"Mueen Nawaz" wrote in message
...
Hi,
I did an experiment yesterday. I took a photo, and my set my camera to
show clipped highlights. About half of the image was blinking as being
clipped.
I then opened the resulting file in software, and asked it. Almost none of
it was clipped. Now the software will only mark it clipped if it's 254 or
above (my setting). I then changed the setting to about 245, and then it
really matched what my camera LCD was showing me. This was a rough
estimate - I didn't try other numbers to really pin it down.
This bothers me. My purpose of looking at clipped highlights is just to
know if detail has been lost - and my camera is a bit conservative about
this. I'm losing some flexibility in increasing the exposure because I
don't _really_ know if too much is being exposed. It was somewhat of a
shock to realize that only a very tiny portion of the image was "really"
clipped, while the camera was showing it as half of the image (which would
normally force me to reduce the exposure somewhat unnecessarily at times).
I don't really have that good a feel for the numbers. Is 254 brightness
that much more than 245?
I'm otherwise happy with my camera (Olympus E-500). I'm just curious if
people have tried figuring this out in other DSLR's (at least the ones
that show clipped highlights). Is this a common issue?
--
Don't drink and park, accidents cause people.
/\ /\ /\ /
/ \/ \ u e e n / \/ a w a z
anl
What an interesting subject you have raised! I'm gonna replicate what you
did later today.
Your camera is playing safe and there is nothing wrong with that. DSLRs do,
on the whole, I find, err on the side of caution when assessing exposure
compared to a point and shoot camera. This is because a) DSLR users
(traditionally) have been more inclined to post process their pictures and
b) because the larger sensors in DSLRs have more dynamic range so shadow
detail can be recovered very successfully.
Ian
Digital Photography Now
The online magazine and community for anyone interested in taking digital
pictures!
http://dpnow.com
DPNow forum and users photo gallery:
http://forum.dpnow.com
Win an Olympys E-330 Live View DSLR during December:
http://dpnow.com/3241.html