[Leica] INF : worried about blown highlights - LINK inside

[philippe.amard at tele2.fr (Philippe AMARD)]

You may find this informative and useful, I have.
http://www.digitalphotopro.com/tech/exposing-for-raw.html
Sorry if it is no news to some.
Rgds
Phx


Alastair Firkin wrote:

>Simon, I think all digital recording suffers from a tendency to blown 
>highlights. The good news is that unlike slide film, you can really "delve" 
>into the shadows (esp with b/w and the IR effect). For this reason, all our 
>cameras are set to a -ev setting. I usually take a couple of test shots in 
>the current light, review the histogram and wind the ev compensation back 
>till the highlights are controlled. This usually means -2/3 to -1 ev, but 
>in some lighting I've shot with -3 ev. You MUST shoot RAW, so that when the 
>image is "developed", you can use compensation development to bring the 
>range of tones into line with the result you want. 
>
>Another technique is to combine multiple exposures, but this is not going 
>to work well with most of your work, although if you are shooting on a 
>tripod, you could look to exposing incident for the subject and spot for 
>the highlights and work hard in PS later. 
>
>Think of digital as slide film, but with greater low latitude, keep those 
>highlights in control by using the power of RAW, and I think you will be 
>very happy with your M8, remembering IT IS NOT A PERFECT CAMERA ;-)
>
>Cheers and show us the images
>
>Alastair
>
>--- simonpj@mac.com wrote:
>
>From: Wyndham Pulman-Jones <simonpj@mac.com>
>To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
>Subject: [Leica] About to take M8 plunge - but worried about blown     
>highlights...
>Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:10:04 +0100
>
>The one thing that has held me back from buying an M8 is my dislike of the 
>look of blown highlights in digital photos. Almost all of my shooting is of 
>people interacting in social and working situations - and I always expose 
>by taking incident readings for people's faces and letting everything else 
>fall where it may. This frequently means that lighter exteriors visible 
>through windows or doors are overexposed - but when using fast colour 
>negative film there is almost always some tone and character to the 
>overexposed area. The same also applies to highlights on people's hair when 
>strongly backlit. 
>
>When I have used digital (Epson RD-1, Canon 1Ds) I have not liked the 
>totally white blown out highlights, fringed with un-natural looking 
>chromatic aberation, that often result from shooting in this way (when you 
>are not able to worry about exposinig for areas of the photo not carrying 
>the narrative interest, which might end up significantly overexposed.) 
>
>Does the M8 suffer from this just as much as any other digital camera? If 
>so, what's the best technique for stopping those 'outside the scene' 
>highlights from blowing out? Or is it just not possible with the M8 to 'set 
>and forget' exposure in the way that you can with incident metering for the 
>latitude of negative film?
>
>(I found some M8 DNG samples which show totally blown out 'through the 
>window' highlights which have the digital look that just doesn't look right 
>to me: http://rpo.eranet.tv/)
>
>Thanks,
>
>Simon.
>Cambridge, UK.
>
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