exposure theory...will it work?

When I had to shoot concerts with my consumer brand digital, I always set the exposure to -2 just to get decent shutter speeds....

If I were to shoot this way with my 10D in RAW mode, if I did +2 after shooting, would that put it to "normal" exposure? If this works, then it gives me a much better chance of having good speeds, and I can still put it back to regular exposure if I need to. yay!

-Kevin

Yes, that's what RAW is for
But, as you already know, the prize you pay is more noise.
Regards,
tc

Kevin Leas said:

When I had to shoot concerts with my consumer brand digital, I
always set the exposure to -2 just to get decent shutter speeds....
If I were to shoot this way with my 10D in RAW mode, if I did +2
after shooting, would that put it to "normal" exposure? If this
works, then it gives me a much better chance of having good speeds,
and I can still put it back to regular exposure if I need to. yay!

-Kevin

Click to expand...

--
Some digital cameras, some lenses, 2 eyes

http://www.tom-crowning.com

Kevin Leas said:

When I had to shoot concerts with my consumer brand digital, I
always set the exposure to -2 just to get decent shutter speeds....
If I were to shoot this way with my 10D in RAW mode, if I did +2
after shooting, would that put it to "normal" exposure? If this
works, then it gives me a much better chance of having good speeds,
and I can still put it back to regular exposure if I need to. yay!

Click to expand...

On the 10D you can set the ISO to 3200 and the exposure compensation to -2, giving you an exposure index (EI) of 12500. Here's a photo I just took in my backyard with these settings:



Note that I ran this version of the photo through NeatImage before downsizing & sharpening for web display. There's still some visible banding but it's not too bad. If I were more expert in using NI I might be able to do a better job.

Here are two full-res crops from the photo, the first before NeatImage and the second after. I was able to use less JPEG compression on the NI'd version (for a same-size .JPG output file) due to the noise reduction.





This is the kind of situation where noise reduction software comes in handy. As a rule I'm not an anti-noise/grain guy but EI 12500 is pushing it a bit.

On the whole I'm very impressed with the 10D's high ISO quality. I doubt I'd get as good a result from a high-speed b&w film pushed to EI 12500, and in color...fuggetaboutit.

-Dave-

..that I shot in RAW mode and used Adobe Camera RAW for the conversion. I "pushed" the exposure +2.5 stops in ACR.

Also...both full-res crops are unsharpened.

-Dave-

I think most Concert back drops have an overall reflectance darker than neutral grey. So the camera meter will want to over expose a majority of the time.

So the -2 exposure comp. may actually give you a very pleasing result.

Wally

Kevin Leas said:

When I had to shoot concerts with my consumer brand digital, I
always set the exposure to -2 just to get decent shutter speeds....
If I were to shoot this way with my 10D in RAW mode, if I did +2
after shooting, would that put it to "normal" exposure? If this
works, then it gives me a much better chance of having good speeds,
and I can still put it back to regular exposure if I need to. yay!

-Kevin

Click to expand...

If he's using evaulative meternig, and isn't taking shots of an entire stage, then the -2 is probably going to be too much negative compensation.

He'll probalby find that he needs to boost by only +1 to +1.5, though, on a lot of shots.

WallyN said:

I think most Concert back drops have an overall reflectance darker
than neutral grey. So the camera meter will want to over expose a
majority of the time.

So the -2 exposure comp. may actually give you a very pleasing result.

Click to expand...

--
The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons
http://thewilkinsons.crosswinds.net
Photography -- just another word for compromise