the snapshot display area. If you save the snapshot at each phase of correction, you can quickly preview the image under each correction status. Click the “Snapshot” button. The current preview image is temporarily saved and thumbnailed in the snapshot display area.
COLOR CORRECTION Color Correction Job: You can register color correction contents in each correction window as the “Color Correction Job”. If you have a fixed correction pattern (to some extent), you can easily perform the fixed color correction pattern by registering the series of correction contents as the color correction job and simply selecting the job. 1. Perform desired corrections to the preview image in the “Correction Image Display” area. 2. Click the “Store a Color Correction Job” button.
COLOR CORRECTION To apply the registered color correction job to other images, perform the following operations: 1. Display the image that you wish to apply the series of color corrections in the “Correction Image Display” area. 2. Click the “Select a Color Correction Job” button. The “Select a Color Correction Job” window appears. 3. Select the color correction job that you wish to apply, and then click “OK”.
COLOR CORRECTION To Compare the Pre/Post Correction Images: Click the “Pre/Post Correction Comparison” button. You can check the correction result by comparison with the pre-correction image that appears in the left with the post-correction image in the right. If you click the “Pre/Post Correction Comparison” button again, the pre-correction image disappears and only the post-correction image remains.
COLOR CORRECTION To Display the Whole Post-Correction Image: Click the “Whole Image” button. The whole post-correction image is expanded or shrunken according to the main window size, and displayed in the corrected image display area. If you click the “Whole Image” button again, it returns to the original-sized image.
COLOR CORRECTION Thumbnail Number Display: If you selected the image folder (see page 19), the total number of images in the folder and the frame number of the image currently displayed. frame number of the image currently displayed If you click “ ”, the previous frame is displayed. If you click “ ”, the next frame is displayed.
COLOR CORRECTION RGB Value Display: The RGB values are displayed for the current mouse pointer location on the preview image in the corrected image display area.
SHARPNESS If you click the “Sharpness” tab, the following sharpness correction window appears. You can set the frequency to be emphasized or the degree to be emphasized while checking those effects on the preview image. 1. Drag the “Frequency to be” slide bar control with the mouse to select the frequency that you wish to emphasize the sharpness. You can not set the control between graduations. 2.
SHARPNESS If you check the “Preview” checkbox, you can execute the real time reflection of the correction effect to the preview image in the sharpness correction window. You can select display magnification out of six options; 100%, 66.7%, 50%, 33.3%, 25% and 16.7%. If you click the “+” button under the preview image, the display magnification of the preview image becomes larger. If you click the “-” button, it becomes smaller.
QUITING THE SOFTWARE Click the “Close” box in the main window (the “X” button on the upper right-hand corner of the main window for Windows®, and the “ ” button on the far left corner of the title bar for Macintosh). The main window is closed and the software quits.
