Digital SLRs can capture a wide range of shadows and highlights.
Digital cameras such as the Canon 10D have a more restricted exposure range than the human eye. The eye is particularly adept at rapidly adjusting to different light levels, so scanning a scene with deep shadows and bright highlights gives the eye no problems. Because any camera is more restricted in the range of brightness it can capture, it is important to control the exposure to capture the maximum range of shadows and highlights.The Canon 10D has a histogram function that graphically displays the exposure. The aim is a balanced graph with no peaks at the right or left of the histogram.
Instructions
1. Press "Menu". Highlight "Review" in the LCD menu and set this to "ON". Set Review Time to eight seconds to give you time to view the histogram after you take the image.
2. Take images using the RAW camera format. RAW is the equivalent of a digital negative which can hold much more information about the image than a processed JPEG. RAW images need to be processed in a photo editing program, either the Canon software that comes with the camera or similar systems from Adobe or Apple.
3. Photograph your chosen subject. Check the histogram on the LCD screen to make sure that there are no strong peaks on the graph right up against the left or right edges. If there are strong peaks on the right, then reduce the exposure (that is, make the shutter speed faster) and if the peaks are all on the left hand edge, increase the exposure until you get a balanced graph.
4. Process the RAW image to properly show the shadows and highlights by using "Exposure and Highlight Recovery" (or their equivalent commands in your software) to get as much detail in the highlights as possible. Use "Blacks and Fill Light" to recover details from the darkest points in the image. It is surprising how much detail can be recovered from a RAW file.
Tags: shadows highlights, balanced graph, more restricted, much detail, peaks right