Digital Camera Technique for High Contrast Lighting

[tapas_maiti5]

Hi

 

I love taking black and white portraits in high contrast lighting or backlit scenes, sometime

in the studio and sometimes in candid situations. I am having real difficulty taking these

types of picture on a digital camera.

 

I now have a full frame Canon 5D and it seems better than my old D70, maybe more

capacity in the large chip but it still struggles - either the highlight blow out or the

shadows are too grainy/banded when you lift them with levels. These are the exact

situations where Black & White film would excel.

 

Without using fill in flash - has anyone got any hints on the best way to manage high

contrast lighting on a digital cmaera - can't use mulitple images or HDR obviously.

 

Regards

 

Tapas

[jcuknz]

You are using RAW are you not?

Why not flash, not with a sledge-hammer but very discretely? At perhaps four or five stops below 'normal' exposure to bring the shadow information up to within the range of the sensor. Making sure that you never blow the highlights. Unlike film there is no shoulder to cope with over-exposure. You must get required highlights exactly on the 'right of the sensor' and not 'off screen right' when viewing the histogram.

Selective de-noising of the shadow areas if it doesn't have to be sharp detailed?

[sean de merchant httpw]

Hi Tapas,

 

I have started a new thread related (but not identical) to your question here:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00FhHj&tag=

 

There is a direction you might consider exploring there but not a definative answer. The reason for a new post was that I am seeking brainstorming and feedback rather than a solution. i.e., the question is broader.

 

But an interesting insight I had was that a color filter is essentially an ND filter on wavelengths so that one could in essence capture an overexposed blue channel and a normally exposed green channel and combine them. You could even use HDR from a single frame this way.

 

enjoy,

 

Sean

[wbowman]

Certainly using RAW will help a bunch. If you like the way that B&W film looked why not

continue to use it until there is a good digital solution (because I don't think that digital is

going to be able to cope with this for a while).

[vivek iyer]

Use lenses that render low contrast images. The 43-86 Zoom Nikkor would do a good job.

[tapas_maiti5]

Hi

 

Thanks for the responses; I am shooting RAW but that doesn't do it. Digital seems to be

amazing in the middle but poor at the extremes. I've got some stuff off the 5D in soft

lighting that is really good.

 

Flash is not the way I like to work except in a studio, it lacks discretion, with something

like

XP2 you just expose for the shadows and the film's shoulder will take care of the

highlights.

 

Using filters is interesting - Paul Roark has tried differential filters and has an article on

his site.

 

Seems like it might be back to film for these situations.

 

Tapas

[mr._smith]

"love taking black and white portraits in high contrast lighting...I am having real difficulty taking these types of picture on a digital camera."

 

My solution is to underexpose the scene until the highlight have details then open up the rest of the scene in Photoshop. This is far from ideal. Wish I had a better solution. Taking several shots and using the HDR feature of Photoshop is not always appropriate.

[kuryan_thomas]

One technique I've read about but not personally used is to shoot raw, then "develop" once

for the shadows and again for the highlights. Then blend. This isn't the same technique as

HDR, because you only shoot once. You might still get some noise in the shadows, though:

as I said, I've no direct experience with the technique.

[wilsontsoi]

For single shot, I'd say shoot for the highlights and bring back shadow details in RAW. Otherwise, you can shoot couple frames on tripod, one for highlight, one for shadow, and combine them in PS, but that's the option you mentioned you can't take.

[tapas_maiti5]

Hi Guys

 

Thanks for the extra responses, I'm not sure they are quite there because if the two areas of the histogram that you are intereted in are the two ends, then with neg/b&w film you can expose for the shadows and then allow the film's shoulder to manage with grace.

 

The problem with going for the highlight is that important information is compressed into a very small range with a huge midrange gap but if I expose into the shadows then the sensor will bloom on the highlight end and give to my eyes a very unpleasant response whereas the response of film is more natural.

 

I'll try doing two raw developments of the same file though it does seem quite a tedious piece of work. Maybe you have to light the shadows with flash and ambient meter for the highlights? I would prefer no to use flash but maybe better than fussing in photoshop.

 

Regards

 

Tapas

[jcuknz]

My suggestion is based on my experience with TV color film [7240] which inherently has a greater contrast range than TV likes. So we 'flashed' our film to reduce contrast. automatically in our processing machine, thanks to the creative genius of our lab technician back in those days [20+yrs ago].

 

I am also wondering if the lighting effects tool in Photoshop might be another solution to the situation. Just saw the article in a mag this morning :-)

 

personally I prefer to do things in editing where I have full control rather than in the field where the addition of a filter IMO commits you to a solution however ingenious an idea it is.

[edgreene]

First, put on a .3 or .6 ND filter. Next, spot/hand meter the venue/scene.<br>Of course you should use full manual operation.<br>The ND filter will mute the highlights, giving you a more even exposure. The slow(er) shutter speeds should be approached with caution however. <br>But the proper ND filter (<i>...don't forget Polarizers are <b>variable strength</b> ND filters</i>) will help.<p>Too often, we depend on the camera to do our work. Your situation means <b>you</b> must control the shooting environement.<p>Lastly, with the difficulties digital (mine too) appear to have capturing scenes like you describe, using fill flash with (any) Canon EOS body/flash combination is a snap.<br><i>EOS system flash <u>always exposes for the ambient light</u>, using the flash for fill-<b>automatically</b>. Of course you can set the +/- flash variables either on your camera or flash for proper fill</i>.<br>In full manual operation, you can set some EOS flashes(?) to 1/32 power.<div></div>