contrast in p&s digital cameras vs film

H.S. wrote:
Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark) wrote:

You can boost contrast in camera

er ... how can one do that?

Read the manual. Most cameras have contrast settings.

Roger

Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark) wrote:
H.S. wrote:
Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark) wrote:

You can boost contrast in camera

er ... how can one do that?

Read the manual. Most cameras have contrast settings.

Roger

For the Canon A520, I see a setting for Effects. The "vivid" setting is
said to increase contrast and give bold colors. That is it? I guess it
is a Yes/No thing with this setting.

-HS

H.S. wrote:
Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark) wrote:
H.S. wrote:
Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark) wrote:

You can boost contrast in camera
er ... how can one do that?
Read the manual. Most cameras have contrast settings.

Roger

For the Canon A520, I see a setting for Effects. The "vivid" setting is
said to increase contrast and give bold colors. That is it? I guess it
is a Yes/No thing with this setting.

Yeah, that sounds like it for that camera.

Roger

Thomas T. Veldhouse wrote:
"Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark)" wrote:
The main reason is that film has a toe in its characteristic
curve and digital cameras are linear. They are also linear
at the low end after the "gamma" tone curve is applied.
Learn to use curves to add an s-curve response to give a
film-like response. You can boost contrast in camera, but
post processing gives more control over shadow and highlight detail.


I think that *most* P&S users do NOT post process their images and often go
directly from SD card to upload to the processor. Those that do post
processing are probably mostly limitted to red-eye removal or cropping. I
think a relatively few P&S users do true post processing as you describe.


I think you are probably right. While I do some post-processing on some
pictures, my goal is to have them right the first time, and I usually am
able to do that. It is nice to have that ability, however, for the
cases in which the situation didn't allow a 'good' image at the time, or
when the camera was used beyond its parameters.