[Leica] Question about M8 exposure

[leica at web-options.com (Bob W)]

I think you've misunderstood one of the most important differences between
digital and film photography, and a fundamental property of digital
anything. The bottom line is, if you routinely underexpose you will lose a
lot of tonal information, and will introduce more noise the more you
underexpose.

The most important thing you can do (to give yourself the most options in
post-processing) is to capture as much information on the sensor as
possible, with the least amount of highlight clipping. This often (but not
always) entails over-exposing. The secret sauce needs the right  ingredients
in the right quantities.

I do not routinely under- or over-expose, instead I tend to shoot at the
meter-indicated exposure. That way I tend to get a decent result if there's
going to be no time to get another frame of the subject. But if there's time
I check the first exposure against the histogram and adjust my exposure
accordingly to expose to the right (or to the left if there seems to be too
much highlight clipping). I think it's a good habit to get into, and it pays
dividends when it comes to the final image quality.

Bob

> 
> Geoff, a major factor that you have not discussed is that 
> digital sensors
> are not linear device - that is, a sensor may have better response in
> certain range (e.g. midtone) than others. The conversion from 
> this "native"
> characteristics of the sensor to the "RAW" output, is one of 
> the secret
> sauces of the camera maker.
> 
> On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 12:59 PM, Geoff Hopkinson
> <hoppyman@bigpond.net.au>wrote:
> 
> > Steve I think that there are several issues confused there. 
> The original
> > linear information captured must be conform to the 
> fundamental principle.
> > Half of total are used the represent the first (brightest) stop, one
> > quarter
> > the next, one eighth the next, one sixteenth the next etc. 
> Up to a reported
> > 81/2 stops of maximum dynamic range for the DNG.
> >