DRO... Does anyone enable this feature?

[Handiworks]

I just ran across a Mark Thaler video from a couple years ago. In it he details various Creative Look and Picture Profile options.

One of the settings he personally leaves on is D-Range Optimization.

I know, when setting up my A7RV initially, others recommended leaving it off. I understand the basic premise of what this feature does... wondering if others have found it useful for garnering SOOC Jpegs more easily? If so, do you leave it in Auto or set it to Lvl 1, 2, etc.?

I'm sure this is highly subjective, but I did not find much on it in past threads.

Thanks!

 

[A74Me]

yes "2" for out door work

 

[suzuka94]

I just ran across a Mark Thaler video from a couple years ago. In it he details various Creative Look and Picture Profile options.

One of the settings he personally leaves on is D-Range Optimization.

I know, when setting up my A7RV initially, others recommended leaving it off. I understand the basic premise of what this feature does... wondering if others have found it useful for garnering SOOC Jpegs more easily? If so, do you leave it in Auto or set it to Lvl 1, 2, etc.?

I'm sure this is highly subjective, but I did not find much on it in past threads.

Thanks!

I shoot JPEG and I leave it on level 5. This is based on a few side by side comparisons at all levels.

My observation is it raises the shadows and doesn’t touch the highlights. The effect is quite small, so even using level 5 isn’t too dramatic. As I shoot jpeg, I like it because it retains a little more detail in shadows compared to standard profile.

 

[Handiworks]

I just ran across a Mark Thaler video from a couple years ago. In it he details various Creative Look and Picture Profile options.

One of the settings he personally leaves on is D-Range Optimization.

I know, when setting up my A7RV initially, others recommended leaving it off. I understand the basic premise of what this feature does... wondering if others have found it useful for garnering SOOC Jpegs more easily? If so, do you leave it in Auto or set it to Lvl 1, 2, etc.?

I'm sure this is highly subjective, but I did not find much on it in past threads.

Thanks!

I shoot JPEG and I leave it on level 5. This is based on a few side by side comparisons at all levels.

My observation is it raises the shadows and doesn’t touch the highlights. The effect is quite small, so even using level 5 isn’t too dramatic. As I shoot jpeg, I like it because it retains a little more detail in shadows compared to standard profile.

Thanks for sharing. Out of curiosity, do you use the ST Creative Look default settings or alter those some?

 

[bkkish84]

I just ran across a Mark Thaler video from a couple years ago. In it he details various Creative Look and Picture Profile options.

One of the settings he personally leaves on is D-Range Optimization.

I know, when setting up my A7RV initially, others recommended leaving it off. I understand the basic premise of what this feature does... wondering if others have found it useful for garnering SOOC Jpegs more easily? If so, do you leave it in Auto or set it to Lvl 1, 2, etc.?

I'm sure this is highly subjective, but I did not find much on it in past threads.

Thanks!

I'm interested in this too but I only shoot raw. I recall a Mark Galer video in which I think he said to leave it on. I always thought what it did (with raw files) was to underexpose a bit in situations where highlights might be blown otherwise...

 

[Sundre]

I shoot RAW and I have it on (5) in very low light where I would otherwise be reviewing a completely black screen with a few light dots. DRO 5 makes the detail in those very dark shadows a little bit more visible.

It has no effect on the RAW files themselves, just makes quickly reviewing very dark images a little bit easier.

 

[suzuka94]

I just ran across a Mark Thaler video from a couple years ago. In it he details various Creative Look and Picture Profile options.

One of the settings he personally leaves on is D-Range Optimization.

I know, when setting up my A7RV initially, others recommended leaving it off. I understand the basic premise of what this feature does... wondering if others have found it useful for garnering SOOC Jpegs more easily? If so, do you leave it in Auto or set it to Lvl 1, 2, etc.?

I'm sure this is highly subjective, but I did not find much on it in past threads.

Thanks!

I shoot JPEG and I leave it on level 5. This is based on a few side by side comparisons at all levels.

My observation is it raises the shadows and doesn’t touch the highlights. The effect is quite small, so even using level 5 isn’t too dramatic. As I shoot jpeg, I like it because it retains a little more detail in shadows compared to standard profile.

Thanks for sharing. Out of curiosity, do you use the ST Creative Look default settings or alter those some?

 

[RaysJ]

This affects the histogram on the camera and can lead to incorrect exposures.

l only use RAW, so have it off.

 

[Meh007]

This affects the histogram on the camera and can lead to incorrect exposures.

l only use RAW, so have it off.

Exactly

 

[Joachim Wulfers]

I also shoot JPEG only and have DRO enabled at Lvl. 3. For creative setting I have been using W2 most of the time. I have not experimented much with other settings. In essence I just use what has been working for me with my APSC 6600.

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

I just ran across a Mark Thaler video from a couple years ago. In it he details various Creative Look and Picture Profile options.

One of the settings he personally leaves on is D-Range Optimization.

I know, when setting up my A7RV initially, others recommended leaving it off. I understand the basic premise of what this feature does... wondering if others have found it useful for garnering SOOC Jpegs more easily? If so, do you leave it in Auto or set it to Lvl 1, 2, etc.?

I'm sure this is highly subjective, but I did not find much on it in past threads.

I have not used DRO much with my A9, but with my old A580, I would often use DRO at maximum (level 5) when I wanted to have usable SOOC JPEGs in high-contrast lighting. So for example if I was going to shoot 500 photos of a baseball game, some front-lit, some back-lit, etc., and just provide the other parents with SOOC JPEGs, I found DRO at maximum produced a substantially higher rate of usable SOOC JPEGs.

Some cautions:

(1) DRO works in part by reducing exposures to preserve highlights. That also affects the raw files. The raw files tend to be further from ETTR exposures. That reduces a bit the quality you can get from them.

(2) DRO at levels lower than maximum seems to have only a very small effect. I've pretty much settled on either leaving it off or using it at maximum.

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

DRO ... has no effect on the RAW files themselves ....

This is not correct, in my experience. I've found it to capture more highlight detail in part by reducing the exposure somewhat. That reduced exposure affects the raw files too. I think if you try an experiment of a high-contrast scene with unchanging lighting, using any kind of auto-exposure, and switch between DRO off and DRO maximum, you'll see that the camera sets a lower exposure with DRO maximum.

 

[maltmoose]

I shot for a long time with DRO off after that is what the general consensus seemed to be for raw. But ive recently started using DRO auto again and i'm really liking the results. I think it protects the highlights and just balances the exposure much better and leaves less work to do in raw. The jpegs or .hif in my case are also very good. If i had to i would be happy with not shooting raw.

As far as i can tell some raw convertors must detect DRO auto and take it into account as when the raws are loaded into capture one they dont look under exposed.

 

[Joachim Wulfers]

The jpegs or .hif in my case are also very good. If i had to i would be happy with not shooting raw.

So, why do you have to shoot raw. I am aware of the difference between jpeg and raw, however, about 5-6 years ago I decided to stop shooting in raw. Most photos I was posting and printing were the jpegs and that is also what I post in my flickr albums.

As far as i can tell some raw convertors must detect DRO auto and take it into account as when the raws are loaded into capture one they dont look under exposed.

 

[Sundre]

DRO ... has no effect on the RAW files themselves ....

This is not correct, in my experience. I've found it to capture more highlight detail in part by reducing the exposure somewhat. That reduced exposure affects the raw files too. I think if you try an experiment of a high-contrast scene with unchanging lighting, using any kind of auto-exposure, and switch between DRO off and DRO maximum, you'll see that the camera sets a lower exposure with DRO maximum.

At the low light events I do, I use fully manual settings so the camera can't change them, and I have so far not noticed the RAW files changing with/without DRO.

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

DRO ... has no effect on the RAW files themselves ....

This is not correct, in my experience. I've found it to capture more highlight detail in part by reducing the exposure somewhat. That reduced exposure affects the raw files too. I think if you try an experiment of a high-contrast scene with unchanging lighting, using any kind of auto-exposure, and switch between DRO off and DRO maximum, you'll see that the camera sets a lower exposure with DRO maximum.

At the low light events I do, I use fully manual settings so the camera can't change them, and I have so far not noticed the RAW files changing with/without DRO.

Agreed, if you have totally-manual settings for shutter speed, aperture, and gain ('ISO'), then DRO cannot change the exposure, and therefore it will not affect the raw files. In that circumstance, presumably (never tried it, but I understand you to be saying, and it makes sense) DRO boosts the shadows in the JPEG but does little or nothing more. If it's useful to you, great, have at it!

AFAIK, that approach is basically using half the DRO function. The full DRO function put both more shadow and more highlight detail into the JPEG, which is accomplished in part by reducing exposure to protect highlights.

As with so many things, there's more than one approach, and no one-size-fits-all best answer.

 

[Handiworks]

Appreciate everyone's experiences and thoughts, thanks!


I'll start experimenting with it and see what it does. I had a graduation event I used DRO on (Lvl 3), with ST (Saturation +1, Contrast +1, Clarity +1) and so far like the Jpeg combination I got with that combo.

I think I'll up the DRO to lvl 5 and see what impact that has... then try it on Auto.

--
"The present is the only point where time touches eternity" C.S. Lewis

 

[maltmoose]

The jpegs or .hif in my case are also very good. If i had to i would be happy with not shooting raw.

So, why do you have to shoot raw. I am aware of the difference between jpeg and raw, however, about 5-6 years ago I decided to stop shooting in raw. Most photos I was posting and printing were the jpegs and that is also what I post in my flickr albums.

Well i never said i have to and i dont have to but i do and shoot raw+jpeg/hif and im very happy that i made that decision. Some of my earlier photography could certainly have been better and was easy to blame it on jpegs etc and correct in raw. I've reprocessed some earlier photos using raws that have greatly benefited from it. I've also had to reprocess some of my earlier poorly done reprocessing. Anyway, these days theres only really 2 things that i would really miss with raw and that is adjusting white balance and recovering highlights. I'm getting better at this and so are cameras and DRO or similar tech in other cameras help with that. I do a lot of high iso and croping wildlife photos etc so raw helps with that. Daytime photos not so much.

This weekend i reprocessed a few photos with a different color sytle. There was nothing wrong with the sooc images though, just felt like a different style. The raw processors i use are non destructive and allow you to go back and change the settings with ease.

Finally if im going to crop or adjust the horizon etc which i can do with jpeg, i may as well do that with the raw. Whatever the raw processor i use i set it up with a style and setting which is at least as good as the sooc camera jpeg and apply that as a starting place.

If all raw processing tools went subscription for instances i'd quit that racket and just edit jpegs.

I've seen your photos and others that shoot jpeg that do a great job. I'm sure i could share jpegs on here and have done and people have no idea.

As far as i can tell some raw convertors must detect DRO auto and take it into account as when the raws are loaded into capture one they dont look under exposed.