Jim, the dynamic range of the D800 is astounding and it is indeed a marvel of sensor technology, however its still not a replacement for exposure blending or the use of grads for landscape photography. This isn\'t pontification on my part but based on actual use. When you push the shadows really hard what I find ends up happening is that you lose a lot of tonal separation which in the end for me makes for unpleasing images. If you think about it, this shouldn\'t be surprising. The sensor more or less linearly captures about 14 bits of data. Since you\'ve underexposed to preserve your highlights all your information is packed into just a few of the lower bits. When you start pushing those shadows hard its the data in those bits that ends up being pushed to generate the new midtones and interpolation now matter how good can\'t make up tonal detail thats not there. Now when these cameras start capturing 16, 18 and 20 bit this may change but until then even with a D800 I would still use filters and multiple captures to get good tonal detail throughout the range.
You have an edge over me. you\'ve actually used one.
I don\'t expect the shadows to contain a full amount of data; nature of the beast and all. Nor would I think I could get around a 5-stop+ difference by pushing shadows. I often use ND grads of 2 and 3 stop differences to bring things into line, but I find it a pain. I\'ve never stacked a 2 and 3 to get 5, but I could. To me, stacking like that is just too much of a compromise and you\'re in a forced blending situation.
We each have our preferences, but I can\'t stand large areas of white, or blown highlights. To me, nothing is more depressing than a blown sky (unless intentional or done knowingly) and after shooting Canon digital for 13 years now, it\'s something I\'ve come to expect if you\'re not very careful. The D800 obviously doesn\'t mean you can throw caution and common sense to the wind, but it does (from what I\'ve seen/read) give you an added edge of at least a couple of stops, and that can make all the difference. That\'s all I\'m asking for right now.
May 24, 2012 at 06:29 AM
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