Contrast and brightness adjustments in the RAW converter won't cause a decrease in dynamic range. They're not the same as the adjustments in PhotoShop. Both the highlights and shadows are anchored when using these controls in RAW. They modify only the midrange. Using these controls before converting provides results that are generally superior to what can be achieved post conversion in PhotoShop.
> When using the contrast and brightness button you'll decrease the dynamic > range. You''l loose information from the file. Use levels instead. > Jens > > > pnstenquist > Fri, 03 Jun 2005 07:06:46 -0700 > > Last Friday while shooting on the street at night, I grabbed a pic of the > Birmingham theater marquis. Right off the bat I could see it was a problem. > The > billboard part of the marquis was extremely bright while the colored lights > were quite dim. Of course the unlit parts of the building and marquis were > in > deep night shadow with only a touch of illumination from the street lights > and > marquis lights. Overall, it was at least ten stops variation. For capture I > shot RAW overexposing the highlights by about a 1 1/2 stops. Normally, I > bring > the highlights within range, but I knew I'd lose a lot of shadow if I did > that. > The RAW converter can recover some highlight detail, so I was counting on > that. > When converting, I pulled the exposure back down about a stop and turned the > brightness all the way up. I also decreased the shadow depth. I'm at work > now, > but I can get the exact numbers later if someone is interested. Finally, > after > conversion, I used the shadow/highlight tool to ligh! > ten the shadows a bit more, tame the highlights and increase midrange > contrast. I sharpened after conversion with USM. I'm quite pleased with the > result. It's here: > http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3421449 > >
