Surprised while trying to check the difference between cameras

Jock Elliott

Hall of Famer
Location
Troy, NY
While thinking about the difference between the "palettes" of different cameras, I glanced outside and notice the sun rising through the clouds behind the trees.

So I stepped out with the OM-D E-M5 and, after cranking in a lot of negative exposure compensation, got this:

OMD sunrise through trees (1).JPG

and this:

OMD sunrise through trees (4).JPG

The LX100 deserved an opportunity to capture the scene, and here is what it produced:

LX100 sunrise through trees (2).JPG

and this:

LX100 sunrise through trees (3).JPG

I heard a noise to my left, and caught this:

LX100 sunrise through trees (4).JPG

Cheers, Jock
 
Not sure I'm understanding your point, Jock. There are myriad potential variables that could be in play here, from coatings to metering, sensor manufacturer to firmware, let alone environmental factors. Were you expecting exactly the same result?
 
Not sure I'm understanding your point, Jock. There are myriad potential variables that could be in play here, from coatings to metering, sensor manufacturer to firmware, let alone environmental factors. Were you expecting exactly the same result?

Bill,

No, I wasn't expecting the same result. I was trying to see how I could coax out the subtleties of the color of the sunrise with either camera. With my eye, I could clearly see a wide range of hues, but both cameras required a lot of negative exposure compensation to bring up much color at all.

Could it be that I need sensors that are rated (by DXO perhaps) for more color depth? I dunno, but I am fascinated by the subtleties of sunrises and sunsets.

Cheers, Jock
 
Well, since most of the scene is dark (the shadow side of an already dimly lit situation), evaluative metering will try to brighten everything it up to "middle" gray (18% gray), which'll totally blow the colourful highlights that are several EVs brighter than the rest of the scene.

Spot metering (and additional exposure correction) can help manage that a bit better, but even the biggest DR available on digital cameras will be unable to capture what the "eye" can see (actually, it's your brain processing the visual information combined from lots of "glimpses"). I read somewhere (can't recall the source, sorry) that the human visual system can reconstruct about 30 stops of brightness (even though the eye can't capture that in one go - far from it, actually), whereas the best cameras are rated at about 15 stops; :mu43: is around 12 to 13 stops (details depending on the rating system).

Getting back to the images at hand: I think exposing for the highlights (which spot metering makes easier), shooting RAW and than getting back some shadow detail in post should be quite doable in this kind of situation - provided the ISO wasn't pushed too high (I draw the line at ISO 1600 for workable files). Blown highlights are a bit of a different story on :mu43: compared to other sensors ... let's just say I'd avoid blowing out large areas by a huge amount.

HDR might be an option for the sunrise, but probably wouldn't work well for the deer - but I don't know a lot about HDR, so someone else will have to evaluate that suggestion.

M.
 
HDR works wonders on sunrise and sunsets assuming clouds aren't moving too fast or the wind is blowing leaves. The deer shot looks to be way underexposed
The LX100's RAWs are quite workable in that respect (regaining "shadow" detail, even locally) - you can't make it look bright, but you could probably make it look better from RAW (though I'd have to check the EXIF/image data to estimate how much ...).

M.
 
HDR works wonders on sunrise and sunsets assuming clouds aren't moving too fast or the wind is blowing leaves. The deer shot looks to be way underexposed

Yes it was. I rolled in some negative exposure compensation to try to bring out more color that I could see in the sunrise and just snapped the deer as she walked past without changing the exposure compensation. It was far from full daylight, however.

Cheers, Jock
 
While thinking about the difference between the "palettes" of different cameras, I glanced outside and notice the sun rising through the clouds behind the trees.

So I stepped out with the OM-D E-M5 and, after cranking in a lot of negative exposure compensation, got this:

The LX100 has the highlight/shadow settings, which is what I use most.
 
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