RAW images and the histogram

[fletch]

Originally Posted by PrimeTime

I think what they are talking about are the slider's on the levels tool. The left slider is for the black's and the right slider is for the white's. There is also a slider in the middle for the midrange tones. The two sliders on the ends should be slid up close to the edge of the histogram on both sides, without clipping. You can do the same thing with the curves tool, just move the end dot of the line close to the edge of the histogram on both ends. If you change the graph to logorhythem, you can see the ends better.

What that does is resets your histogram and spreads it back out across the 5 full stops of range.

Yep - Effectivley increasing contrast. Its like photoshop evolution, fist there was brightness and contrast, then there were levels which were trumped by curves.

Although getting the end sliders in the right place is important the middle slider also need to be adjusted correctly and that isn't as simple.

[NZMXr]

I too prefer the top image
I have read to think of a RAW image as a negative in that it needs to be processed, so for my RAW shots I dont let the camera make any adjustment ie settings 0,0,0,0 but I do set the exposure to underexpose by 2 clicks so I can have a faster shutter, I have to process image anyway so might as well bump up exposure again in PS, then if you do lose detail when you bump up exposure just do a little dodging and burning to bring the detail back.
Im still learning to use this process but have found I can bring out much more in my images and am now going to make it part of my workflow

[fletch]

Originally Posted by NZMXr

I too prefer the top image
I have read to think of a RAW image as a negative in that it needs to be processed, so for my RAW shots I dont let the camera make any adjustment ie settings 0,0,0,0 but I do set the exposure to underexpose by 2 clicks so I can have a faster shutter, I have to process image anyway so might as well bump up exposure again in PS, then if you do lose detail when you bump up exposure just do a little dodging and burning to bring the detail back.
Im still learning to use this process but have found I can bring out much more in my images and am now going to make it part of my workflow

Err - This is not recomened.

Increasing you exposure like this is not recomended as it will introduce a lot of noise to you image. If you underexpose by 2 stops and the pull it back in PS you are effectivly increasing the ISO of the shot by two stops. (ISO aplifies the signal from the sensor, bumping exposure in RAW is doing the same thing). However you will not be benefitting from all of the fancy noise reduction gubbins that occour in your camera when you increase the ISO. An ISO 400 shot will lokk like it was shot at ISO 1600 with noise reduction turned off.

It is recomemended to get the exposure a good as possible, even if you are shooting RAW and if anything expsore to the right to over expose the shot, but don't blow the highlights.

[PrimeTime]

Originally Posted by fletch

Yep - Effectivley increasing contrast. Its like photoshop evolution, fist there was brightness and contrast, then there were levels which were trumped by curves.

Although getting the end sliders in the right place is important the middle slider also need to be adjusted correctly and that isn't as simple.

You don't need to adjust the middle slider. Adjust the ends to reset your graph to 5 stops, and then go to the curves tool and adjust the rest.