raw settings

reedwarbler

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Name
garry
Edit My Images
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i am a bit confused,if i am shooting in raw do i need to use exposure compensation at all? also do i just ignore the blinkies,and fix it in pp,as far as i know the image on the camera screen is in jpeg,so how do i know it is correct,is there any settings i should be using,i use a d90,thank you.
 
The more you get right when taking the shot, the less you have to do on the pc (and rely on software). So yes, use it if use like. Use the histogram too to help with exposure - helps with getting a nice even exposed shot. (of course, you may not want that, but thats a different story...)
 
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so basically,if i set up as i would to take a jpeg,try to get the exposure and wb right, would that be correct
 
(I believe so from my limited experience garry!) You just have more of a buffer with RAW- correct me if I'm wrong...
 
It's true that the raw holds more data than a jpeg, but if you are blowing out large proportions of the image, you won't be able to recover it in PP.
 
Whether shooting raw or JPG, you need to get it right, in camera, as much as you can.
Use exp comp if you wish, and anything else you can think of.
When shooting raw, camera will still produce a JPG image to show on screen, this will be based on 'in camera' settings, sometimes, better to look at histogram.
 
so i cant go off what is shown on the lcd,more of keep an eye on the histogram,does this also apply for blinkies?
 
Keep your eye out for the blinkies, by all means, just remember, you may have to sacrifice at one end for the other. it depends on how extreme the dynamic range is, and how your particular camera handles, the extremes.
 
Blinkies mean that your highlights will be blown out with no detail in them so you need to reduce the exposure to retain detail in them.

Unfortunately on a bright summer day reducing the exposure to retain highlight detail will often result in losing details in the shadows so in that case it becomes a compromise with you deciding what is the most important.

Alternatively in the above case you can always use HDR to retain full detail everywhere.

.
 
I like a hint of blinkies. As a raw shooter I know I can recover minor clipping (if I even care about the bits that look clipped) and it means I have nudged my exposure as far to the right as is sensible, maximising dynamic range and minimising noise.

These are my idea of perfect ETTR exposures....

image000sq.jpg


image000hr.jpg


image001mk.jpg



Each image shows a few blinkies, indicated by regions of red, and in each case the histogram is touching, but not climbing up, the right hand side of the histogram. This is classic ETTR and if you shoot raw is worth researching and understanding. Here's a place to start - http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml.
 
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a good read I am beginning to like this forum
 
raw will get you about 2 stops of light in normal editing and you could go all the way up to 5+ stops in more extreme editing

+2 exp, +25-50 brightness, fill light,... - some aren't real exposure but the human eye is easy to trick :)

ps:you can get more if you work in b&w
 
Tim's screen shot examples are spot-on, its all about shooting as much to the right as you dare. The thing with RAW is that you have a bit more wriggle room if you do get it slightly wrong.
 
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