Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Adobe Lightroom Q&A => Topic started by: HSakols on January 26, 2015, 09:49:05 am
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Do you start working with an image with Exposure and Contrast at zero or do you begin with a lower setting. I have read of a photographer starting at exposure -1 and contrast -33. I have experimented with this approach and it has really helped with some images but not all.
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YMMV, depends on a lot of factors. If you were to Expose to the Right, -1 might be the correct setting to normalize the rendering but again it depends on many factors.
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Do you start working with an image with Exposure and Contrast at zero or do you begin with a lower setting. I have read of a photographer starting at exposure -1 and contrast -33. I have experimented with this approach and it has really helped with some images but not all.
More often than not I end up increasing both exposure and especially contrast. In theory I expose-to-the-right, but probably often make too much allowance for highlights, and end up needing a boost to mid tones.
However, I find this depends greatly on the camera profile used (in the "Camera Calibration" panel). On my Nikons (D800 and previously D300) the different supplied profiles made a considerable difference to not only scene contrast but also lightness. Now I often use home-made profiles (using Colorchecker passport software), and they also result in different contrast and lightness.
However, the differences are (in my experience) not consistent from one image to another. It might of course be that my exposure is all over the place, but I don't think I'd find it helpful to start at any fixed point in Lightroom. Well, I suppose actually I do: I start with all controls in the basic panel at zero, then often click "Auto", just to see what it does. I don't necessarily leave the auto settings, and sometimes undo, but I find it a useful point of reference.
In particular, the Auto control often makes a good job of identifying white and black points, and setting "Whites" and "Blacks" accordingly. It's often too tolerant of what it thinks are specular highlights, and I sometimes find I bring Whites down a bit.
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I'll usually start at zero, sometimes with a saturation bias of -10 or so. Often the images using the colorchecker profile seem a bit too saturated. Often I'll then set the white and black points automatically by holding down shift and double clicking on the words "whites" and "blacks", then of course tweak as desired.
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Can you state why you use colorchecker to set "accurate" colour, and then use the saturation slider and other sliders to change the colour of colorchecker? That defeats the purpose of setting "accurate" colour, does it not?
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Do you start working with an image with Exposure and Contrast at zero or do you begin with a lower setting. I have read of a photographer starting at exposure -1 and contrast -33. I have experimented with this approach and it has really helped with some images but not all.
I have been testing and then using Michael's (not M. Reichmann) settings and they work really well for me and I have been able to improve quite a few of my images.
Brian
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Do you start working with an image with Exposure and Contrast at zero or do you begin with a lower setting. I have read of a photographer starting at exposure -1 and contrast -33. I have experimented with this approach and it has really helped with some images but not all.
My understanding is that the "image-adaptive" features of Lightroom mean that the settings are not absolute values and, therefore, cannot be regarded in the way you suggest. -1, -33, 0 or whatever will actually mean different levels of adjustment according to how LR assesses the Raw file.
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My understanding is that the "image-adaptive" features of Lightroom mean that the settings are not absolute values and, therefore, cannot be regarded in the way you suggest. -1, -33, 0 or whatever will actually mean different levels of adjustment according to how LR assesses the Raw file.
I don't think you are correct. Eric Chan has stated that a +1 in exposure equates to the equivalent of the increase of 1 stop in EV in camera terms. Therefore -33 should mean - 1/3 stop of EV?
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I don't think you are correct. Eric Chan has stated that a +1 in exposure equates to the equivalent of the increase of 1 stop in EV in camera terms. Therefore -33 should mean - 1/3 stop of EV?
I'm not sure about exposure and contrast, but I think the next four - highlights, shadows, whites and blacks - may be image-adaptive. That is the zero setting may depend on image content. I'm ready to be corrected, but I thought I'd read that since PV2012 (Lightroom 4?) highlight and shadow treatment was image-adaptive.
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The numbers you get from another photog have no value whatsoever. Better is to look at the image and move slider "to taste".
The exposure number correspond to stops in the middel part of the histogram and tapers of to the white and black point.
Regarding exposure it all depends on how the image was exposed when taken. Camera's alone can already vary enormously.
Your exposure techniques also.
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I think unless you are shooting in a studio with constant lighting conditions and constant exposure settings in the camera and there is a specific look that you are after then default settings (usually a preset) may be very useful.
Otherwise there is no one default setting and there cannot be.
Tony Jay
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Eric Chan has stated that a +1 in exposure equates to the equivalent of the increase of 1 stop in EV in camera terms.
That was in times of PV2010, whereas PV2012 Exposure was reported to combine PV2010 Exposure & Brightness.
PV2012 Exposure -1 results e.g. from setting the PV2010 default Brightness 50 down to zero (at PV2010 default Exposure zero).
Further, PV2012 Contrast -33 corresponds to PV2010 Contrast zero.
In short, PV2012 -1/-33 corresponds to Brightness and Contrast zero with PV 2010.
This translation of settings can be easily checked by changing back a forth between the Process Versions.
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