Photo Quality on Mac

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SO I recently purchased my very first MAC and I am quite excited about it being an ameture photographer and all,
but there are some things that quite fustrate me,
firstly, when I downloaded my latest images, they were all grainy and I almost had a heart attack.
My canon EOS 400D has th ability to save raw images in JPG files but when i download them onto the comptuer the image duplicates one with a cr2 extension the other with a JPG! (the cr2 are all grainy, and all my JPG are dark)
I'm freaking out here becuase on the PC most of my image quality is great, but why is it all grainy on the mac?
 
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Are you exposing them properly? What EV might you be shooting at?
 
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Did you turn the ISO up by accident and forget about it? Image quality should be the exact same unless you did something.
 
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Your camera sounds like it is set to take both a jpeg & RAW pictures, hence the duplicate file with different extensions.
You have to PP (post process) the RAW to get the most out of it...I'm new at it too so I don't really know how to explain it better than that.

If you don't know how to PP, just set the camera to take jpg (saves space)
 
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Why not load the same image on both the Mac and the PC and compare them. Just copy them don't use any particular software to do any processing.

That way you'll know where the problem lies - the image itself, Mac or Pc

If you don't have access to the PC any more take a new set of images using full automatic rather than any manual settings (i.e. remove the yourself from the equation).

Post back the results. Maybe post resized versions of the troublesome pics and the exif data.
 
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I didn't think the XTI could do RAW + JPG.
 
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SO I recently purchased my very first MAC and I am quite excited about it being an ameture photographer and all,
but there are some things that quite fustrate me,
firstly, when I downloaded my latest images, they were all grainy and I almost had a heart attack.
My canon EOS 400D has th ability to save raw images in JPG files but when i download them onto the comptuer the image duplicates one with a cr2 extension the other with a JPG! (the cr2 are all grainy, and all my JPG are dark)
I'm freaking out here becuase on the PC most of my image quality is great, but why is it all grainy on the mac?


I'd suggest shooting in raw only. And avoid using 'Picture Style' processing in the camera. Keep an eye on the histogram display as you shoot, to check that you're getting a decent exposure.
If the RAW files are 'grainy', it's likely that you are shooting at a high ISO number.
 
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agree with all the others about the high ISO and looking at them on a pc and your mac...when my wife opens pics on her pc and I open the same one on my Mac, she can't believe the difference in the two..the mac being much better!
 
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Great comments from all.
Just to reinforce...

Amount of grain/noise in a digital picture is directly related to ISO setting.
Higher ISO more grain/noise.
This apply to all cameras, newer ones can go above ISO 32,000 with very little or no grain/noise at ISO 800 or ISO 1,600 when compared to older models in the same ISO setting. But even then that new camera produces less grain/noise in ISO 800 than in ISO 6,400.

Having said all this... sometimes grain/noise makes an image more interesting, which is why postprocesing software provides ways to add grain/noise.
 
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Great comments from all.
Just to reinforce...

Amount of grain/noise in a digital picture is directly related to ISO setting.
Higher ISO more grain/noise.
This apply to all cameras, newer ones can go above ISO 32,000 with very little or no grain/noise at ISO 800 or ISO 1,600 when compared to older models in the same ISO setting. But even then that new camera produces less grain/noise in ISO 800 than in ISO 6,400.

Having said all this... sometimes grain/noise makes an image more interesting, which is why postprocesing software provides ways to add grain/noise.

And exposure. If the images are underexposed and the program is automatically bumping up to a proper exposure, that could create noise.
 
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I don't read his Question as a camera setting issue, my guess is he knows how to use the camera. It sounds like his monitor needs calibrating.

Open your System preferences ( click the apple sign at top left) go to display, and play with settings/ calibrate. It may help.

Can you plug your pc monitor into your mac?

Raw files look flat before pp.
 
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I don't read his Question as a camera setting issue, my guess is he knows how to use the camera. It sounds like his monitor needs calibrating.

Open your System preferences ( click the apple sign at top left) go to display, and play with settings/ calibrate. It may help.

Can you plug your pc monitor into your mac?

Raw files look flat before pp.

Thanks for all your replies
but carpenterken got it right, I tried playing around with the display, it does make a lot of difference thanks alot!
 

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