Hi Again everyone
I've done a little more testing on the PS Plug in i last talked about in a previous post
Fred Miranda's DRI Pro
Again firstly forgive me for the lack of Underwater images again, but the essence remains the same, and that was how to increase the Dynamic range of our DSLR's so that we capture what we used to capture on slide film (sunbursts seem to be a popular piont of discussion).
The Original Posting was born out of my frustrations with my first attempt with my D70, coming from a Slide film background it was not a straight forward transition onto a DSLR.
please read my previous post's for information on that.
Anyhow to move on with this post.
After getting my hands on this plug in and running an initial test i was very please with the results (see my last posting).
It gave a much more natural looking image exposure more accustomed to what i'm used to seeing when shoot other than digital.
I then began to ponder on the DRI plug-in ability to cope with what we would normally shoot underwater "CFWA" balanced light shots.
As we all know there are generally 2 sets of highlights within the exposure of such typical images, being
The background water near the surface or the sunball
Our Subject cast with light from our strobes. (not exactly hightlights)
So i decided to run a couple of test's, AGAIN sorry but these are in my garden.
Settings on the D70 were as follows
RAW
Aperture Priority Mode setting F22 1/500 sec
Internal Flash on the D70 was used on this occasion
ISO 200
NORMAL SETTINGS in the menu
I metered the sky/sun and locked the exposure using the lock button
pulled back to composed the image and popped out the internal flash resulting in the image below.
Shot from as close as i could get using the Nikkor 18-70mm and of course using F22 i had to be as close as the lens would allow to light the subject with the internal flash.
I did'nt know how the D70 would deal with this image as the sun is very prominent i expected a really awful result, but i was pleasantly surprised.
using the HIGHLIGHTS checker on the 70 it only showed WHITE SPIKES in the very centre of the SUN
SO with that image i began to process using firstly Nikon Capture to get my image of the Card exactly as i intended it to be. (one thing that bugs me with PS RAW is that it always tries it dam hardest to bugger up my exposure as i load the image into it, Suggestions on that one please would be welcome).
So i then saved this image with no changes as a JPEG file.
Step 2 Was to take the RAW image again and to create a Exposure Based on the Midtones and Shadows of the image, this completely blows out your highlights but dont worry !!!!!.
Then I ran the 2 images into DRI pro and it came out with this
Not a bad result in my opinion a little halo exists around the trees at the back but its not too noticeable.
But the Midtones which where underexposed in the original image now have much more detail.
The Subject Itself has been slightly flattened but is still acceptable too me.
I'm now much happier to know that My Hard Earned cash has not gone to waste on my D70 & Housing and it can produce some very very nice results as the boys and girls on this list have been posting.
I was starting to think that my camera was faulty or do all bad workman blame their tools....
mmmm i remember when i first got my MMIIex Ys60 combo, It was AWFUL, RUBBISH..... until i learnt THE ART & Its limits then it became such a wonderful tool
regards to everyone
Craig
