“Expose to the right” or “ETTR”, has been preach(over hyped IMO) by many as the best method for digital photography. I am not sure if I can agree with that.
ETTR’s main premise is that you can pull back the highlight in raw while capturing the details in the shadows. Well, IMHO, that usually results in flat images that has no visual depth. Not only that because you are overexposing some elements, tones, color, and detail might also be affected. This might also result in extra post processing time.
Back in the days of slide film (Velvia was my favorite), I would exposed for the subject/light that I choocse to and let the rest fall as they may. This created some wonderful images with depth and very nice tonality. I have been taking the same approach with my Foveon based camera as well. IMNSHO, it created much better images than ETTR.
By practicing EIR, I am able to output my images a great percentage of time at default setting (all zero) and get what I want by applying a simple curve adjustment. Amazingly, there are times where the images will work nicely as it is. The following photos(SD10) has no post processing applied:
Here’s a gallery with comparisons. (I will located the originals and upload then again.)
http://www.pbase.com/chunsum/zero-vs-others
ETTR can be useful at times when you want to save time when shooting and spend the time in post. But for me, there is nothing better than to see my images the way I wanted (or almost) when I bring it up in SPP or LR. Give it a try, you might just agree with me.
Sigma continues to work hard and get better.
http://www.sigma-photo.co.jp/english/news/info_090702.htm
now, how about a updated GUI for the Mac version follow by a temperature slider?
I’ve been “into” photography for over 20 years and I have been actively doing photography for almost 15. During these time I went from APS film DSLR, to film SLR, to fully digital. And I have to say that going digital was a wonderful evolution for my photography. But this is not about digital or film, this is about photography as a form of art and skill.
I consider my self a “old-school” photographer. I use my camera as my main tool for making the picture, I think about what I want to show before I press the shutter, I continuously learn about my subjects and my craft, and I care about my images. Photographers used to work this way, I know many of them still do. However, the new breed of photographers seem to work differently.
This new breed seem to use the camera to take the picture, they seem to take as many as possible and hope to have “the shot”, thinking is no longer a priority, they rely mostly on “post processing”, and they don’t seem to care about the image. That’s right, they don’t care; and that’s the biggest difference.
How? you say? just take a look at the images in the challenges on DPReview. 1 out of 3 images are not even in proper focus in relation to the subject matter. 1/2 of the images are over sharpened to the point that it is just hideous. Not to mention the badly under or over exposed images. The worst part is that some of these images are actually placing high in these “challenges”. So not only people who are taking these photos doesn’t are, people who are looking at them doesn’t seem to care as well.
I can go on and on about this but I won’t. But I will say this, photography is no longer photography. That’s for sure.
Here is someone who cares:
I got to taste test the up coming special AND play with the DP2 with the AML-1.
