Why RAW?

[Desmond Chan]

As for the 0 Brightness advice, it makes, well, to be honest, 0 sense to me.

I tend to agree. It really is not necessary for processing/fixing your images. Just move the sliders or whatever until you get the result you want. IMO, it's just that simple. :D:p

[Desmond Chan]

IMHO folks are spending too much time on scientific theorizing...:)

Have to say I do think some folks are not doing that unnecessarily :D:D

[Jay Gould]

Have to say I do think some folks are not doing that unnecessarily :D:D

Scientifically, that is a double negative; therefore, folks are doing that necessarily!

:D

[Desmond Chan]

Scientifically, that is a double negative; therefore, folks are doing that necessarily!

:D

You are correct, Jay. Guess I typed too fast then :o

OK, once again:

"Have to say I do think some folks are doing that unnecessarily :D:D"

[Jay Gould]

Now, to the point, I almost always find myself reducing the +50 at least somewhat! And, yes, if I start at "0" I do increase almost all somewhat.

I will play at defaults for awhile and see which is better.

I do start with the Recovery Slider with Brightness at "0" and it has always resulted in moving the slider less. And, when I add some brightness I do so short of causing clipping.

[Mark Young]

I wish I saw this thread 2 weeks ago because I trashed a Sooty Oystercatcher image that I overexposed that I really wanted to get right. The bg was of a breaking wave with the bird in the fg. It was an overcast day and I overexposed the image to get details in the black bird, but I ended up with the entire bg blinking red at me. :(

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I wish I saw this thread 2 weeks ago because I trashed a Sooty Oystercatcher image that I overexposed that I really wanted to get right. The bg was of a breaking wave with the bird in the fg. It was an overcast day and I overexposed the image to get details in the black bird, but I ended up with the entire bg blinking red at me. :(

Mate, I am only a phone call away! :p

[Mark Young]

Thanks Akos, I'll have to get you to help me next cloudy day.

[Indranil Sircar]

This is a great discussion. In my understanding of the how ACR calculates the default is based on the assumption that unprocessed raw files exists in a linear gamma space. ACR's gamma correction is based on human perception and interpretation of light in a non-linear fashion. The brightness value set to 50 is based on these calculation. I follow Arties exposure approach on camera to get the most out of ACR processing in using recovery and blacks only to the extent required after adjusting the exposure to the visually correct level. This is very similar to the approach Bill is suggesting in #33. There is a good whitepaper from Adobe that discusses the aspect of the gamma correction in ACR - http://www.adobe.com/products/photos...near_gamma.pdf