[filmscanners] RE: Blown highlights (was traffic)

["Paul D. DeRocco" <pderocco@ix.netcom.com>]

> Julian Vrieslander wrote:
>
> But this digicam does not, in my opinion, compete with a good
> film SLR.  We
> have quite a few vacation shots that were taken at the same spot using
> Cindy's 4500 and my F100.  The differences are not huge, but
> the scans from
> my F100 shots look better.  What is most noticeable to me, is that the
> highlights on the digicam shots tend to blow out more often.  The tonal
> variations look natural as you go from shadow into brighter
> areas, but then
> suddenly there is a featureless blotch that looks like someone spilled
> whiteout on the image.  I've read explanations that attribute
> this effect to
> the linear transfer function of the digital sensors.  They saturate
> suddenly, whereas with film you have an s-shaped transfer function that
> saturates more gracefully.

Exactly so. You have to learn how to shoot with a digicam. If you're setting
up your shots carefully, you can afford to look at the histogram after the
shot, and reshoot if it bumps up against the right side. If you're in more
of a hurry, and you've got a DSLR with a nice quiet sensor, you can afford
to dial in -1 stop of exposure compensation, and then fix the darkness
afterwards with a curve. That's what I do with the Canon 10D.

--

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@ix.netcom.com

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