> I am getting to grips with my 1ds(first digi camera) and seem to be having > to give my images more exposure than was normal with film. > > It seems like I need to expose more for detail in my shadow areas, otherwise > if I expose as I would have done for say trannie, (keeping the highlight to > around +2) I get a muddy flat image. > > I know I want to keep the exposure within the limits of the histogram and > that I can get +/-2 stops in RAW mode but as a general rule is exposing > digital any different to film?
Dear Stephen. The most basic tutorial ever, regarding Digital exposure has ben mentioned here, but here is a link to it http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/dig-exp.shtml Now, all this play with grey and white to adjust exposure and white balance has gotten some attention, since they are based on the idea of shooting the grey card and looking in the camera's histogram to make sure the grey card exposure falls within the mid-point of the histogram. I am most confident that if you use this basic method you will find much better exposed files for general work. The revival of the good old grey card. NOTE: I strongly encourage to read it in full the tutorial before testing the other method described below. Recently, some trend has emerged to use a white card, not the grey, to check exposure, in order to make the white card shot fall the closest possible to the Right hand side of the Histogram, this is, without falling too close to the extreme right side, to avoid clipping of the highlight. Some comments in various forums indicate that there is a possibility that that using this "RIght Hand Method" of exposure evaluation with a White card might lead to files with less noise overall. Check this interesting link for info on Maximizing Signal to Noise Ratio in digital cameras. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml If you check the recent messages on the ProDig archives, you may find the link to the forums in which it has been largely discussed, but basically what I can tell you from my own experience is that overexposing "a bit" your RAW files , this is , avoiding the clipping of the highlights, but overexposing nonetheless, may produce a file with a bit less noise, specially if you shoot at high ISO settings and then , using your RAW processor of choice, readjust your exposure back to normal values. You can get some help by including a grey card in the first tests shots under some defined lighting, and from then on, with those reference files in your computer, you can make decisions in post processing. Mr. Roger Cavanagh, on of the most active digital shooters in the digital forums has already run some simple tests that you can reproduce/customise to make sure wether there is some benefit for you or not. Check his site at http://www.rogercavanagh.com/helpinfo/28_exposeright.htm Also, do check your camera to make sure there is not some control button actually out of control that might be interferring with your readings( like an exposure bias). It happens, with so many buttons to deal with. After this overdose of online tutorials, you will be a better exposer. Good Luck!! Jorge Parra APA/ASMP www.jorgeparra.com =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
