bracket with raw - 350d

In message ,
"LCD" wrote:

wrote in message
.. .

I've never understood the "two conversions" method (especially when
converted to 8-bit). All it does is lower the contrast in the darker
render where the other one clipped or got compressed, and mix in
posterized shadows in the darker render into the lighter render.

So, if the original image is properly exposed it will have all the available
values to the camera anyway?

I just render RAW images with lots of dynamic range a little dark as a
16-bit TIFF, and then use "curves to bring back the mid-tones and squash
the highlights.

In an ideal world, there would be a control in the RAW converter that
would be like a horizontal slider, with multiple small vertical sliders
on it. Each would represent a RAW zone, and its placement on where it
is mapped in the output. The smaller vertical sliders would control
contrast within those zones. The controls to the left would boost
contrast by brightening their brighter parts; the ones to the right by
darkening their darker parts, etc.


I mean if the camera can record say 5 stops and
the scene has 10, then 5 of those 10 will be permanently outside the
camera's ability to record.

Well, it's a little bit more than that, but yes, sometimes you will need
two completely different exposures. Some current sensors are limited at
their lowest ISOs by the standard 12-bit analog-to-digital conversion,
so better converters could make better use out of current sensors.

--


John P Sheehy

wrote:

In an ideal world, there would be a control in the RAW converter that
would be like a horizontal slider, with multiple small vertical sliders
on it. Each would represent a RAW zone, and its placement on where it
is mapped in the output. The smaller vertical sliders would control
contrast within those zones. The controls to the left would boost
contrast by brightening their brighter parts; the ones to the right by
darkening their darker parts, etc.

Isn't Curves (in ACR) what you're describing, just with a slightly different
interface? It controls how each level of RAW data gets mapped to the output.

--
Jeremy |

In message ,
Jeremy Nixon wrote:

wrote:

In an ideal world, there would be a control in the RAW converter that
would be like a horizontal slider, with multiple small vertical sliders
on it. Each would represent a RAW zone, and its placement on where it
is mapped in the output. The smaller vertical sliders would control
contrast within those zones. The controls to the left would boost
contrast by brightening their brighter parts; the ones to the right by
darkening their darker parts, etc.

Isn't Curves (in ACR) what you're describing, just with a slightly different
interface? It controls how each level of RAW data gets mapped to the output.

"Curves" does nothing to effect contrast boosts in compressed ranges,
and is unwieldy. The control is far to coarse to be truly useful.

How would you like to drive a car where you steered with a pair of
pliers on a shaft, and it only turned in 45 degree increments? That is
what using "curves" feels like to me.
--


John P Sheehy

wrote:

"Curves" does nothing to effect contrast boosts in compressed ranges,

One increases contrast in a range by steepening the angle in that range.
(The result need not be a smooth curve, but I've found that the resulting
image rarely looks natural unless its tonal response actually is a smooth
curve.)

and is unwieldy. The control is far to coarse to be truly useful.

If you're trying to do extreme adjustments, it would be truly unwieldy,
yes. I've found that it gets me what I want, though, as long as what I
want isn't the result of individual color channel curves or a different
blending mode for the adjustment layer, neither of which are necessary
very often for me. I usually don't need to touch my pictures in
Photoshop proper at all anymore, with Camera Raw 3, apart from resizing
and sharpening and saving JPEGs for whatever purpose.

What kind of adjustments are you trying to make, exactly? The Camera Raw
folks are very receptive to feedback.

--
Jeremy |