selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

This image was captured in broad daylight at Sunny 16 (1/800s @ f/8 ISO 200), actually a bit brighter because the sensor's effective ISO without the Bayer array is actually between 320 and 400.

However, it was very difficult to measure the actual required exposure since it contains a lot of dark areas. My primary goal was to capture the brightest highlights without blowing them out. The camera's meter indicated underexposure and the JPEG, camera histograms and highlight warnings were not any help either.

Looking at the raw file with RawDigger indicated that the image was underexposed by about 5 stops. But it also showed a dynamic range of about seven stops and that very little of the image fell below a raw value of 32, less than two of the 24MP.

I concluded that all of the logical indicators were wrong. There was hope for producing a decent image.

Here are the settings I applied in Capture One:

I moved the Exposure slider to +3.6. That made the leaves too white so I reduced the Brightness to -6. The shadows were still a little darker than I wanted so I recovered a little shadow information. I had to look closely at the result at 100% to see any noise at all. It probably would not show up in a print but I applied some noise reduction only to the shadows that would not affect the sharpness elsewhere.

Here is the final result.

(Download)

The RawDigger information

(Download)

The unedited image as it appeared on the camera's LCD

(Download)

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Nice work with processing the extra-dark image, but it looks a bit flat to me, needing some more contrast.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

Thank you.

I could have captured almost the exact same image with a Z7 that still has the Bayer array and then converted the color image to B&W. The colors in the original scene do not really add anything because they are mostly dark and light gray, brown and green.

Most of the contrast here is in the fine detail where the bright leaves and branches appear against a dark background.

Increasing the the mid-tone contrast can have unwanted consequences. It reduces the contrast within the shadow and highlight tones.

Here it is with the contrast increased to +10. If you download and look at it at 100% that might actually be too much.

(Download)

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

This one looks just about right to me. At least that’s th way I like them.

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

This morning I photographed the same scene with the Z7 using a 50mm f/1.8S lens instead of a 75mm f/1.8 Voigtlander (manual focus). The sky was clearer today so the scene (about 8 stops of DR) was naturally more contrasty.

I immediately switched to B&W and applied almost the same adjustments except for the Exposure which was only +2 rather than +3.6.

The color version shows why it looks better in B&W. The colors are natural but they don't add much value.

Developed as B&W

(Download)