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Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

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Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

A few pictures taken with the S007

 

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Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

A few B&W

 

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Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

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Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

Is there any PP in these, Neil? It looks like the highlights are blowing out (might be the laptop I'm viewing them on).

mate I just checked the histogram and highlights all look good :)
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Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

The histogram is one thing....making smoke look like smoke, or snow look like snow, etc....is more a matter of judgment and what the eye sees. Especially in print.

 

Jeff

thats my next question Jeff. How does one shoot snow without it looking grey. Is there a wee trick or is it more of a case of playing/adding with exposure compensation ??

 

 

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thats my next question Jeff. How does one shoot snow without it looking grey. Is there a wee trick or is it more of a case of playing/adding with exposure compensation ??

 

 

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If you're using autoexposure, then you'll have to apply compensation (if you're metering the snow itself). The light meter doesn't "know" that it's measuring something that's supposed to be "white, but with some texture". It's calibrated based on the assumption that it's measuring something of "average reflectance" (18% gray), so it tries to make whatever you're measuring turn out 18% gray/Zone V (unless you tell it otherwise). If you were using film, I'd tell you to place the snow in Zone VIII or Zone IX (in the simplest case, where you're not doing anything funky with development, give it 3-4 stops more exposure than a spot meter of the snow indicates). That would be enough to make the snow look "white" without blowing it out completely. Of course, you're not using film so you have to think about it a little differently. I haven't used the S007 (just the S006), so I don't know how the characteristics differ. You have more dynamic range than B&W film, but when the highlights are blown they're just gone (at least that's my experience with the S006 sensor). So, the important thing is to avoid blowing out the highlights completely, because you can adjust them in post-processing as long as there's still detail there. You may have to experiment a bit. I tend not to use autoexposure, because I am a cantankerous old grouch who spends way too much time with computers in his day job (software engineer).

 

Rule of thumb for quick exposure: the palm of your hand is one stop brighter than 18%. This is pretty much universally true (regardless of ethnicity) and has saved more than one photographer in a difficult metering situation.

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And even with all that, a good eye and judgment in PP is critical for generating a print where one can 'feel' the texture of the snow.  The difference between pretty close and outstanding is often very slight.....in the darkroom days, a few percentage points in exposure time.  And not all snow scenes are lit the same, or even have the same color in the shadows, etc.  Rules of thumb may get one close, but close isn't good enough for a print to 'sing'.

 

Jeff

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And even with all that, a good eye and judgment in PP is critical for generating a print where one can 'feel' the texture of the snow.  The difference between pretty close and outstanding is often very slight.....in the darkroom days, a few percentage points in exposure time.  And not all snow scenes are lit the same, or even have the same color in the shadows, etc.  Rules of thumb may get one close, but close isn't good enough for a print to 'sing'.

 

Jeff

 

Absolutely.

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As Jeff says, you need enough tonal gradation material to be able to differentiate the subtle definitions. The starting point is to make sure that your exposure captures this information, which is a balancing act of understanding how the sensor or film handles the upper range of highlights, and adjusting to suit, without destroying wanted shadow detail.

Histograms (and the "j" key in LR) are useful, but they are just indicators, and have no aesthetic dimension. At all times, it is the final intended publication medium that should guide your inputs.

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Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

As Jeff says, you need enough tonal gradation material to be able to differentiate the subtle definitions. The starting point is to make sure that your exposure captures this information, which is a balancing act of understanding how the sensor or film handles the upper range of highlights, and adjusting to suit, without destroying wanted shadow detail.

Histograms (and the "j" key in LR) are useful, but they are just indicators, and have no aesthetic dimension. At all times, it is the final intended publication medium that should guide your inputs.

J key in Lightroom??
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