Choosing the Exposure for Dynamic Range

Over the weekend, we visited Knott's Berry Farm, one of the first theme parks in the U.S.  What I like about Knott's is that the lines are much shorter than those of Disneyland therefore we get to experience more rides within the same amount of time.  I also think Knott's has a more interesting variety of rides for young children like our 5-year old, and has more thrill rides (though not as many as Magic Mountain).  Although the production value is not as high as that of Disneyland, it is still quite high.

During our visit the heat was intense, reaching 95°F (35°C), just one degree below the all-time record of 96 for that area, and 10 degrees hotter than the average for this time of the year.  With the sun blazing overhead, the dynamic range was very wide.  I used two different exposure strategies to deal with the dynamic range.

My First Crush: the Fuji S5 Pro

This is a hands-on review of the Fuji Finepix S5 Pro, a DSLR released back in 2007 that combines the best characteristics of negative film and DSLRs.

Included here is a dynamic range comparison between the S5, the Nikon D3 and Nikon D70.

Comparing Digital with Film: Dynamic Range

You may have noticed in my previous post that the photo looked a little different even though I didn't apply any post-processing, and that's because I used a film camera, in an experiment to gain better appreciation for the difference between digital and film.

Details after the jump.

A Day Without a DSLR - Results

Got the pictures developed from our trip to Knott's Berry Farm. Not as good as I was hoping but better than I expected for a disposable camera and given my inexperience with film. Album link: http://picasaweb.google.com/creadvty/Maty24thMonthKnottSBerryFarm The scenes had wide ranges of contrast, making it a technical challenge to capture the image correctly. Although I had no exposure control, the pictures as printed have reasonably correct exposures, which I think is due to the forgiving latitude of negative film. I'm wondering how much additional detail can be squeezed from the negative, if for example, contrast was reduced. (It seems that the contrast in the pictures is set too high.) I ordered a CD of the pictures hoping to postprocess the images. However, it seems the CD is a scan of the print, not the negative, so there wasn't much I could do to adjust the exposure and contrast, and no additional detail was available. I'm still intrigued by negative film's dynamic range and have added to my to-do list sending one of the negatives to a PMT drum scanning service to see just how much detail I can get from film in scenes of wide contrast. If the results are satisfactory, or maybe even if they're not, I am strongly considering buying a film camera for 'critical' shots (and to do capture wide angle shots). Given the results I got when I had zero control over exposure from a disposable camera with a plastic lens, I've gained some confidence in getting usable shots from a more sophisticated film camera.

A Day Without a DSLR

We decided on a whim to celebrate our son's actual birthday at Knott's Berry Farm. In our haste I forgot to bring my camera. Not even my pocket digicam. My options were: phone cam and a disposable.



I surfed for specs on disposables. Apparently, shutter speed is around 1/125, aperture is 5.6 or smaller. I was surprised that the disposable we bought (the only one available) had an ISO of 800. Given that it was a bright summer afternoon, I was afraid we would only get blown out pictures (unless the aperture is really small). There's also a flash, which I'm pretty sure has only one power setting to capture the perfect deer-in-the-headlights look.



I know film has a lot of latitude for correction. I also ordered digital copies of the pics so I can do at least some post processing (though I'm not sure to what extent...). We'll see what happens. Hopefully the pics turn out ok. It was my first time ever to go to Knott's and I found it very picturesque especially in the late afternoon light. We had an awesome time (our 2 year old loved the many rides for kids) and we traded our tickets for annual passes.