LCD Brightness Watch yourself! - DPChallenge Forums

05/22/2006 09:32:56 AM · #1

Just a friendly reminder to all who aren't so good that they can adjust exposure just be looking at a situation and actually need to go by their LCD...

If you shoot a bunch in sunlight and bump up your LCD to compensate for brightness, when you go into a darker location or at night, REMEMBER to turn it down again...

Otherwise you end up feeling stupid like me with 350 shots at the skate park that are underexposed because you set your exposure manually and checked exposure based on what you saw at the time...

DOH!

rich

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

05/22/2006 09:41:01 AM · #2

If you learn to read your exposure from the histogram, not the LCD, you will not have to worry about that situation again. And you end up learning a lot about the dynamic range of different scenes as well.

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

05/22/2006 09:43:59 AM · #3

*marks rich's post as helpful*

Will endeavor to do that. I'm still very much the beginner. That was my first skate park shoot. I will be back...

It makes me long for a 50mm f/1.4... Even 1.8 wasn't quite fast enough... DOF was a b*tch to deal with though.

Message edited by author 2006-05-22 09:44:17.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

05/22/2006 10:18:08 AM · #4

To emphasize rich's point, *do* turn on the histogram display on the preview, and refer to it religiously. I'm almost sure the 30D has an RGB histogram display, which gives much better control, since you can see if one channel is blown.
If you're shooting RAW, use a less contrasty Picture Style, like Neutral or Faithful. Using a more contrasty one will tend to make primary colors saturate too quickly (especially reds) and so the histogram (which is based on a JPEG conversion using the active Picture Style) will be too conservative.
Remember that if a channel is blown by less than a stop, it can be recovered in RAW conversion.

MadMan2k

Sony Alpha a6400

Tamron 70-180mm F/2.8 Di III VXD

05/22/2006 11:45:56 AM · #5

350? Man, you were busy.. heh

The histogram is definitely good to use. I find myself switching from the histogram display to the picture only a lot to double check composition and horizons after the fact though, if I find out the exposure was decent.

BTW, if you're not using any of the shots for challenges, you should post them up, I'd like to see 'em.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

05/23/2006 10:18:08 AM · #6

Great info here. Thanks!

I will turn on the Historogram with RGB. The 30D does indeed have it. So many things to learn...

Madman, I would love to post some, even though they all pretty much suck... The number 350 is kinda inflated because there was a newbie there who wanted me to photograph his wheeljam 360 tailwhip that he learned that night but after 20 tries and 150-200 pics, he couldn't pull it off. I think we both need more practice. 5FPS is pretty wild. Rough on storage space too...

I've got a minor issue though as I have currently got less free space on my HD than on my CF card...

I've been working on setting up a system for archiving, but my time is limited due to some extra work I picked up for the next 3 weeks. It's all leave the house at 7:00 am and get back at 10:30 or later... I need to be energetic and alert for that time (not to mention good-tempered), so late nights are out of the question.

I'm also planning on picking up a 3.5" archive tank... maybe a 240GB external with USB/Firewire.... Still working out the details... I was going to upgrade my on-board HD, but I think that won't work out as planned. I also have to rework my OS...

I'll see what I can do. I think there were a couple of half-decent shots... maybe.

Tom

Canon EOS-5D

05/23/2006 10:19:44 AM · #7

Can someone post an example of what a "good" histogram is? Do you want it even across the whole diagram??

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

05/23/2006 10:23:33 AM · #8

Originally posted by Tom:

Can someone post an example of what a "good" histogram is? Do you want it even across the whole diagram??

It will usually have close a typical bell-shaped curve, if there's a full range of tones present in the scene. You want to watch for the "hump" being pushed too far off-center, or for "clipping" (no pixels) at either end.

Canon EOS-20D

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

05/23/2006 10:34:09 AM · #9

Originally posted by kirbic:

I don't have an RGB histogram so it doesn't really matter but I'm just curious...is this just a more precise way to evaluate the regular histogram? Do you compensate in the same way?

Originally posted by Tom:

Can someone post an example of what a "good" histogram is? Do you want it even across the whole diagram??

In digital, you want your histogram as far to the right as it can be without clipping the edge. The majority of the information is recorded in those two stops. There's a tutorial here on exposing to the right if you're interested in technicals.

pitsaman

Canon EOS-30D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

05/23/2006 10:36:27 AM · #10

Originally posted by rich:

Never use PORTRAIT mode !
Never look at LCD,check the histogram,I second that.

soup

Canon EOS-30D

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

05/23/2006 11:17:30 AM · #11

you could also check the meter in the viewfinder to see if you're going to underexpose. then use the histogram to adjust the exposure compensation. that's generally my process.

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

05/24/2006 09:44:16 AM · #12

Thanks for the further info. I'm somewhat familiar with the theory of exposing to the right, although I'm still pretty clumsy with the histogram stuff in practice.

Using the meter in the viewfinder doesn't work too well when you are shooting action shots... Sometimes you need to set up the shot and wait for the subject to move into it... Especially when using wide apertures with shallow DOF...

I think I will be a bit happier after I get myself a strong flash... and a faster lens than the 18-55 kit...

(before you jump on me, only a few were taken with the 18-55. Most were taken with the 50mm f/1.8... Might have been nice to be able to go a bit wider as the 50mm had me up in the bleachers.

Prof_Fate

05/24/2006 10:27:16 AM · #13

If you shoot manual you NEED to use a meter, be it incamera or handheld.
you MUST check the histogram - just avoid the blinkies - take a shot or two and set the exposure 1/3-1/2 stop under the blinkie level.

shoot raw - you get more lattitude exposure wise.

shoot in Tv mode for action.

you can set your camera to review all shots on the LCD small (with blinkies) and the histogram for 2 or 4 seconds, so you can briefly glance down at them.

what keeps tripping me up is exposure comp. i adjsut it and forget and the next serios of shots are 2/3 of a stop too dark.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

05/24/2006 10:49:10 AM · #14

Originally posted by Tom:

Can someone post an example of what a "good" histogram is? Do you want it even across the whole diagram??

Good histograms come in all different shapes. It's much easier to define what's bad, and even then, on occasion yoiu will need to break the rules. A bad histogram is one where a significant portion of the right-hand end is unused. That means underexposure, which forces you to compensate in post processing, raising noise and possibly in visible posterization. Occasionally, however, you may choose to expose this way, particularly in certain night scenes.
Tall spikes at the extreme right-hand edge of the histogram indicate overexposed areas; one or more channels are saturated. Normally this is bad, but occasionally you will want to make a conscious decision to allow this (like shots with the sun in the frame).
With regard to RGB vs. regular (luminosity) histograms, the RGB histogram shows the behavior of each color channel, so you can see when one is clipped. With a luminosity histogram, the red channel might be clipped but if blue and green are not near clipping, the luminosity histogram may not show it. This commonly shows up shooting subjects with bright primary colors.
Except as described above, there are really no bad histogram shapes. Over time, you'll learn to interpret the histogram intuitively, and it will become an indispensable tool.

yido

Canon EOS-5D

Sigma 20mm f/1.8 EX Aspherical DG DF RF for Canon

05/24/2006 10:18:15 PM · #15

Originally posted by eschelar:

I hear that the main lens for skateboarding and snowbording photography is a fisheye.