Many of us have been impressed with the promise that as RAW converters improve, we can get more from our RAW images with fresh conversions. At least, that's upermost in my mind.
The great flaw in digital imaging is dynamic range. In all other respects, digital imaging can trounce most film, and perhaps in all respects without exception, slide film.
I'm not so sure about negative color film and B&W. They still have the edge.
The problem is in the shoulder. Digital seems to have none. Film does.
In the following shot, which was perhaps overexposed at 1/750th at f8 and ISO 100, I've got irretrievably blown highlights.
It's one of my favourite (but flawed) images. When I come across a new product like lightroom, I test it with this image. Can it extract any more detail from those blown highlights?
With this image, I pulled out all the stops in the Lightroom preview. Maximum enhancement of shadows, maximum reduction of highlights etc.
It simply wouldn't open in PS. I got some error message. It opens fine in the other converters I have, whatever the adjustments. I'm a bit puzzled because other images with less extreme adjustments open just fine in Lightroom.
Here's the image, converted in ACR 3.6. (Or is it 3.7, whatever.)
[attachment=2179:attachment]
ps. I should add, I've fudged the blown highlights in this rendition by cloning in a bit of detail. This is my print version. Printed straight, there's just plain paper white.