Exposure Lattitude & Skin

[mcaldwell]

Got a G1 three days ago, so of course trying it out a lot. Have been very disappointed in exposure lattitude and with skin tones. Without going full manual I cannot get a white flower in full sun to not be totally overexposed. Took it to a party to get a variety of conditions, and even a large room full of people with flash came out very poor; still had to spend way too long with PS with every shot. Had a Nikon 900S for years and never had this problem. And people just don't look good; muddy skin tones. I see Pekka's samples, and they are fabulous, so I'm very frustrated. Does use of the speedlight instead of the built in make THAT much difference? Seems that most of his shots are pretty much automatice, so what's the magic? I saw a reference to manually controlling the conversion to TIFF on each one; is that the secret sauce??

[picnic]

Mike, I'll have to go back and look at Pekka's but I hadn't thought he ever used 'auto'. I've had my G1 for about 3 weeks--I'm very happy with my macro and other shots outside in 'strong' southeast sun, but found I have to experiment to get them reasonable. I made -1 (-1/3) be my default exposture compensation, for one thing. I have been using only manual and find, for me, that's the best way to go--unless I don't have time, then I use Av (aperture priority). I don't do much with people shots--and have done no people with flash, so can't comment on that.

[wpope]

I too recently received my G1. I know what you mean on exsposure. I took some RAWs today and
they are better but no where near Pekkas. I still don't understand the drill for getting RAWs fixed.
I am using a CF reader on my USB port. Zoombrowser reads the RAWs ok but they are converted to
TIFF for viewing. When does one adjust white ballance, etc. ?
I am overall impressed with the Canon G1. It is very well made and has answered most of my
complaints of my CP800. :p

Woody

[mcaldwell]

Woody, to your question: when you want to convert to TIFF from RAW, go to the File menu item, and you'll see a choice whether to convert with standard factors or User. If you select User you'll get another dialog box with drop down menus to select from. Otherwise (really, either way) just convert with Standard, then deal with it image by image within Photoshop.