Extended Dynamic Range? Yes or No?

PatrickT · 06-19-2011

Have you guys used the extended dynamic range function on the X100? I have, and find that it works very well but ran into a little problem.

When using the extended dynamic range with JPEG photos, everything is great. But, when using it with RAW and then importing into Lightroom, the photos get messed up (underexposed by one or two stops) and I can't seem to make them look like the JPEG photos.

Example here (not mine): http://feedback.photoshop.com/photos...from_gsfn=true

What do you guys use?

willie_901 · 06-19-2011

In RAW mode I only use DR = 100%. I try to avoid over exposure and then pull the shadows up in post.

With DR set to > 100% in RAW mode, all you do is protect yourself from over exposure – which is exactly what you report.

You can't add dynamic range to the sensor. All you can do is manipulate the RAW information after it's recorded. DR does this automatically in-camera for jpegs, the photographer does this manually in post-processing with the RAW data.

I have never recorded a jpeg-only photo with my X100.

PatrickT · 06-20-2011

Thanks for the reply. My goal is to do as little post production as possible, so this optioned seemed good for me as I certainly value dynamic range coming from film. For now, I think I'll shoot RAW+JPEG and see what I like best.

It would be sweet if Adobe was somehow able to recognize what DR setting it was taken at and adjust accordingly.

imokruok · 06-20-2011

Fair warning, I don't have an X100 but have a couple of friends who do. They both seem to be very impressed by the camera's own JPG processing, so they're shooting RAW+JPG, with the RAW file pretty much as a "just in case" the JPG goes bad...and they don't seem to mention that it does.

In general, sometimes I think we discount the ability of cameras and software to do things automatically or without our input and come up with a good result. I sometimes screw with a pic in Photoshop for half an hour. But am increasingly trying to learn to live with technology that does things better (or much much faster) than I can...