Hi Moose,
I originally posted the helicopter image and, after looking at it on
line, felt it was way too dark. I then increased the brightness to what
I thought it should be, and replaced the original image. That was a day
or so ago, so, if you pulled this image today, it is the brighter version.
This is the image that I printed today, and, when comparing the print
with what I saw on the screen, I felt the print was darker than my
screen, but it was a fairly nice image. I concluded, rightfully or
wrongfully, that, if I reduced the screen brightness by 20%, that future
work products would have more brightness, as long as I continued to use
the same eyeball criteria in post-processing my images.
As I have noted previously, I had a very bad experience with Adobe
products when I bought this computer over a year ago, so I looked around
for another photo editor. I have no interest in cloud storage, which
seems to be a part of most approaches these days. I settled on Picture
Window Pro, the latest version of which handles Fuji RAW files. I have
grown to like it and what it can do for me. Because I haven't used Adobe
stuff in over a year, your terminology does not always come across
clearly to me. I have the capability to adjust levels, but it is
slightly different from your approach.
I have been trying to make better us of the histogram in making
adjustments in the RAW converter, and that has helped me quite a bit. I
then make further refinements to the jpg image, and that is where I can
adjust levels.
Your Levels Midpoint = 1.4 appears very close to what I chose with my
software.
Thanks for your help. I learn something each time you make a point.
Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
On 8/27/2015 5:21 PM, Moose wrote:
On 8/27/2015 11:13 AM, Jim Nichols wrote:
Thanks, Philippe.
I just compared a print with what I see on my screen, and
consequently reduced my screen brightness from 25% to 20%, to raise
the brightness of my output images. Would you care to comment on how
these two looked to you?
You may be experiencing some confusion by using two different camera
systems with different ideas of what is a correct exposure. There's
been a lot of noise on the web about Fuji exposures/ISOs, from rants
on either side of "It's right" and "It's wrong" to far more reasoned
and informative discussions on the lines of "What's an ISO" and a
specific one on Fuji exposures, by Ctein on TOP.
As a simplification, Fuji places the middle of their histogram
differently than most other cameras. As an example of this, look at
your recent image of the new Medevac helicopter.
<http://www.moosemystic.net/Gallery/Others/Nichols/New_Medevac_Helicopter.htm>
What I've done here is to use Levels to move the midpoint of the
brightness of the image. Although it may seem that each is a greater
exposure, the ends are untouched, unlike actual different exposures in
the camera or overall brightness adjustment in an editor. It doesn't
matter for my purposes here whether your posted image is as it came
out of the camera, only that it happens to look unnaturally dark to me
on my calibrated screen, for a shot on a bright cloudless midday.
Looking at them with no referent to the overall scene brightness when
taken or to the actual color of the 'copter, any one might be as
"correct" as any other. This effect is what Ctein talked about with
graphs and words in his articles on exposure on TOP.
The bottom line is that Fuji has a different idea of midpoints than
Oly and most other makers. So a Fuji shot and an otherwise identically
exposed shot of the same thing will have different apparent
brightnesses, like two different versions in the example above.
I suspect that if you had chosen an OMD, rather than Fuji, you would
be having less trouble with image "brightness". Changing monitor
brightness moves brightest and darkest points as well as the midpoint,
so isn't the solution if this is your problem.
Sooooo ... When one goes out shootin' one day with one and the next
with the other, processing them the same may give different results
and getting them to look the same in brightness/exposure may take some
adjustment. If working from Raw files, the opinions of the converter
are an additional factor - and yes, as I've demonstrated before, they
differ.
Midpoint Moose
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