andyturk
Established
After a recent workshop I've been trying to get away from relying on the meter and instead use the in-camera histogram to determine the best exposure. I spent two days out shooting with the technique.
I'd take a shot and then bring up the histogram. I tuned the exposure until the curve barely kissed the right edge. All my shots were in RAW format, so I'd bring them home and use ACR in Photoshop to process the images. Imagine my surprise when shots that looked perfectly exposed with the in-camera histogram came out about 1.5 stops under according to Photoshop.
After much gnashing of teeth I did figure out what the problem was. The Epson, like most digital cameras, calculates a histogram based on the image that's displayed on the LCD. Raw data is processed using whatever film settings were chosen and then a histogram is derived from the resulting image. The point is that the histogram doesn't necessarily represent the raw image data.
In my case, I was using the Epson's B&W mode with a yellow filter applied. I also had the contrast and saturation punched up in the film setting. Big mistake. The contrast and saturation enhancements brightened the in-camera .jpgs significantly.
Now I use a film setting that minimizes all the parameters except for tint. Shots look very washed out an uninteresting on the LCD screen, but the histograms match what ACR sees in the raw image, which to me is most important.
I'd take a shot and then bring up the histogram. I tuned the exposure until the curve barely kissed the right edge. All my shots were in RAW format, so I'd bring them home and use ACR in Photoshop to process the images. Imagine my surprise when shots that looked perfectly exposed with the in-camera histogram came out about 1.5 stops under according to Photoshop.
After much gnashing of teeth I did figure out what the problem was. The Epson, like most digital cameras, calculates a histogram based on the image that's displayed on the LCD. Raw data is processed using whatever film settings were chosen and then a histogram is derived from the resulting image. The point is that the histogram doesn't necessarily represent the raw image data.
In my case, I was using the Epson's B&W mode with a yellow filter applied. I also had the contrast and saturation punched up in the film setting. Big mistake. The contrast and saturation enhancements brightened the in-camera .jpgs significantly.
Now I use a film setting that minimizes all the parameters except for tint. Shots look very washed out an uninteresting on the LCD screen, but the histograms match what ACR sees in the raw image, which to me is most important.
