> Care to explain yourself? Better be very, very good.
> Chuck Norcutt & Doctor Flash (who are both ETTR guys)
ETTR is ONLY valid if you shoot RAW, unless you are photographing a
subject where placement of the highlight at Zone IX is critical. Like
studio photography where you are shooting against a white background
for "cutouts".
In all other forms of photography, except for some B&W and abstract,
the most critical determinate of proper exposure is the midtone.
Let's use an example, which both of us are familiar with. The Minolta
A1, when set at ISO 100, provided the effective midtone ISO equivalent
of 160. When using flash, you had to use ISO 160 in your calculations,
NOT 100. However, due to the lower dynamic range of the sensor, the
saturation point ISO was actually pretty close to that of ISO 160.
If, heaven forbid, you would actually shoot in-camera JPEG instead of
(or addition to RAW), what ISO is the proper one to use? A midtone ISO
or the saturation-point ISO? I know, I know, only idiots and lazy
people shoot JPEG--all real photographers use RAW so they get what
they deserve--right? Wrong. Here's also why:
When you ETTR, you are making an assumption that all colors clip at
the same equal point. Here is the 411 on that--they don't. Depending
on the camera, what is lurking up there in the top half of the top
byte is awefully scary. You get some seriously ugly color shifts and
strange artifacts if you try recovering too much of the highlights and
slide them down the scale. An extreme example of this is the E-1. It
is always better, color wise, to boost in post, not pull back.
I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Fujichrome Velvia/Provia shooter. One thing
that I'm VERY good at is setting exposure. I would NEVER set the
exposure (except as mentioned in paragraph 1) to anything other than a
midtone ISO with only a slight bump with Velvia (ISO 40 instead of ISO
50) to protect the shadows and correct for the OTF metering error that
occurs with Fujichrome films. When I am shooting B&W films, I learn
what the exposure latitude of my film/developer is and will expose
using multispot metering and place highlight and shadows within the
range of the film. Granted, that looks a lot like ETTR (except it's
more like ETTL with B&W films as you expose for the shadows, process
for the highlights), but just as your RAW file requires corrective
development, so does the B&W film. A slide film requires precise
exposure in-camera as there is no corrective development possible.
When I approached the DXO people about this, and especially in regard
to flash photography, their response was that they were catering to a
specific audience. Their description of the audience was NOT the
normal everyday joe working photographer who has five portrait
sessions before noon, two client shoots in the afternoon and little
league team pictures in the evening while photographing a wedding on
the weekend.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
--
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