(Please note that I've written this to reinforce my understanding as much as to help others)
I've had a great deal of trouble coming to terms with digital exposure. Seems I'm not the only one. I've learned that this is because I've read the following (only 50% true) statement many times: 1.) With film you "expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights". 2.) With digital you "expose for the highlights and develop for the shadows". (Please note that the word "important" should always appear before the words "shadows" and "highlights".) Number 1 is a basic rule of the "Zone System" _for film_. Number 2 is a basic rule for digital _jpegs_, but is rather misleading. Digital _RAW_ falls in between the two, but is more like number 1. Jpegs are 8 bit, processed by the in camera software, and are pretty much a done deal. They leave little or no room for post processing without actually (substantially) degrading the image tonality. Much like slide film, you can vary ONLY exposure (and contrast) to achieve final image tonality. 12bit RAW files on the other hand are more like a negative, a great deal of post work can be done, as a matter of fact must be done, to achieve a final image. With negative film you can vary both exposure AND development time. You can do something quite similar in a RAW convertor, many highlights can be recovered at this stage. I no longer compare "digital" to negatives or slides. I now compare "jpegs" to slide film. and compare "RAW" to negative film. It's not a perfect analogy, I admit, but it helps me think about exposure properly with regard to digital. It has also convinced me to shoot RAW whenever time and buffer speed permit. And ALWAYS when ultimate image quality is the most important criteria. Clear as mud?? ;-) Don -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
