"sparklies" in digital image

Ted Kerin wrote:

Can anyone please help me to identify
what is going on with my Casio Exilim
s20U images?

The only things I spot with either image
are clearly highlights or reflections from
the subjects.

Perhaps you could post shots with arrows
identifying the spots that interest you?

"Ted Kerin" wrote in
ink.net:

After I posted, I called Casio tech support, which suggested that I
send the camera in for repair. But the guy didn't really have a theory
about the cause, so I'm still interested in what you or anyone has to
say. Thanks again.


Sorry - but I cannot see any problems with your pictures.

There are lots of JPEG artefacts due to large compression though.

There is lots of noise in the dark areas if you increase the gamma,
but that is normal with such a small sensor.

But specs in dark areas and surrounding subjects. Nope - nothing.





/Roland

"Ted Kerin" wrote in
ink.net:

After I posted, I called Casio tech support, which suggested that I
send the camera in for repair. But the guy didn't really have a theory
about the cause, so I'm still interested in what you or anyone has to
say. Thanks again.


Sorry - but I cannot see any problems with your pictures.

There are lots of JPEG artefacts due to large compression though.

There is lots of noise in the dark areas if you increase the gamma,
but that is normal with such a small sensor.

But specs in dark areas and surrounding subjects. Nope - nothing.





/Roland

Marvin, John and Tetcractys

Thank to all 3 of you for replying! As a result of your posts, I have
checked the online images again here on my office computer, and guess what?
The speckles can't be seen here! (In fact, the photos also look considerably
darker on this monitor.)

Now, I'm thinking that I need to make some kind of adjustment on my home
monitor. On that monitor, I see a sort of halo of white speckles around the
contours of the objects in the room, and a spray of speckles on the wall
behind the boy's head. They look like hot pixels (which I googled after
reading Larry's post), except they're in a pattern conforming to the shapes.

I'm so glad that you took time to post, before I put my camera in the mail.

Time to check out my home monitor. Its gamma is controlled by Photoshop's
Adobe gamma, and, in what might be a related issue, my printer alway prints
color photos darker than they appear on my screen. Rather than do the whole
Adobe protocol to get my monitor in sync with the printer, I just brighten
the images with an adjustment layer in Photoshop before printing. But these
"sparklies" are a whole new observation, and very distracting. I'll
investigate the monitor settings.

Thanks again.

Hi Ted, The determining factor to me would be whether the artifacts you see
degrade the printed image. If they are only obvious on the screen image I
wouldn't worry about it. Personally I don't think you have much of a
problem!

Ted Kerin wrote:
Marvin, John and Tetcractys

Thank to all 3 of you for replying! As a result of your posts, I have
checked the online images again here on my office computer, and guess what?
The speckles can't be seen here! (In fact, the photos also look considerably
darker on this monitor.)

Now, I'm thinking that I need to make some kind of adjustment on my home
monitor. On that monitor, I see a sort of halo of white speckles around the
contours of the objects in the room, and a spray of speckles on the wall
behind the boy's head. They look like hot pixels (which I googled after
reading Larry's post), except they're in a pattern conforming to the shapes.

I'm so glad that you took time to post, before I put my camera in the mail.

Time to check out my home monitor. Its gamma is controlled by Photoshop's
Adobe gamma, and, in what might be a related issue, my printer alway prints
color photos darker than they appear on my screen. Rather than do the whole
Adobe protocol to get my monitor in sync with the printer, I just brighten
the images with an adjustment layer in Photoshop before printing. But these
"sparklies" are a whole new observation, and very distracting. I'll
investigate the monitor settings.

Thanks again.



Excessive sharpening can cause the symptoms you describe. However, I
could see nothing wrong with the pictures as displayed here.

Ted Kerin wrote:
Marvin, John and Tetcractys

Thank to all 3 of you for replying! As a result of your posts, I have
checked the online images again here on my office computer, and guess what?
The speckles can't be seen here! (In fact, the photos also look considerably
darker on this monitor.)

Now, I'm thinking that I need to make some kind of adjustment on my home
monitor. On that monitor, I see a sort of halo of white speckles around the
contours of the objects in the room, and a spray of speckles on the wall
behind the boy's head. They look like hot pixels (which I googled after
reading Larry's post), except they're in a pattern conforming to the shapes.

I'm so glad that you took time to post, before I put my camera in the mail.

Time to check out my home monitor. Its gamma is controlled by Photoshop's
Adobe gamma, and, in what might be a related issue, my printer alway prints
color photos darker than they appear on my screen. Rather than do the whole
Adobe protocol to get my monitor in sync with the printer, I just brighten
the images with an adjustment layer in Photoshop before printing. But these
"sparklies" are a whole new observation, and very distracting. I'll
investigate the monitor settings.

Thanks again.



Excessive sharpening can cause the symptoms you describe. However, I
could see nothing wrong with the pictures as displayed here.

It turned out, changing the brightness and contrast on my monitor didn't
help (I haven't messed with the gamma software) -- but, the sparklies went
away, like magic, when I changed my display settings in Control Panel
Display.

I reduced the color depth from 32-bit to 16-bit, and the problem was gone.

I guess I don't really need the 32-bit, but it's puzzling. I suppose it's
some limitation in my graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200), that messes up
certain dark or transitional areas of certain images at 32-bits. I
appreciate that a display-only problem doesn't affect prints, but it does
affect my ability to judge when there's a problem that needs retouching.

Anyway, I'm happy that it's fixed, and thanks again to all who helped me to
see that the problem was with the display on my main computer, not in the
image file.

I like my shirt-pocket Exilim, and I'm glad to know it's not defective. The
newer ones have optical zoom, which of course is a plus, but at a price of
making the camera more than twice as thick.

Final solution:

I installed the latest driver from NVIDIA, and now the images display fine,
even in 32-bit.

The computer is only about 6 months old, but this shows how you may always
need a newer update for drivers. Perhaps the old driver didn't like the
upgrade of DirectX that came with some of my DVD programs.

Lesson learned.

Final solution:

I installed the latest driver from NVIDIA, and now the images display fine,
even in 32-bit.

The computer is only about 6 months old, but this shows how you may always
need a newer update for drivers. Perhaps the old driver didn't like the
upgrade of DirectX that came with some of my DVD programs.

Lesson learned.