Question about highlight and shadow settings

[woodlander]

I am a new X Pro2 owner and I am still trying to understand all of the settings that are available. Mostly, I would have to say that the X Pro2 is logical and easy to understand. Two settings that I haven't figured out are: Highlight tone and Shadow tone - both under Image Quality. My questions is simply what result could I expect if I altered these settings?. For example, if I changed the Highlight Tone to -1, what could I expect to happen? I have read the manual and that is the reason I am asking the question here. I have been into photography for a long time and I think I understand the concepts, just not exactly what the setting does.

 

Thanks, in advance, for any insight you can offer on this.

[mdm]

If you change Tone to -1 or -2 you preserve more details in highlights and shadows but get less contrasty image and visa versa. True for sooc jpegs. 

Edited March 1, 2017 by mdm

[woodlander]

Thank you. That helps.

[adzman808]

As mdm said,

 

A minus value in highlight tone darkens the highlights (and the opposite for a positive value - ie lightens the highlights)

 

A minus value in shadow tone lightens the shadows (and the opposite for a positive value - ie darkens the shadows)

 

If you set the camera to shoot RAW, then you can use the in camera raw convertor to experiment with these settings, and create a series a jpegs with different settings applied and chose the one you like the most

[woodlander]

As mdm said,

 

A minus value in highlight tone darkens the highlights (and the opposite for a positive value - ie lightens the highlights)

 

A minus value in shadow tone lightens the shadows (and the opposite for a positive value - ie darkens the shadows)

 

If you set the camera to shoot RAW, then you can use the in camera raw convertor to experiment with these settings, and create a series a jpegs with different settings applied and chose the one you like the most

Thank you. That sounds like a very good idea.

[David Thompson]

Good afternoon,

 

I was under the impression that these controls only affected the JPEG output as it changed the tonal control

( from my reading of the famous XPRO2 book ) please correct me if I have misunderstood something

 

Checked my JPEG and RAW record - RAW is not changed by these settings

 

I set my camera up at dawn on tripod and went through +4 +4, +2 +2,  00, -2 -2 to clarify the result

dramatic control

 

- decreases contrast whilst + increases contrast

 

I aim to use these controls a lot as I like  SOOC and photo a lot of wildlife that is black and white & in theatre to increase contrast with people

 

David

Edited March 9, 2017 by David Thompson

[adzman808]

Good afternoon,

 

I was under the impression that these controls only affected the JPEG output as it changed the tonal control

( from my reading of the famous XPRO2 book ) please correct me if I have misunderstood something

 

Checked my JPEG and RAW record - RAW is not changed by these settings

 

I set my camera up at dawn on tripod and went through +4 +4, +2 +2, 00, -2 -2 to clarify the result

dramatic control

 

- decreases contrast whilst + increases contrast

 

I aim to use these controls a lot as I like SOOC and photo a lot of wildlife that is black and white & in theatre to increase contrast with people

 

David

Yes they only make an effect on jpegs but they also change the histogram which can help with judging exposure for raw

 

If you shoot raw, you can use the in camera raw convertor to make multiple jpegs from the same raf file, each one with different shadow/highlight settings.

 

You can only do this one at a time though!

Edited March 10, 2017 by adzman808

[David Thompson]

• Whilst the camera has the cool ability to send RAW to one card and JPEG to another my work mainly requires almost instant display hence I rate the quality JPEG production & film simulations
• Thank you for clarifying the histogram effect as well
• looking at my previous post to clarify the black and white wildlife requires reduced contrast to try to maintain detail
• always thought that the scene preset settings on the XS1 & XE2s were valuable as well = not everything can be thought out and set up out and about 

 

have a great day

[David Thompson]

Posted two renditions of the same photo on flickr to demonstrate that the difference btwn RAW & JPEG with the -2 -2 set for the JPEG

www.flickr.com/photos/davidthompson444/33235799471/in/dateposted-public/

[Chucktin]

Don't jpegs compress by "averaging" shadow values first then highlights? If so this

would obscure the effect you are looking for since you are judging by jpeg quality.

I dislike the Dynamic Range adjustment I get with my Nikons and am coming to be dissapointed with what I'm getting from my XPRO2 now. OK, I'm picky☺.

[adzman808]

The shadow/highlight settings effect the jpeg tone curve from the native jpeg engine within the camera

 

For SOOC use these settings should be tempered against the selected film simulation, for example classic chrome has far harder shadows than pro neg std as default

 

The dynamic range setting is something else, and in some circumstances have an impact on the raw file.

 

The shadow/highlight settings have no impact on the raw file, but can be used to help judge raw exposure, namely that when you set shad -2 and highlight -2 the histogram will show more data before indicating clipping, this works best with a low contrast film sim, such as pro neg std

[David Thompson]

Good day

 

Good explanation Adzman88

 

Its also good if you want clipping!  + + values

 

The challenge is whether you have significant difference from the camera jpeg engine to sitting in front of the computer for the purpose you are creating the photo for ( my biggest print was a 20 in x 15 in Zebra from Uganda taken with the XS1 ) and that possessed sufficient data so I have real confidence in the X Series Cameras 

 

One that I have yet to solve is that in wildlife  ( Bird mainly) photography for whatever reason you might end up with quite severe cropping,

Presently I normally use the raw file for this thinking ( but not understanding whether its true ) that as there is more info you end up with a cleaner crop

 

David

[adzman808]

Well I don't always use one of the fuji film sims, and I quite frequently farm out a .tiff to a different app (eg on1 photo) so for me, raw is a must

 

If you're making a decent job of raf sharpening (and I daresay you are) then IMO you'll best the sooc jpegs in a crop scenario

 

If you're happy with sooc fuji colours, not cropping, not pixel peeping and doing a good job of exposure in camera, shooting scenes that don't surpass the DR of the jpeg engine, then there's less need for the raw.

 

Best to shoot both imo and decide later, even if later means making different jpegs from the in camera convertor