Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/09/02

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Subject: [Leica] About to take M8 plunge - but worried about blown highlights...
From: photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)
Date: Tue Sep 2 11:52:26 2008
References: <200809020336.AWF59279@rg4.comporium.net> <93642647159018605813317929417096646172-Webmail2@me.com>

While I have no experience with the M8 beyond fondling it and drooling  
on it, I do have extensive experience shooting several models of Canon  
and Olympus DSLRs. I completely agree with the comments from Tina and  
others: if you shoot RAW and expose as if you were shooting slide  
film, you will have better dynamic range than with film. But the key  
is to do both of those things. If you shoot JPEG, you WILL have blown  
highlights and artifacts of the type you mention.

Nathan

Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
http://www.nathanfoto.com

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On Sep 2, 2008, at 11:10 AM, Wyndham Pulman-Jones wrote:

> The one thing that has held me back from buying an M8 is my dislike  
> of the look of blown highlights in digital photos. Almost all of my  
> shooting is of people interacting in social and working situations -  
> and I always expose by taking incident readings for people's faces  
> and letting everything else fall where it may. This frequently means  
> that lighter exteriors visible through windows or doors are  
> overexposed - but when using fast colour negative film there is  
> almost always some tone and character to the overexposed area. The  
> same also applies to highlights on people's hair when strongly  
> backlit.
>
> When I have used digital (Epson RD-1, Canon 1Ds) I have not liked  
> the totally white blown out highlights, fringed with un-natural  
> looking chromatic aberation, that often result from shooting in this  
> way (when you are not able to worry about exposinig for areas of the  
> photo not carrying the narrative interest, which might end up  
> significantly overexposed.)
>
> Does the M8 suffer from this just as much as any other digital  
> camera? If so, what's the best technique for stopping those 'outside  
> the scene' highlights from blowing out? Or is it just not possible  
> with the M8 to 'set and forget' exposure in the way that you can  
> with incident metering for the latitude of negative film?
>
> (I found some M8 DNG samples which show totally blown out 'through  
> the window' highlights which have the digital look that just doesn't  
> look right to me: http://rpo.eranet.tv/)
>
> Thanks,
>
> Simon.
> Cambridge, UK.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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Replies: Reply from philippe.amard at tele2.fr (Philippe AMARD) ([Leica] About to take M8 plunge - but worried about blown highlights...)
In reply to: Message from images at comporium.net (Tina Manley) ([Leica] IMG: Playing with Fire)
Message from simonpj at mac.com (Wyndham Pulman-Jones) ([Leica] About to take M8 plunge - but worried about blown highlights...)