Six years ago I stumbled on this camera setup technique on the Moose Peterson website. He discovered that by changing the sharpness, saturation, and tone (contrast), to the lowest values, the camera histogram displayed additional room at the shadow and highlight values.

Later I learned that this happens because our camera histogram isn’t based on the linear RAW data. The preview/histogram is based on the rendered gamma-corrected JPEG produced by the camera…of the image we just shot. By changing the 3 settings mentioned above, I “trick the internal camera processor”, resulting in a much lower contrast image, with additional detail in the shadow and highlight areas. I may even expose differently given that the camera histogram looks different as well.

Continue reading »

Popularity: 24%