peterm1
Veteran
If shooting in black and white you may find that you will get better results by trying to over expose a little rather than under exposing given the problems that digital cameras have in handling under exposed areas. Its easier to take digital info out than to put it back in. You can then use the "curves" tool in Photoshop to adjust the tonal quality to one that best reflects thephotographic mood (high key, low key) you are after. I find this tool better than the "levels " tool as its much more flexible.
Shooting in colour and converting to Black and White in Photoshop, is what I normally do however. There are several techniques to get better black and white results as straight removal of colour information (eg by using desaturate) always leaves shots looking low in contrast and muddy.
The easiest way is to find some freeware filter plugins that do the job for you in one go. I often use one called Cybia Fotomatic B and W plus. ( http://www.cybia.co.uk/bwplus.htm ) This filter has various options that emulate the effect of using red, yellow, green etc filters when shooting film. I find it effective in most cases but there are other free plugins and also various step by step techniques that you can teach yourself to achieve the same result - do a Google and you will find plenty of tutorials. Another trick I sometimes use is to boost the saturation before using these tools. This increases contrast and may help. I am not sure how experienced you are in digital, but take it from me, I post process EVERY shot that I want to keep. I never find that I am satisfied with shots straight out of the camera.
Shooting in colour and converting to Black and White in Photoshop, is what I normally do however. There are several techniques to get better black and white results as straight removal of colour information (eg by using desaturate) always leaves shots looking low in contrast and muddy.
The easiest way is to find some freeware filter plugins that do the job for you in one go. I often use one called Cybia Fotomatic B and W plus. ( http://www.cybia.co.uk/bwplus.htm ) This filter has various options that emulate the effect of using red, yellow, green etc filters when shooting film. I find it effective in most cases but there are other free plugins and also various step by step techniques that you can teach yourself to achieve the same result - do a Google and you will find plenty of tutorials. Another trick I sometimes use is to boost the saturation before using these tools. This increases contrast and may help. I am not sure how experienced you are in digital, but take it from me, I post process EVERY shot that I want to keep. I never find that I am satisfied with shots straight out of the camera.
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LCT
ex-newbie
Not my experience i must say. Blown highlights are impossible to recover, at least by me. I personally never overexpose. Just underexpose by 0.5 or 1 EV in case of high contrast. I find the R-D1's dynamic range pretty good BTW and under exposed areas are not difficult to handle with iCorrect IMHO. Just my practice of course, to each his own.peterm1 said:
Another way for me. I don't care to shoot in colour or B&W as i always shoor raw. Easy to use the B&W setting of the Epson raw plug-in afterwards. I prefer the 'analog' look i get this way, but again it's a matter of tastes needless to say.peterm1 said:
Colour filters are included in the Epson raw plug-in as well. Work pretty well IMO. Yellow filter here. FWIW.peterm1 said:
