Black on Black.

This week’s task was to play with "black on black" pictures using auto and manual, it was an interesting assignment and didn’t give the results that I was expecting. I always shoot in raw and never use the auto setting, although my cameras are usually set to aperture mode which is a little similar (though there are big differences).


The exif data is:
Auto:               f:2.8    1/20    ISO-1600
Manual:          f:8        8         ISO-400         that is 1.5 stops more exposure than the auto.


This is odd in that the auto setting looks to give a correct exposure where-as I used the histogram in manual. There are also the obvious differences, more grain and less d.o.f. in the auto with its higher ISO and wider aperture.
 
The process I followed was to put the raw images through Adobe Camera Raw, with no modifications other than the presets that I use as a starting point for every picture, to convert to jpeg; then I continued developing them in ACR as far as I could go; finally I took the manual one into Photoshop to optimise, that is the blip.


The first extra is the Auto untouched shot which, curiously, looks correctly exposed but ACR has seen fit to alter the light balance to give the blue cast which was easily removed using any of several methods,
The second is the manual equivalent.
The third, the auto developed in ACR, and
Last, the manual equivalent.
 

It was good that the manual version gave me much more control over the tones but the object of the exercise was to show that the auto setting makes the camera over-expose dark subjects.


I've just posted yesterdays, "Late Nectar Source."