Originally posted by GUB Isn't it just simpler , once you start working in raw, to leave your camera jpg settings in a standardised state and gain a sense of what you can get away with with experience. One glance at the editor raw histo to see if the right hand end of the data is spiked and sawn off is all you need to check --- it doesn't need to get more complicated than that.
Easier maybe and yes experience will count. But if you wish to aim for optimal probably best to investigate a little more to understand what is happening at each stage of workflow.
Bottom line is that most of the time you will get perfectly acceptable images just accepting what the meter and the raw editor shows you. But be aware that you are not seeing the truth just someone elses interpretation rendering your raw data to look good, just the same as the camera manufacturers comittee have decided how raw images should be rendered and the variations they may offer in camera presets.
An example already posted of an underexposed image of how it looked OK in the raw editor (and similar on camera screen). Truth is that this image under exposed probably around -2 2/3 EV compared to an optimally exposed image and losing nearly 3 stops DR and an increase in noise characteristic. In this case I could not care less but in other circumstances it may have helped to understand and attempt to get things right in camera
1. JPEG in camera settings obviously affect JPEG only but include the look and histogram seen on the camera LCD - maybe helpful or not as once you observe clipping then you have more headroom in the raw data, probably over +1EV.
2. If you are using your camera histogram to try and see close to raw you could use UniWB (if you can stomach the green look) or set the lowest contrast an most neutral picture settings for JPEG to get closer to clipping point
3. Find out your own camera clipping point for metering with some practical tests. Spot metering being easiest. Spot read an area containing texture and make a series of exposures based 0.3EV apart. As it is likely your meter calibrated around 12.5% (about +3EV from sensor saturation) you may want ot start at +2 1/3EV and increase up to +3 2/3 EV. Once you have found the point of saturation in the field (assume you found +3EV) you will know when you meter a specific ROI then you can apply up to +3EV without clipping and still retain texture. Now in the unlikely event that your camera meter is calibrated to 18% the theoretical point of saturation will be +2.47EV from meter suggestion (spot or possibly centre weighted are the best candidates for this)
4. You will not see a raw histogram in most image editors. So unless you evaluate using similar to RawDIgger or change your editors processing to mimic as shown above your really do not know what your data represents, other than in most cases and adjustment to make a pleasing first rendition that will need further editing to taste.
Last edited by TonyW; 05-17-2019 at 06:14 AM.