Blog Paper

It has been suggested by my Tutor that I keep a paper learning log as well as this blog. I was surprised by this suggestion as on my first Course I kept only a blog and this raised no comment from my then Tutor.

I have thought about this a great deal since but cannot find any real reason to do so. I used the Student forum that carries a thread on blogs to see what others feel and, as you would expect, there was a divergence of views with some suggesting doing both whilst some favoured one or the other. As part of the thread there was a link to a piece by Jose Navarro in the praise of the written blog (not surprising then that he is the one suggesting that I use a written log as well as the one online). In the short video we see someone flicking through what looks like a filofax folder crammed with photographs with hand written comments beneath or to the side of them. Unfortunately there was very little chance of actually seeing what value the log had in itself. It was interesting though that Jose referred to the tactility of the log and this was also mentioned in one of the responses to my forum query.

It raises the interesting question as to whether photography is a tactile art. Personally I don't see it. It reminds me of a discussion, that got quite heated, about whether a photograph exists until it is in print form. The argument centred around the value of handling the print that added, in some way, to the overall emotional experience. When the question was raised whether an art picture hung in an Art Gallery is in some way lessened by the viewer being unable to take it from the wall everybody seemed to agree that this was not the case. Why the difference?

If photography is a tactile art or is made more emotionally rewarding by us being able to handle the photograph are we not drawn to the conclusion that a photograph would be even more emotionally rewarding if the material it was printed on was more tactile than the paper upon which it is normally printed.

I would be the first to agree that a painting is best seen in the original rather than on a computer screen. However I would not take this view with a photograph. Until recently most competitions accepted or had a slide section. The only way to see these was by the use of a projector and a screen. Very few people would argue that they were the less for having to be viewed in that way. In some cases the slide version was seen  as better than the printed version. We now have digitally projected images and these are often shown using a computer or television screen with excellent results. At the risk of heresy a photograph is no more than a piece of paper and the emotional reaction to it belongs to the viewer and the photographer has very little input to this experience apart from the way in which it is presented.

OK. Are there other advantages in the written product? Not for me. My writing is so poor that I would have to type any comments before placing them in the folder. Writing for me is a chore and I find the ease of amending what I have typed, which is usually a stream of consciousness that others may find difficult to follow, a boon and a big time saver. It is easy to scan images and place them into the blog and it is unlikely that as the material is solely for my personal use in an educational setting would there be a breach copyright.

I am quite happy to extend my blog to include more of the additional work and thinking about photography that I have done.

My final thought is - does anyone bother to read these things. If I express doubts or suggest an approach is there anyone out there who will respond and either give me encouragement or discuss my thinking. It ain't happened so far nor have I expected it.

DPP Exercise 13 - Managing Colour

The top image shows a strong yellow/orange cast presumably from tungsten lighting.

I first tried using the White Balance options in the raw converter choosing the 'Tungsten' setting. Although this got rid of the colour cast it created a very 'cold' image that looked unnatural. I then went for the White Balance tool and clicked on a neutral point. Again the colour cast was removed it was still a 'cold' image. Finally I tried the 'Auto' setting and this gave the best image.

The second image is the result of the changes including adjustment in contrast, reducing the image size and sharpening. For some reason the picture above has an apparent blue cast that is not present in the picture on my computer. I am not sure why this is the case because my screen has been calibrated in the last few days and provides an accurate colour range.

The top image shows a strong red/yellow cast that is a product of the ambient lighting and a red painted wall to the left of the picture (not visible) that bounced its colour into the image.

As it was a combination of two colours I searched for and found a neutral point in the image and used that with the White Balance tool. The result was satisfactory although I did increase the temperature of the image very slightly. I then transferred the image to Photoshop and carried out the changes to allow me to post the image on the Web.

Managing colour is a very necessary skill and although the tools available in the the raw converter and Photoshop will give a reasonably accurate result I have found that it takes a deal of time. Recently I have used either a White Balance Card or a colour checker to give me a target that I can use with confidence. I prefer the colour checker as this provides a camera profile that can be used to adjust all images that were taken in the same lighting conditions. 

DPP Exercise12 - Managing Tone

The image began as raw file and was converted using the raw converter in Adobe Bridge. All sliders were set to zero prior to any adjustments.

The white point was established by using the Exposure slider moving it to the right until highlight clipping was first shown. The slider was then moved to the left until the highlight clipping warning disappeared.

The only shadow clipping was shown to be in the wheel arch of the tractor and in small areas of the tractor engine. Moving the Exposure slider failed to produce a satisfactory result not least because in order to remove the shadow clipping the highlight clipping became worse affecting much of the image. I therefore used the Adjustment tool to lighten the wheel arch and engine block sufficiently to remove the clipping warning.

Set the White Balance of the image by using the White Balance tool picking a neutral area (R G & B values all equal) in the tyre wall.

The tone curve was used to increase the contrast particularly in the area of the cut wheat stalks. Getting this 'correct' required further adjustment to the shadows in the wheel arch but this was minimal and it is questionable whether the area was important enough to warrant further adjustment.

I have found through a great deal of use of the raw converter that it is an iterative process where there is a need to return to adjusted areas to achieve the best overall balance. 

I cropped the image in Photoshop and changed the mode to 8 bits and then saved it for the Web as a jpg.

Although the Course material suggests doing this exercise twice once with a raw image and again with a TIFF or JPEG image I could not see what value this would have because the raw converter I use works on TIFF and JPEG files. Although there would have been minor differences in the values of the sliders in the JPEG file and possibly the TIFF file the same actions would have been carried out.

This is the first time that I had come across the terms white point and black point. I made the assumption that these were synonymous with 'shadow' and 'highlight'.

Digital Photographic Practice Exercise 11 Raw

The top image of the pair is the Raw image and the lower the jpg image. Both are necessarily shown as jpg files. These images are used for the high dynamic range of the image.

The raw converter I use allows for both raw and jpg files to be 'converted'. The only differences are that with the raw file there is both camera calibration and lens correction available. They were both applied to the top image.

White balance was set using the white balance tool and the same area of the image used.

Exposure - As a first try 'Auto' exposure was tried but in both cases it produced an image that was too light and lacking in contrast. Adjustments were made using the sliders with readings: (the first figure was applied to the raw image the second to the jpg image)

Exposure -0.7/-1.35;  Recovery 53/30; Fill light 6/16; Brightness 36/36; Contrast Strong/Strong; Clarity 64/64; Vibrance 32/32.

Local adjustment use the Adjustment tool was applied to the bright face of the rotunda to darken it.

Both images were were reduced in size, mode was changed from 16 bits to 8 bits and sharpened using the same settings.

Examination of the images at 100% prior to reduction showed that the jpg had less dynamic range and the tonal range was limited as would be expected. There was no difference in White Balance.

Again the top image is the raw image and the lower one the jpg. These images are used for the 'Daylight' images.

I followed the same procedure as outline in the text following the first two images. The only two settings that were different between these two images were Recovery 14/30 and Fill Light 25/15. No local adjustments were deemed to be necessary.

Again the dynamic range is seen in the original enhanced images to be greater in the raw file. White balance there is no difference (the same point in the image chosen in both images for the White Balance tool). The most noticeable difference was in the colours in the sky that are richer in the raw image and have a greater tonal range.

Once more the top image is the raw file and the bottom image the jpg. These images are used for the 'artificial light'. I had assumed that the lighting, top left out of the picture, was tungsten but correction did not fully work.

In this case I kept all settings the same in an attempt to produce the 'same' image. Of course this was doomed to failure because the jpg had already been partly processed in the camera. Comparison showed that the dng image was a more faithful reproduction but that is not surprising because I had tried to recreate the image as I remembered it and of course our eyes quickly adjust to different temperatures of lighting.

General Comments - My Camera's handbook shows that a raw image  creates a 25megapixel file whilst a fine large jpg produces a 6 megapixel file indicating that there is a loss of approximately 75% of the information originally captured.  Presumably there must be a price to pay and whilst this may not be very important in some images it would be in others. Close examination reveals that the loss is found in the gradation of tones across the image where the jpg method combines near colours into an 'average' to allow for compression. Now it can be argued that the human eye may not be able to make the very fine distinctions that compression nullifies but I see this as a poor reason for dumping so much information.

As can be guessed I always shoot in raw as this gives me the best chance of capturing the image before me.

DPP Assignment2 - Further Thoughts

I re-visited the work I had done for this assignment and re-read the Course notes. I was left wondering what had to be submitted. As I understand it there is a need to produce about 6 photographs showing the different lighting problems and how you overcame them including at the time and in subsequent processing. That left me wondering whether the original and finished photographs should be included in the material submitted. Otherwise I am not sure how the Tutor is able to provide useful comment.

For example:

This photograph is the unprocessed version showing a very flat scene. Using the facilities in Camera RAW converter and Photoshop I produced the following image:

Obviously I can write down what I did to create this image but unless the Tutor knows where I started it would be difficult for him to advise me on the method used and whether I had understood the purpose of the assignment. Fortunately I have the chance to speak to him shortly and hopefully I can clarify exactly what is expected.

Just for the record I will not be using this shot as I managed to clip the top of the Cathedral tower. Probably because it was cold and wet and me thinking "Why am I here??"

DPP Assignment 2

Spent last Saturday doing the leg work for Assignment 2. Decided that the local Cathedral would provide plenty of photo opportunities that would give me the material for submission. It offers mixed lighting; high contrast and areas where there would be a need to use a high ISO. I was uncertain about the rules regarding the use of tripod so decided to use a monopod and this proved to be o.k.

I had to use a high ISO for nearly all the shots because it was a very grey day outside and there was very limited artificial lighting apart from the altar area which was being prepared for the following day's Services. I was fortunate insofar there were very few visitors so that access to the main part of the Cathedral presented no problems. I took some 41 images including one external that I planned to use for the 'flat' image and four in the Cloisters that I planned to use for mixed lighting. Internally there were plenty of high contrast images as well as mixed lighting and one or two opportunities for using a high ISO. My attention had been drawn to recently erected organ screens that were described as having vivid colours because they had been painted within the last 12 months. When I found them the only light was the soft diffuse light coming through nearby windows from outside. What I had found was a good example of a 'flat' image and this is the one I plan to use in my submission. It pays to look around because the type of image is not necessarily in the obvious place.

I spent a fair part of Sunday working with the images on the Computer (Photoshop CS5). They had all been shot in RAW and most of the enhancement was done in the raw converter. I used 'Camera Neutral' in Camera Calibration to avoid any enhancement and carried out a Lens adjustment. I set the White Balance using the White Balance tool. I used Curves to set the contrast overall. I found that 'Auto' exposure only gave satisfactory results in one or two cases. I added a great deal of Clarity (in the 60 - 70 range) as the images were essentially architectural. Vibrance I used sparingly.

The local Adjustment tool came in to its own allowing me to enhance areas without affecting other parts of the image. This was particularly useful in lightening area where detail was not evident because of the low lighting.

There was only limited work in Photoshop itself for the majority of images although I did find myself adjusting areas that I may have been able to do in the raw converter. I have found the converter does have limits and the tools in Photoshop offer a better chance of success. In addition it is possible to work on different layers and modify the effect to achieve the targeted change precisely.

I changed the Image mode to 8 bits (I work in 16 bits) and reduced the size so that they can be posted to my Tutor. I then applied sharpening as appropriate.

On reflection I should have taken a tripod so that I could take two or more bracketed images of a high contrast shot. It would also have been sensible to include a grey card to establish the correct White point thus avoiding the hunt through the image.

DPP Exercise 10 - Colour Cast and White Balance Pt 2

The first image was taken using the daylight setting for the white balance. It is an acceptable image although there is a slight blue cast which is noticeable on the door frames. The interior of the house appears warm and looks welcoming although the colours are not completely accurate.

The second image was taken using the tungsten setting. There is a very obvious blue cast to the exterior of the building again noticeable on the frames. The interior is a good colour and appears to be the same as we 'see' it when sitting in the room. However for photographic purposes there is a strong argument for the warming effect seen in the first image.

The third image was taken using the auto setting. Externally the colour is very good and the warm colours of the interior, whilst not as we see it, enhance the image.

All three images were shot in RAW and no changes were made.

Of the three I prefer the one shot using the auto setting. It provides a sense of warmth and welcome whilst giving an acceptable colour representation.

In the first part of this exercise the auto setting was not the most successful whereas in this part my personal view is that it was the most successful. From this one can draw the conclusion that total reliance upon the auto setting is unwise.

Even when there is an accurate representation of colours people have a feeling about how the image should look. In wedding photography it is paramount that the colour of the bride and bridesmaids dresses should be accurate. However portraits should not necessarily follow the same principle. Having the subject looking healthy is often given greater importance. At the end of the day what we see is subjective and often peculiar to ourselves. Too much reliance on the camera settings is not a good thing.

DPP Exercise 10 - Colour Cast and White Balance

The two images are of the shot taken in open shade (top image) and the shot taken in sunlight. Neither have been changed from the RAW image apart from applying 'auto' exposure. As required different white balance settings were used in each case to allow for comparison.

For the 'shade' shot ' Auto' provided an acceptable image but did not seem natural being slightly too blue. 'Daylight' produced a very cold looking image with a blue cast across the image. Cloudy had pleasant tones although there was a slight red cast to the image. 'Shade' produced the most acceptable image although slightly 'warmer' in appearance particularly the figures.

For the 'Sunlight' shot 'Auto' again was acceptable but probably too warm to be accurate. 'Daylight' gave

a result that was most accurate and pleasing to the eye. 'Cloudy' provided an image that was too warm with a red cast although visually pleasing. 'Shade' created a noticeable red cast.

The image was also taken in cloudy conditions in the same position as the 'Shade' image with virtually the same results with the 'Shade' setting producing the best overall result.

Taking the exercise a further step I introduced into the sunlit image a known white balance point ( using the X-rite Color Checker). Using this showed that a temperature of 5000k gave an accurate white balance without colour cast. The white balance of the camera gave readings of 7500k for 'Auto'; 5500k for 'Daylight'; 6500k for 'Cloud' and 7500k for 'Shade'.  Visually these differences were noticeable in the red colour cast particularly with'Auto' and 'Shade'.  I was surprised at the result of the 'Auto' setting although presumably this was to produce a more pleasing image when viewed.

I found this exercise very useful giving an insight into the differences between the various White Balance settings in the Camera. Getting the White Balance accurate is key to producing an accurate image but in some types of photography there will be a need to 'warm' the image because we tend to respond better to 'warm' images e.g. portraits.

DPP Exercise 9 - Scene Dynamic Range

At last a forecast of a sunny day albeit in the middle of the Country as opposed to where I live. Decided to visit a City I know well - Nottingham as I thought there was a fair chance of getting the conditions needed to do the Exercise.

This scene had a high dynamic range with the sky being very bright and the dark colours of the two figures in the bottom right hand of the image providing the deepest shadow area. The building on the left was in deep shadow although this was relieved by the light colouring of the stone. I estimate that the tonal range was approximately 10 stops. When transferred to the Camera RAW conversion software all the sky was shown as being clipped as was the dark clothing. Normally I would have taken an exposure for the sky and an exposure for the remainder of the image but for the purpose of these exercises I took a single shot and then used software to produce the final result.

This scene was 'flat'. It was in deep shade as the sun was behind the Castle rock and did not shine directly on the statue which is the focus of the image. Having transferred the image to the computer I found that there was less light and detail than I remembered presumably because of the ability of the human eye to adjust. I estimate the dynamic range as being less than two stops. The image shown is one that follows enhancement in Photoshop with the main effort put in to bringing out texture.

Another scene with a high dynamic range exceeding 8 stops. The sun is coming from the right and the small embankment with the trees on that side of the image was in deep shadow and was shown to be blocked out. The sky was bright by comparison and although not completely washed out had very little colour. The 'problem' was the building on the left where the middle section was brightly lit by direct sunlight and where the texture was not visible. It also had the effect of dominating the picture drawing the eye immediately to it. Opening the image in Camera RAW software I tackled the three main areas separately - I lightened the dark area on the left by about two stops; I darkened the bright part of the building by about 1.5 stops and then used a gradient to darken the sky.

A scene with an acceptable dynamic range with neither the highlights or the shadows being clipped. Some work has been done to improve the texture of the rock face above the Inn as this was in direct sunlight. Otherwise the image is as shot.

The challenge of this scene lay in the range between the brightness of the sky and the shadow of the canal basin and the adjacent building. Although there was clipping it was not as extensive as I anticipated when I took the shot. Again I tackled the desired changes separately and in the same way as described above,

I remain unclear about the purpose of this exercise. Although there is a need to recognise that a scene has bright highlights and deep shadows and that this will need to be taken into account in how the image is taken I do not see why the emphasis on numbers. I have spoken to a number of experienced photographers about their approach and I have yet to find anyone who thinks of the range in numbers relying instead on their experience and information provided by the camera's software to make decisions about the exposure(s) to use to capture the best possible image. The camera I use will show any clipped highlights and blocked shadows either by the 'blinkies' on the LCD or with the histogram. Whilst acknowledging that this information is not totally accurate it is a very good guide to what steps to take.

Digital Photographic Practice

Received the news today that I have been assigned to a new Tutor. I had requested the change because I felt that the problems caused by my original tutor not having been supplied with the right Course notes and the subsequent contact between us, by e-mail and telephone, had seriously affected my feelings about the Course. I had seriously given consideration to withdrawing. Distance learning is difficult enough without the student lacking confidence (whether it is well founded or not) in the system.

Hopefully the fresh start will get me firing on all cylinders once again.

The Art of Photography - Submission

Today I sent off all the necessary material for Assessment in March. Now the anxious wait for a reply.

Started the Course in May of last year and received my tutor's final comments in November so a total time of approximately 6 months. Benefited from my retired status as I was able to devote as much or as little time to the Course as I wished. A good Course from which I learnt a great deal.

DPP Assignment 1

At last my tutor has received the relevant Course notes so that he and I are at least singing on the same hymn sheet even though we appear to have a different idea about what the song is about.

I had assumed, based on my reading of the assignment notes, that the primary purpose was to test if the student understood the concept of workflow. From his response it would appear that my tutor saw this as a secondary matter and that the photographs taken to test the Workflow were the key element. His logic cannot be faulted given that the Course is about photography but it might have been useful if the OCA had provided clearer guidance to us both.

He had told me in his response to my sending him my profile that he wanted to pursue the 'artistic' side of photography. As I had no clear idea what that actually meant ( it seems to mean different things to different people) I asked if he could clarify what it was he wanted. He used the opportunity of comments on my photographs to illustrate what he meant. I think I know now what he means but my guess is that it will be a concept that will develop over the period of the Course.

Unfortunately I feel that in the project I had chosen that they were largely irrelevant. I had chosen to take a number of shots of buildings in Bury St Edmunds where I live. My purpose was to compare the architecture of long established buildings with recent additions that have caused considerable controversy in the town. I made the decision to avoid as far as possible the inclusion of any other activity such as people as I wished to concentrate on 'form' rather than 'function'. I contend that when we see a building we respond to its form and have little interest in its function. For the majority of people the function is only relevant if they use the building and it is mainly concerned with the internal structure. My tutor had a different view suggesting that the photographs would be more 'artistic' and therefore have greater impact if their function was evident or show the environment in which they existed.

He suggested that one image would have been improved with a deeper blue sky. In another he suggested that it would have been better taken in the evening light. Other comments were of a similar nature. He also suggested that there should be some clue about the function of the building. For example one image was of a Victorian Law Courts so he suggested that the shot could have included a bewigged barrister. I don't necessarily disagree with the comments but still feel that they were not relevant to the project and in fact lessened the point that I was making.

One of my pet aversions in photospeak are the words "record shot". It is usually meant to suggest that the image is not up to standard and that whilst the image is technically o.k. it had no impact on the viewer. I would argue that apart from 'fine art' photographs all images are record shots. Whether they evoke an emotional response or not depends upon the viewer rather than the image. For example all wildlife shots leave me cold. I can fully appreciate the technical quality of the image and the effort made to get the shot but very rarely if ever go 'Wow'. Yet many others are 'bowled over'. Wildlife photographs to class as such, can have no enhancements made post capture. Therefore they are the ultimate 'record shot' but they are no less brilliant or for some awe inspiring.

I was prompted to place this blog because I had just listened to the video interview about photographers intent relating to photojournalism  in this week-ends OCA blog. The photographer has an almost impossible task getting this across unless he/she can add a narrative to place the images in context. There is a very real danger that we are all forced into the a style of photography that is in vogue at the present time. Perhaps the OCA Photography Course should be about offering a basic foundation of knowledge and encouraging the student to pursue his/her vision.

DPP Exercise 8 Camera Dynamic Range

I used the following scene to carry out this exercise:

I set the Camera to ISO 50 and carried out the tests as required by the Exercise notes. I used the Zoom facility to 'capture' the white card and the dark shadows in the top left hand corner of  the open door, the top right hand corner and the shadow in the bottom left quarter of the opening adjacent to the light brown of what is a paste table. The image was zoomed to 100% in Camera RAW software.

The f  stop required to achieve a white point of approximately 255 was f4.5. (Actual result was R 253;      G 253; and B 251).  As suggested I increased the exposure until the 'shadows were visible and the presence of noise could be detected. The point at which it was difficult to distinguish between noise and the detail in the shadows varied in the three different areas but the equivalent of an f stop of f18 seemed to be about right. As indicated in the notes it was not easy to make this judgement. These results suggest that my camera has a dynamic range of 12 stops.

Even after doing the exercise I remain uncertain as to what use I can put this information to in a practical way. Faced with a shot that has a wide dynamic range I make an assessment of where the important information lies and set the camera to get the best result for this area. If this is not possible or desirable I do one of two things; either I will bracket the shots and combine in photoshop or take two separate shots of the shadows and the highlights and combine again in photoshop. Experience tells me that this procedure will cover the vast majority of the images I take. 

Lessons learnt - I now know the apparent dynamic range of my camera and I now have a good idea why bracketing the exposure of the shots gives a high percentage of shots that cover the dynamic range of the taken image. Once again I learnt more about my camera in that I now know that the lowest ISO can be set at 50.

DPP Exercise7- Your tolerance for noise

I have 21 ISO settings on my camera (ignoring 'Auto') ranging from 100 to 25600. I placed the camera on a tripod, set the camera to aperture value at 6.3, disabled the noise reduction facility and worked my way through the ISO settings one by one. All images were shot in RAW. I then downloaded the images on to my computer saving them as DNG files and examined them in Photoshop without any further enhancement  other than the default values used in the RAW conversion software.

I viewed each image at 25%, 50% and 100% zoom values to see at what point noise became a problem.

Noise was not evident at any zoom level until the ISO value was at 500. At this value it was just noticeable at 100% but in my opinion was not a significant problem. At ISO 800 noise was just noticeable at 50% and noticeable at 100% and this time at 100% I would judge it to be a nuisance. Noise became noticeable at all zoom levels at ISO 2000 with noise at 100% being unacceptable. From this point on noise became significant at all zoom levels until at 25600 it was the dominant factor in the image on pale areas of a similar colour and unacceptable in all other areas.

The results were as I expected with the lowest ISO's providing the least amount of noise. I feel that the point at which noise becomes a problem will vary from image to image depending upon the light and the tonal range and the size at which the image is viewed and/or printed. In the images that I took there was large areas of similar pale colours and these seemed to suffer the most. Shadows and areas where there was patterns or colour changes as in a carpet was less of a problem.

The viewing and/or printing size is also relevant with experience suggesting that the printed version is more tolerant of noise.

Lessons learnt - I have always used the noise reduction system of the camera with successful results up to an ISO of 6400. Although I have used both the higher settings (12800 and 25600) when faced with either accepting the problem of noise or not getting the picture I have had mixed results. Again this seems to depend upon the range of the image and whether there are any large areas of a similar colour.

As always with these exercises I have learnt something more about my camera. In this case it was about the noise reduction facility and how this can be used to reduce noise to an acceptable level.

I decided against including images in this blog as the noise does not show in the small images that are on the blog.

DPP Exercise 6 Highlight Clipping

An interesting exercise with what I found to be surprising results.

I very rarely use my camera in Manual mode generally preferring 'Aperture Value' allowing me to achieve the best depth of field for the shot and leaving the rest to the camera. However for this exercise this was not appropriate because if I changed the aperture value by 1 stop the camera changed the shutter value to compensate. Had to read the instructions to remind me (if I ever knew) how to change the shutter values whilst leaving the aperture value unchanged.

Bury was fortunate in having a pleasant sunny day so I decided to use the ambient light and take photographs in my garden. All images were taken as RAW at f11 with a 50mm lens.

This shot was the one at which the highlight clipping warning on the camera just appears and was taken at 1/200. Additional shots were taken at 1/250; 1/160; 1/125 and 1/100 giving 5 images in all. As expected the shot at 1/250 showed increased highlight clipping whilst the others showed no highlight clipping on the LCD.

 (I have not included the remainder of the shots in this blog as they all look the same because the highlight clipping warning does not appear in the actual image.)

All images were processed in Camera RAW conversion software at the 'default' setting. I then followed the instructions in the exercise notes with the following results:

1/200

• There was no loss of visual information
• There was no visible break between areas of white and near white
• There was minimal colour cast along fringes bordering the clipped highlight
• Colour saturation was acceptable but as with most RAW images would have needed a boost

1/250

• Visual information lost completely
• No visible break between area of white and near white
• Fringing visible at high magnification (200%)
• Colour saturation weak

1/160

• No loss of visual information
• No visible break
• Minimal fringing at high magnification otherwise not evident
• Colour saturation was good

1/125

• As 1/160

1/100

• As 1/160 except there was no colour fringe at high magnification and colour saturation was marginally the 'best'.

The surprising element to me was that in images where there had been no highlight clipping warning on the Camera LCD the RAW file displayed a warning that clipping had occurred. I was not expecting this result. I assume that the LCD display, having been converted in camera to a JPEG, and therefore there was some loss of information was not totally accurate.

I further processed the images. I used the 'Recovery' slider, as suggested, with a range of effects from none to a strange colour change that looked like a smudge.  

The final processed image that gave the best result in my opinion is:

Lessons learnt:

1. Now know how to use the camera in manual mode that extends my skill range and should lead to improved pictures in difficult situations.
2. That the 'blinkies' on the LCD screen are not a totally accurate indication of clipped highlights in the image.

I was already aware of the use of the Recovery slider and the effect it has upon the image.

Exercise 5 DPP Linear Capture

A rather odd exercise given that we are told about something we do not see at any time given that the camera and computer screen carry out the process automatically.

Creating the curve as shown in the exercise material does indeed darken the image and, as expected, the histogram shows that there is a shift to the left because the image is dominated by the dark tones. Applying the opposite curve as shown on p 15 does indeed restore the image almost back to the original jpeg image. I say 'almost' because there were some very slight differences in toning at the extremes but this may well have been due to slight inaccuracies in the creation of the curve.

I remain perplexed by the purpose of this exercise as I cannot see when it would be of direct use.