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Default shoot at -2/3 compensation on an M8?


vikasmg

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While reading through some messages when someone mentioned shooting at -2/3 exposure compensation, I realised that without being actively conscious of it as a decision, I too land up usually shooting at -2/3 - which is set as a standard on my M8. Occasionally I'll go up to -1/3rd.

 

I wondered if anyone else does this as well. I generally feel more satisfied with the results with this but I wonder if it's just a personal quirk or a lot of other people also have come to the same conclusion.

 

 

 

- Vikas

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I generally shoot at -1/3, but at night I reverse that to +1/3 when shooting high iso. One thing I've noticed is that if your display is set too bright, then correctly exposed shots can appear overexposed or blown. It pays to re-set the brightness according to the ambient light conditions.

 

Currently I'm unable to set manual speeds, so I use the +/- EV quite a bit in difficult light. For a very long time I only used manual speeds because I found the auto-exposure unreliable, and even then I would err on the side of underexposing vs. the meter.

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Currently I'm unable to set manual speeds, so I use the +/- EV quite a bit in difficult light.

 

How come. Actually I often switch to using manual and then find myself underexposing a bit from the recommended "round dot" setting. One of the nice things about the M8 is it's so easy to switch in and out of auto and so intuitive to change exposure up or down by turning the aperture or shutter dial in the direction of the arrows ...

 

- Vikas

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Minus 2/3 EV is my standard setting but I do adjust according to the scene/lighting.

 

Of course. -2/3 seems to be a general preference emerging here. Is the M8 calibration a bit on the overexposure side or does that work better for prints? I use an Epson R2400 for printing and I do find that when making prints I tend to increase exposure a bit. On an apple LCD display the slightly underexposed photos look fine. For the photograph of flowers floating in a bowl though I did boost the fill light in Lightroom by 20 or so.

 

- Vikas

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How come. Actually I often switch to using manual and then find myself underexposing a bit from the recommended "round dot" setting. One of the nice things about the M8 is it's so easy to switch in and out of auto and so intuitive to change exposure up or down by turning the aperture or shutter dial in the direction of the arrows ...

 

- Vikas

 

Something wrong with the setting wheel. It set a manual exposure, but not the one that corresponds to the selected number. It's also not consistent, I can either set all high speeds or all slow speeds. Not being able to see the actual speed in the VF makes it rather tedious.

 

I'm considering getting the shutter cross-grade, so I'll send the camera in once and get it all sorted out.

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Of course. -2/3 seems to be a general preference emerging here. Is the M8 calibration a bit on the overexposure side or does that work better for prints? I use an Epson R2400 for printing and I do find that when making prints I tend to increase exposure a bit. On an apple LCD display the slightly underexposed photos look fine. For the photograph of flowers floating in a bowl though I did boost the fill light in Lightroom by 20 or so.

 

- Vikas

 

I also find myself increasing exposure a bit for printing, although I've been playing with the gamma setting rather than exposure. I think the -2/3 is related to avoiding blown highlights, but does leave the image overall underexposed for print.

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I also find myself increasing exposure a bit for printing, although I've been playing with the gamma setting rather than exposure. I think the -2/3 is related to avoiding blown highlights, but does leave the image overall underexposed for print.

I found the same thing. When setting the camera to -2/3EV the shots looked OK on the camera LCD but were dark on my monitor and in print which match each other very closely.

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I found that when I switched from a mid-range LCD screen to a high-end one, the number of blown-out highlights was instantly reduced by 90 %. In other words - what your monitor renders as blown-out is not neccesarily so in the actual file.

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Common wisdom in digital has always been expose to the right, meaning the histogram is to the right side.

Those of us using the M8 generally have to do the opposite, i.e. expose to the left.

I use -2/3 EV for low ISO, but when I shoot dark scenes I use 0 EV or even +1/3

 

This subject has been discussed here several times, and I believe the difference between M8 and other digital is due to the compression algorithm used to transfer 14bits to 8 bits and where, as a result, more bits are used in the left hand side (dark) part of the histogram.

 

As to brightness of the display, one should better rely on the histogram, and make sure not much saturation take place on the right (blown highlights) nor on the left, although as said earlier, one can extract far more information from the dark parts when we use RAW than it is possible to extract from the blown highlights.

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I generally vary between -1.5 to 0 exposure compensation with about 80~90% of the time at -2/3.

 

It works surprisingly well for dance in dramatic stage lighting in auto but of course it depends on the scene. I hate the blind-as-a-bat feeling trying to adjust the (manual) shutter speeds in the dark. And I lose plenty of shots due exp compensating and changing cards and batteries.

 

-1 ev for the following image. Movement blur though. Shot at 1/45. No post processing except for the crop.

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-1/3 for me at all times.

 

For dark scenes though I frankly don't even use the meter, estimate an exposure, check the histogram and adjust as needed. I don't really use the LCD for judging exposure. As others have said, on any camera, I've never really found the LCD to be a good guide. Some shots which look off on the LCD are fine, whether they looked under or overexposed. For me the LCD is good really just for judging composition.

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I usually find that I get the best results at the 0 setting. In high contrast situations I may go to -2/3. It is not a good habit to underexpose digital images. Of course it is easier to pull out the shadows in post than the highlights. However, you are loosing a good amount of your tonal range by underexposing. It is preferable to get the exposure right, even if that means clipping of the whites that you don't need any detail in anyway. I feel that in most situations EV0 gives me the best exposure.

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Wow. As someone who shoots manual, I find I'm pushing to the right for most shots (the little OE arrow is lit at the same time as the dot).

 

Of course, it all depends on what you're pointing the *very very center weighted* meter at ;)

 

Remember, as people have mentioned, you need *more exposure* in higher ISO situations to get lower noise, so I wouldn't be dialling in minus anything shooting 640 or higher. Having said that, you do need to watch your highlight detail.

 

This is true for all digicams at high ISOs, by the way, the M8 is not unique. It used to throw me on the Canons till I realized what was going on (you completely run out of exposure latitude when you essentially push the system by amplifying the signal).

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