How to get the best raw exposure, part 2

If you're talking about the gamma curves that must be applied to get you to a color space like Adobe RGB, they don't affect the brightness of the values near clipping, since they are compensated for before the image is printed or displayed.

If that makes you feel better sure. Will the question be aimed at theory on a tripod or for jobbing/wedding and the like? The latter are largely not on forums like this.

I think what you are doing is OK.

Here is someone who didn't read carefully what I am recommending. I did mention the limits of what pushes in posts should be contemplated.

Phew, thank you. Second guessing myself so much, my head is rotating!

Some want knowledge and understanding of the issues so that they can apply it in fieldwork when they see fit.

I'm wondering why that was said. While that is true for the same scene lighting, f-stop and shutter speed, it does not account for most cameras which change f-stop and/or shutter speed according to the ISO setting. Therefore, ISO affects the exposure by which I mean lx.s at the sensor.

Here's one:

I have no idea of what the crux of this para is or how it relates to my previous one sentence. It's a melange of thoughts and ideas that seem to have little direct relevance to the text you responded to.

Without attribution. Don't do that again, please.

Really? I've been providing real world settings and asking how they might be improved. I've yet to receive an answer, just some cherry picked replies that ALWAYS revert to the theory.

Alas that's where we are at. Bob you are to be commended for allowing these threads to go on, but your personal bias towards tech answers vs practical suggestions still comes across loud and clear.

To you, anyone asking a question or challenging these threads is "talking down", whereas those continuing to prove their tech prowess are never "talking down". They are Gods who can do no wrong.

It's no wonder its an ageing demographic on places like this!!

Thanks.

When choosing an exposure and if I have time I am guessing how I might use the data in the image to create an image for display. I have greater dynamic range in the camera than in the eventual display.

I usually use JPEG and sRGB because it works on nearly every display. I can in post processing compress a larger dynamic range so that it will fit into the JPEG and display on a device that knows sRGB. I do not see how any histogram available to me in the camera would help me get a better photo of the bird before it moves. For a landscape that is not moving, then I can take time to try various exposures.

If the end of the curve near darkest pixel values or brightest pixel values is compressed or stretched, it seems to me that there would be loss of information when it is quantized for display. Integer to float and back to integer.

If I put a greater dynamic range into the JPEG for display on a device, I have changed the scene that I remember seeing in a way that is sometimes pleasing to me and sometimes not.

If I photograph a Northern Cardinal in bright sunlight, I might need EV -2/3 to get detail of the feathers even if I increase the dynamic range in post processing. Yet, such a small number of pixels will have those very large red numbers that it will be hard to see in the histogram.

Thanks again.

True, but not the ones we were talking about.

There are lots of ways to apply the theory. Some of then are a bit slower. Some are not.

There are modes in which that does happen. In the kind of cameras we're talking about, there are modes where it doesn't. It's important to keep the discussions of exposure and ISO separate, or we'll just go round in circles.

I basically failed English at school. and so be it, it didnt stop me raising an academic daughter. but i also get tired of the anal correct terminology discussions.

When you say you use JPEG and sRGB, do you mean that you have the camera write the JPEG files? Then my article doesn't apply to you.

Or are you saying your final form is an sRGB JPEG, and you shoot raw? In that case, what tone curve is applied in postproduction is entirely up to you.