David Irisarri wrote:
> ... I am aware of exposure troubleshooting when shooting to blacks as the
> camera overexposes if the suit of the subject is black. Despite E-1 RAW
> exposure latitute is good, some highlights are burnt and cannot be
> recovered.
Good relative to what? Relative to many P&S cameras, sure. The E-1 is
6-7 year old technology in a field where rapid advances have been made.
One of the reasons I bought a 300D, an entry level camera, rather than
the higher end E-1, was noise. Noise is generally the limiting factor in
dynamic range on the low end. More recent Olys, like the E-3, 30 & 620
have much better total dynamic range than the E-1, as do many models
from other makers.
> I normally use exposure compensation to avoid this issue but shooting very
> quick to many people drive me mad changing exposure compensation according to
> the suit. It was a cloudy/sunny day, so the sun was appearing and
> disappearing very fast so it was certainly very tricky and risky to use the
> camera in manual mode. This issue in my E-1 drives me mad.
With a camera with better dynamic range, you can simply set it at -2/3
EV and leave it there. That's my default setting on days with direct
sun, or even light overcast in the middle of the day.
> Matrix metering IMHO doen´t work properly
Again, you are using dated technology and, IMO, incorrect exposure
compensation.
> so I wonder if E-3 or any E camera has highlight priority and can be used in
> combination with superFP mode.
The E-3, 30 & 620 have spot highlight and shadow buttons, similar to the
OM-4 series (But I think without multiple reading averaging?)
> I don´t mind working with RAW files after in my computer but I need always to
> keep the highlights safe. I would appreciate your ideas, tips and tricks
> here. I would appreciate all your comments.
>
As before, negative EV compensation in bright, high contrast situations.
Upgrade to one of the aforementioned newer E-thingies with greater RAW
headroom and dynamic range.
>> Photos have been loaded in 1280x960. Use loupe for enlarging the photo
>> inside Google Picasa or simply download the picture to your computer and
>> load them into PS (much better). ICC profile is srgb with BPC<<
>>
I didn't find this to be true. When I click on the magnifying glass, I
get a larger image, but it is soft and inferior. Checking Properties
shows it to be scaled up to a larger size by the browser.
In most of the following alternative versions, the effects are less
smooth and subtle than I would like. That's partly because they are
attempts to show results of technique, so may tend to overemphasize it.
More, though, it's due to the limitations of working with small,
compressed images,
> Photo nº 0001 Exposure was perfect. No blacks here so the camera worked
> flawlessly. Highlights were kept inside the dynamic range.
>
I can't say anything about the original conversion. The JPEG has
moderate clipping at both ends. I'd like to see some tonal texture in
the white wall. It was there, at least in the form of shadows of the
confetti. However, processing artifacts around the confetti and JPEG
compression in the whites make that impossible using the JPEG. Still,
bringing down the highlights seems to me to improve the image.
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/MooseFoto/index.php?gallery=Others/Irisarri/Wedding&image=0001a.jpg>
> Photo nº0002 Here the white wall helped the exposure meter not to
> overexpose despite of the dark suit.
>
It seems overexposed and flat to me. I assume the flatness may be from
fill flash. One advantage of fill like this is that it's easier to bring
in some contrast/depth than to correct blown highlights.
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/MooseFoto/index.php?gallery=Others/Irisarri/Wedding&image=0002a.jpg>
> Photo nº0003 Here the sky was burnt (obviously) but the guy´s head on the
> left is burnt and detail cannot be recovered. I hate this issue! Does anybody
> know E-3 performance? Can highlight priory be activated to avoid this issue?
> I have heard E-3 RAW darkroom is worse than E-1 performance with RAW
> developers.
>
I don't know if the E-3 has more or less RAW headroom. As Chuck has
pointed out, these and other highlights are completely blown, so the E-1
didn't have enough headroom. What the E-3 does have are lower noise and
greater overall DR, so it should be easier to use EV compensation to
protect the highlights without running into noise issues on the bottom.
Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> I think maybe you need some friends with more hair! :-)
>
> The man's head ... are truly blown in the raw file (all channels at 255) and
> simple recovery is not possible. any attempt to lower it just returns a
> noticeable gray tone. The only way I have found to fix these photos (short of
> painting or cloning) is to select the area to be fixed with the magic wand
> and then adjust just the highlights end of the individual RGB channels
> downward by differing amounts and proportional to the surrounding colors.
>
As I've shown before, an easier way with probably better color match is
to use color matching between a matching, but properly exposed, portion
of the skin and the blown out area. On this one, I've matched from
another part of the man's head to the blown area and from the woman's
arm to her upper chest. I think it works rather well, and doesn't
involve time spent playing with individual channel levels.
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/MooseFoto/index.php?gallery=Others/Irisarri/Wedding&image=0003a.jpg>
> Photo nº0004 In this picture both of them are burnt and highlight detail
> cannot be rescued back.
>
The people can be corrected. The sky is a lost cause, at least in the
JPEG. You'd neeed at least -2/3, likely -1 EV, to capture the sky. That
wouldn't be a problem with the 5D, as the foreground would pull up fine.
If it is a crucial pic, the only solution is to patch in a bit of sky
from the same session. I've let the leaf detail lost in the overexposure
go even worse. With the original, one could probably do a pretty decent
job.
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/MooseFoto/index.php?gallery=Others/Irisarri/Wedding&image=0004a.jpg>
> Photo nº0005 Here, I wanted to shoot a picture backlight and with fill in
> with flash. Something similar what I do in the studio with hair light but
> again detail in the guy´s head is lost. is there any solution to control the
> light more precisely? Maybe liveview help you to see in real time the
> histogram. The main problem here was I had to take the pictures in the middle
> of the photographers and you haven´t got space and time. This is driving me
> mad!
>
As above, the time of exposure solution is a camera with sufficient DR
and an appropriate negative EV setting. (I don't know if the E-1
qualifies at the ISO you used.) After the fact, color matching works
pretty well.
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/MooseFoto/index.php?gallery=Others/Irisarri/Wedding&image=0005a.jpg>
> Photo nº0006 Here the sun is again spoiling detail in their face.
>
Shadow/Highlight easily opens up the faces. Bits of LCE and Curves give
some pop to the other shadows. Not quite lifelike lighting, but then,
neither is fill flash.
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/MooseFoto/index.php?gallery=Others/Irisarri/Wedding&image=0006a.jpg>
> Photo nº0007 & 0008 If sun doesn´t appear, everything works fine.
>
Well, sorta. In 7, the flash has washed out all the color in the child's
clothing and the lovely fine detail in her dress. Shadow/Highlight
brings up some tonal details in the dark suits and adds some more depth
to the mens' faces.
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/MooseFoto/index.php?gallery=Others/Irisarri/Wedding&image=0007b.jpg>
In 8, the fill flash has made everything flat looking, to my eye.
Shadow/Highlight brings some depth to the clothing, sky and background
in general and correcting the bright reflections of the flash on the
foreheads makes it much more appealing to me.
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/MooseFoto/index.php?gallery=Others/Irisarri/Wedding&image=0008a.jpg>
Moose
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