Originally posted by GUB Thanks for the input everyone. I have had a good week thinking about things. Here is a sum up.
Prerequisites :
Working in Raw -
Working in lighting that requires higher Iso for correct exposure
Working with a camera that is at least reasonably iso invariant.
Editing skills
Potential gains :
Exposure tolerance in constantly changing lighting conditions.
Major gains in controlling highlights.
Improvement in Dynamic Range
What you won't gain:
An improvement in noise levels. This is not about that.
How I will approach it:
The idea of Underexposing 2 to 3 stops rather than right down to base iso makes a lot of sense if only to get a rough idea of what you have taken in the LCD rather than a toally black screen.
Using TAV with exposure compensation makes a lot of sense and is quick to get in and out of.
Final note;
The idea of utilizing Iso-invariance does not conflict with the principle of ETTR. But it does identify what should have been an obvious point about ETTR (and one I hadn't thought of!) . And that is that the Iso is irrelevant to maximizing the number of photons hitting the sensor which is the driving force behind ETTR. Only Aperture and shutter speed can do that.
So take your Aperture and shutter speeds to their brightest appropriate levels and underexpose by Iso alone.
How does all that sound
Thanks people.
Thanks for putting me onto this GUB, you pointed me here from
here remember?
I have a few events coming up (a Wedding in December and this weekend another '
Science at the Local', I'm keen to try and carve out myself a mode that is suitable to these kind of event, indoors, low light and no flash use. I will also need to think about the use of MF to be quiet (church), perhaps ES mode and Live View things the whole time (perhaps monopod as well...)
If I understand correctly an easy way to use this method would be to simply be in TAv mode, adjust the shutter and aperture to how the user sees fit (I have snapped very animated speakers requiring upwards of 1/200th!, and others where 1/50th is fine), press the +/- EV compensation button and dial it back to say -2.3 or so, and then just snap away. Chimping will reveal darker images than normal, but PP should fix all that. I can see by giving the -2.3 in the EV comp the ISO drops accordingly and that's what we're after. Lower ISO images that are darker but when lifting exposure during post processing all good.
Talking of post processing, I shall check out the aforementioned Fast Raw Viewer (as I currently use Fast Stone) for means of gaining a quick insight into any RAW worth keeping during the culling process, is there any other preferred method of bringing the exposure up during PP? I use LR predominately, just adjust the Exposure slider bar?
Cheers,
Bruce