Graduation on OM-D

[Guest]

On the rare sunny days light is very harsh and contrasty so I have been playing around with the in camera jpeg processing on the OM-D

I quite like the direct access to the tone curve but the 'graduation' option seems the most effective for dealing with excess contrast.

The official description of what it does is:

Divides the image into detailed regions and adjusts the brightness separately for each region. This is effective for images with areas of large contrast in which the whites appear too bright or the blacks appear too dark.

Here is a practical example. Note that these pictures are the same exposure/ISO

I'd be interested in any comments on handling excess contrast. I know that the real answer is raw + Lightroom but I'm trying to get it right in camera.

[Zuiko]

Re: Graduation on OM-D

To my eye in No 2 the shadows have been lifted too much. I'm a great believer in letting shadows be shadows. If I want to lift them just a bit I prefer to do it in pp. A quick adjustment in levels or highlights/shadows plus maybe a contrast tweak is often all that's needed and this can be done with a JPEG as well as raw, unless there is a serious exposure issue.

Nevertheless, auto graduation on the E-M5 does seem more usable than on previous Olympus models, at least when using low ISO. At higher ISO it is still a recipe for noise in the shadows.

[Kees]

Re: Graduation on OM-D

The second picture looks faded.

[brianvickers]

Re: Graduation on OM-D

No 2 proves that it does what it says on the tin....I think whether or not individuals like it or not is down to personal preference.
As the shadows have been lifted in camera does that mean that there is more detail recorded in the shadows and less chance of noise?

[Zuiko]

Re: Graduation on OM-D

No 2 proves that it does what it says on the tin....I think whether or not individuals like it or not is down to personal preference.
As the shadows have been lifted in camera does that mean that there is more detail recorded in the shadows and less chance of noise?

It means there is more detail recorded in the shadows but more chance of noise, although not so bad on the E-M5 compared to earlier Olympus models.

In this example, is there really that much more detail in the shadows, or is the original a better balanced exposure?

[Bruce Clarke]

Re: Graduation on OM-D

The second one is less dramatic, but much closer to what the eye sees - depends what you want. I use Auto Gradation quite a bit, and whereas on previous bodies, it was dodgy much above base ISO, on the E-M5, it is much improved. I have left it on when using ISO 3200, and been amazed at the lack of noise.

It's more risky if you only shoot JPG though. I always shoot Raw+JPG, so have the Raw to play with when necessary.