SL2s Exposure Clipping when reviewing image

[levin.mn]

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Hi Community,

When taking photos on the Leica Sl2-s it appears to overexpose the shot, but not show the true image when taking the photo, especially on a sunny day. Before I take the shot, I expose the image correctly as per histogram and zebra settings. After taking the shot, I review the picture on camera and out of nowhere the histogram jumps up by a touch and the zebra settings come in (zebra is also turned on during live preview, but doesn't show clipping as the shot is exposed correctly when taking the photo). I attached a video that showcases this issue. Have a look at the histogram, it shows strong clipping in the highlights when reviewing the image but not when taking the shot. So does the photo itself when reviewed.

You can also see a photo attached of an Image I took of the sky. When I took the shot, my viewfinder and camera display showed me a correct exposed Image. But once I review the image, it appears to be overexposed (the zebra kept blinking too). Once I load the image into Lightroom, it brings back most of the details in the highlights, but still seems to be brighter than when I took the photo. I know, I might have to underexpose each shot, but for me it's about the issue that my viewfinder and live view image don't display the same image as when I press the review button. 

Hope someone can help me with that.

Many Thanks!

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[Photoworks]

Here is what I see to consider and take from it what you may think is best for you..

• ISO 50 is not native iso, that would be 100 ISO for your camera. but exposing to 50 ISO you are getting a stop closer to clipping highlights and not gaining much over.
• Looks like you are using an M lens or something similar, it is best to select a lens in the menu to get the benefit of the camera to be able to meter correctly autoISO and activate IBIS. not a big deal in this photo but good practice.
• you are using hight metering and the meeter is telling you you are almost 2 stops over.
• you histogram shows clipping in the whites.
•  the histogram shows what ever you are displaying at the moment, if you zoom into the image you can be more specific on what it is displaying.
• Lightroom did a decent job recovering, but I think you are still clipping.
• you can turn on exposure warning in the viewing profiles during exposure. {Distracting, better look at the meeter first}

I would suggest you take that  1 2/3 overexposure down and trust the camera meeter. Personally I use Highlight metering only when really needed, it can underexpose the images in other situations by a few stops. 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Photoworks

[beewee]

26 minutes ago, Photoworks said:

Here is what I see to consider and take from it what you may think is best for you..

• ISO 50 is not native iso, that would be 100 ISO for your camera. but exposing to 50 ISO you are getting a stop closer to clipping highlights and not gaining much over.
• Looks like you are using an M lens or something similar, it is best to select a lens in the menu to get the benefit of the camera to be able to meter correctly autoISO and activate IBIS. not a big deal in this photo but good practice.
• you are using hight metering and the meeter is telling you you are almost 2 stops over.
• you histogram shows clipping in the whites.
•  the histogram shows what ever you are displaying at the moment, if you zoom into the image you can be more specific on what it is displaying.
• Lightroom did a decent job recovering, but I think you are still clipping.
• you can turn on exposure warning in the viewing profiles during exposure. {Distracting, better look at the meeter first}

I would suggest you take that  1 2/3 overexposure down and trust the camera meeter. Personally I use Highlight metering only when really needed, it can underexpose the images in other situations by a few stops. 

What he said.  

[hansvons]

7 hours ago, Photoworks said:

I would suggest you take that  1 2/3 overexposure down and trust the camera meeter. Personally I use Highlight metering only when really needed, it can underexpose the images in other situations by a few stops. 

Totally agree on what you said above. But regarding Highlight metering I find it to be my go-to method. Sometimes compensating plus 1 stop can be meaningful. But when in a fast pace and don't have time to check exposure, Highlight metering creates much better results than the regular option. 

Even when shooting at ISO 400 or 800 (I think that's where the sensor delivers the best DR) the camera's sensor allows for full shadow recovery in the blacks when using Highlight metering in brutal-contrast environments. The SL-2's DR is astounding, so is the ability to dig into the shadows with great colour and hardly any noise. Protecting the highlights is the best practice with digital photography. Better to underexpose than overexpose. 

Edited March 4, 2022 by hansvons

[OleBe]

Do not forget to set your film look settings accordingly to see the maximum DR of the camera. This will flatten the preview picture, but will lead to a result pretty close to the RAW file afterwards.

 

[levin.mn]

Thanks everyone for the great feedback. Will go and try it out now. 

On another note, I often find that the highlights roll off from from bright to Clipped are very sharp and not smooth. Do any of you experience the same. For example when I expose for a face for example. I don't want the face to be under exposed and then pulled up in Lightroom (often looks flat and funny ). I don't mind the sky for example to burn out, but if the transition from almost clipped to clipped is too strong, it doesn't look nice whatever the exposure is set to. The transition is extremely sharp and abrupt. Just a few photos attached. Especially the green grass. The beach photo was a normal exposed shot at sunset. I don't expect the sound information to be there (obviously) but I didn't expect the highlights roll off to be so sharp and digital. These were shot on the Voigtlander 35mm, so the colour fringe is expected as well as the softness of the lens (It probably helps to soften the highlights), but I experience the same with my Leica L 24-70mm and the sigma 24-70mm. Is it just my sensor? Or my settings? I often find the video function to handle the highlights and shadows better than the photo function. Thanks for your help  . 

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[OleBe]

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At what ISO setting did you shoot the above? ISO 50?

[hansvons]

Indeed, that's not what a Leica picture should look like. 

The best would be if you could provide a link to a few raw DNGs. That way, we can have a look at the pictures and can provide you with informed opinions. Regardless, what I see above never came out of my SL2-S. I see heavy overexposure, crippled DR and bad 8-Bit banding.

[Jonathan Levin]

With your samples, it the kind of situation where you can have one and not the other: Either shadows or highlight. Some sort of fill light in foreground enabling you to "stop down" lens for a better background. I personally might expose for the bright background and then in PS or Lightroom bring up shadows JUST A LITTLE.

[Photoworks]

you should probably learn what camera sensor can do and how to use them at the fullest.

Photography is lending the limits intimately of any camera and use them work with them.

There is no perfect camera out there. The SL2s is a modern excellent camera.

I believe you just need some practice with it and you can do it just fine.

Keep on Clicking, that is the only way you can learn and then ask question to others.

[levin.mn]

Thanks for the answers everyone. I have uploaded a few test shots here. https://we.tl/t-dfDbNjSUHx 
Most of them were shot at ISO 50 and JPGs. Obviously RAW is better, I'm aware of that, and I know that these are very extreme scenarios, yet I was just wondering if anyone else has experience similar handling of the highlights with some of their photos, or do I have to get used to shooting more underexposed. Not all my photos are like that - It's just that sometimes I take shots and I feel like underexposing would totally not achieve what I want. For example have the faces a bit brighter (main focus) and I know the sunny spots will be overexposed, but that's when I find that the highlight roll off looks rather harsh and sharp than soft  -  That's all I found. 

I still love this camera and have taken many nice photos with it.

 

And here are two more shots to the previous issue. On my viewfinder they looked exposed correctly, but once the photo was taken, they were super burnt. https://we.tl/t-H4gygn7ms1

Thanks again

 

[hansvons]

JPEG, ISO 50 explains it all. In JPEG mode and high-contrast environments, the camera must fail on you. And being 8 bit, banding is inevitable. If you had shot these pictures in RAW, all would be fine. BTW, Auto ISO doesn't allow for ISO 50 for a reason. Most sensors have a sweet spot of ISO 200-800 in terms of max, DR and noise. For my kind of photography, I prefer ISO 800; others prefer ISO 200 because the image is cleaner (but I like texture). ISO 50, regardless, will lead to crushed whites. 

[beewee]

I don’t quite get the point of shooting JPEGS at ISO 50 on an SL2-S. Honestly, anyone doing this would get better results with an iPhone if that were the case.

The raison d’etre of the SL2-S is the dynamic range it offers when shooting raw and giving you the malleability in the DNGs to get the details in the deep shadows. Blowing highlights will not allow you to do that, nor will shooting JPEGS give you that ability. Doing either will create the issues that was highlighted above and it’s not limited to SL2-S but will happen in just about all cameras that do not have HDR capabilities built in. If you’re looking for properly graded images, you’ll need to learn how to expose to the right and edit your raw files. Otherwise, you’re seriously better just shooting with a phone, at least from an image grading point of view.

[jimtong]

Hi, it seems that you want to achieve a perfect histogram, this may not be possible depending on the scene you are on. Try to shoot with RAW and edit them as the latitude of RAW file is far better than JPEG. Not sure why you like to fix ISO at 50, like what other says and I agree, the best result you will get it around ISO 100 - 800. The strength of modern FF sensor is its ISO capability.