![]() Additionally, since color is optimized for the normal tone, curves that are linear with the normal tone will result in little to no color shifts or saturation loss. The custom tone curves available for download here are all linear with the normal tone, resulting in a consistent contrast from the shadows all the way up to the last 1/4th of highlights. For example, if you slightly overexpose a photo, you may get an extremely low contrast image, whereas if you slightly underexpose your photo, you may get a high contrast image. This limits the camera's latitude because with different exposures of the same subject, you will get different contrasts. The unintended result of curves such as these is inconsistent contrast in midtones. Other curves may seem to hold highlights better, but only because they begin to compress tonality at an earlier point. Unlike other custom tone curves available on the internet, however, these curves do not sacrifice overall linearity to accomplish this. These curves essentially decompress shadows and midtones while compressing the last 1/4th of highlight information. The 1/2 stop adjustment was chosen because it was the median adjustment required to get the resulting tonality of a gray card to equal medium gray using every metering method available and various lenses. ![]() These custom tone curves were calibrated precisely to increase the brightness of D100 and D70 images by 1/2 of a stop but with less risk of blown highlights than actually setting +0.5 EV. Here is a description of the curves on my website: It is easier to burn in a few select highlights (for taste) rather than brightening an entire image. I've tried the "all-in-one" curve and it actually blows extreme highlights more than this one, but near extreme highlights look darker which gives the false appearance of holding highlights better.Īlso, with the WW v3.5 curve, you can burn back in highlights and retain almost all of the highlight information of the image without the curve. The most noticeable manifestation of this in photographs is that skies look gray instead of blue. But an even larger problem is that with Nikon's implementation of custom tone curves, you will also get color shifts and losses of saturation in areas where the contrast has decreased. For example, if you overexposed an image slightly, you might get a contrast that is similar to Nikon's low contrast tone setting, while if you expose it correctly, you might get the normal tone setting. While other curves out there may seem to hold highlights better while still brightening midtones the same, they are inconsistent in contrast so that if you exposed a subject differently, each image will have a different contrast. In film, latitude is defined as the straight portion of a film's characteristic curve. In other words, a good all around curve is one with a wide latitude. To me, an all around curve is one that has consistent contrast from shadows up to highlights. This curve is an excellent all around curve. Please read the description for a more percise description of what the curve does. If I simply used EV compensation, there would be no highlights to burn in, however.Ĭlick here for the original size images w/ overlaid histogramsĭownload the curve here. The advantage to this is that I've shifted the necessity of post-processing from having to adjust most of the image to only having to burn in or multiply highlights, which I could even skip if I wanted to. In fact, if you overlaid each of these last two images on top of one another in Photoshop and switched back and forth between the two, you would see absolutely no difference in anything except for the brightest highlights. With the White Wedding v3.5 curve, I get the exact same skin tones without any color shifts or loss of saturation (which curves that are not linear from shadows all the way up to highlights WILL result in), and by observing the histogram, although the highlights are bright, they are by no means blown. However, the highlights of the sleeve are blown, which you can also see in the histogram. Also, by running my mouse over the skin in NC4, I see that the skin is about 1 stop brighter than medium gray, which is about right. The skin tone looks perfect to me on my calibrated monitor. Here's what I would normally do in a situation like this-open up by 1/2 of a stop. But, the image just doesn't have the "pop" and my daughter's skin looks muddy. By looking at the histogram, you can see that the exposure is perfect. Here's an example of the image taken with the normal tone. I've received many emails to post or email a sample of the latest White Wedding curve.
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