Do you underexpose your M8?

D

drjoke

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I have been underexposing by 1 stop on purpose to compensate for the fact that M8 appears to have less dynamic range on the highlight side. That way I don't clip highlights so often.
 
absolutely not. the m8 has plenty of highlight detail if you just use the recovery option in lightroom. if you go around underexposing you're going to introduce noise into the image.
 
Today I underexposed by 1/3 as I found that all my images were a bit over-exposed when using the 35mm Summicron.

Tmfabian, are you sure about the noise, especially at ISO160,320 ?
 
If I use auto -- which I do, quite a lot -- mine certainly doesn't overexpose most subjects. Or maybe it's just the subjects I choose.

Then again, I've only taken about 9-10,000 shots so far...

Cheers,

R.
 
yanidel said:
Today I underexposed by 1/3 as I found that all my images were a bit over-exposed when using the 35mm Summicron.
Click to expand...

If you remember that the metering area will always be a percentage of the frame, and that it's also heavily center-weighted, it doesn't surprise me this is the case if you're not aware of what's going on.

With SLRs it's easier to deal with this, because when you're metering by this method you'll always see the same area space in your viewfinder, regardless of the focal length. Not the same with a fixed rangefinder window.

When you're using your 35mm as opposed to your 50 or 90mm, try to meter according to your main subject in the center of the viewfinder, and recompose as necessary.

This is the best I can explain it without going into writing a semi-treatise. :eek:
 
thanks for the tip, I will give it a try though I never had this issue on the RD1. This happens mainly wide open on people faces, I thought it could be an issue specific to the Summicron.
 
Roger Hicks said:
If I use auto -- which I do, quite a lot -- mine certainly doesn't overexpose most subjects. Or maybe it's just the subjects I choose.

Then again, I've only taken about 9-10,000 shots so far...

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...

Roger, I have not seen much on this, but when shooting a darker subject, and reducing the exposure as little as one stop to more correctly expose, I had an extremely large shift in the color to a rather pastel blue in the entire image.

I just had the camera serviced, but they did not comment much on what they did, upgrade the firmware, clean, and check the meter. Seems to be better, but have only had it back a few days.

Have you experienced this?

John
 
...if you go around underexposing you're going to introduce noise into the image.
Click to expand...

Perhaps that's true with the M8, but not the R-D1. I routinely shoot -.7 to -1 stop. Noise in the shadows isn't nearly as great a problem as highlights that don't exist. I only notice it at iso 1600, and the problem can always be solved by crushing the blacks. :D
 
Mine was on -1/3 when I got it - and I have left it there. Seems to work fine, both on A (which I in fact use most of the time) and manual.

I use my M8 in the studio a lot, actually, and then I expose according to the levels diagram and out of gamut warning. This works beautifully - sometimes I wish I could have an M8 with just a tiny screen showing the levels only, would be more than enough for any job I do.
 
Ditto on the -1/3 stop setting. When I first got the camera I found that the DNG shots seemed a little flat. I now shoot -1/3 and get a very life like color so that I find that I do little to no color correction in Photoshop. The Raw images look great right out of the bag.
Jim Evidon
 
tmfabian said:
absolutely not. the m8 has plenty of highlight detail if you just use the recovery option in lightroom. if you go around underexposing you're going to introduce noise into the image.
Click to expand...

I think you are right on this, but is there such a recovery function in Capture One 4.0 or 3.3.7?
 
kevin m said:
Perhaps that's true with the M8, but not the R-D1. I routinely shoot -.7 to -1 stop. Noise in the shadows isn't nearly as great a problem as highlights that don't exist. I only notice it at iso 1600, and the problem can always be solved by crushing the blacks. :D
Click to expand...

Same here - as long as you stay at lower isos, the images are very clean -- noise just isn't an issue...
 
sometimes you just gotta use high isos... i use them ALL the time on my RD-1. I have routinely shot at 1600 and pushed a stop or two at times.

Hey do what you gotta do and use what you gotta use to get the shot.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Dear John,

Nope. Sorry!

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...


Thanks, it was correctable, but it kind of drove me a little crazy for awhile. Am hoping Leica Service exorcised this.

Many built in meters will overexpose a subject that is over all darker than average, I would think as a matter of course many would correct, which in reality is not underexposing, just correcting for a meter dialed in to, dare I say, 18%.

And yesterday the M8 seemed to work a bit better at -.3, it was adjusted by Leica last week.

John
 
The images on the playback screen often look a bit over exposed, but actually they are fine when processed. (you can udjust the screen brightness rather than the exposure meter!)
Richard
 
-1/3 EV all the time. I tried -2/3 but this did not work for me, possible because Auto ISO is set at 640 Max.
 
Basic rule has to be to shoot for the highlights. If that means 0EV, -1/3, -2/3, -1 or more depending on the light and surface reflections so be it. Highlights translate to lost detail and white in an image. Pulling back to deal with that in photoshop or Capture One 4 or Pro can have unintended consequences on the rest of the image.

This approach can induce noise but this is easier to deal with using the tools out there than blown hightlights. My humble opinion.
 
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