Highlight/shadow display settings

[John_SD]

I am trying to use DPP and its histogram to better interpret and control my highlight and shadow issues. It is very useful in helping me to determine where my underexposed and overexposed areas are in a CR2 image.

The DPP default values for highlight and shadows are 0 for the shadow warnings and 255 for the highlights.This wasn't very useful to me. I like to see those reds and blues showing up a little more so I can tweak them, especially to help recover missing detail in the shadows.. I've changed my defaults to 10 and 240, which result in more red and blue warnings, helping to pinpoint problem areas to adjust. But I am obsessing too much over this histogram type of stuff, and that can become a time sink. Or is this normal LOL? 

[Waddizzle]

It is normal.  Keep tweaking and experimenting.

[John_SD]

---

@Waddizzlewrote:

It is normal.  Keep tweaking and experimenting.

---

Thanks, Waddizzle! I suppose people who have more years of hands-on with DPP could tweak their images a lot faster than me, but I do enjoy delving into the settings and trying to improve my photos. Kinda weird how some photos only take a few seconds to compose and shoot but much longer to post-process!

[RobertTheFat]

---

@John_SDwrote:

---

@Waddizzlewrote:

It is normal.  Keep tweaking and experimenting.

---

Thanks, Waddizzle! I suppose people who have more years of hands-on with DPP could tweak their images a lot faster than me, but I do enjoy delving into the settings and trying to improve my photos. Kinda weird how some photos only take a few seconds to compose and shoot but much longer to post-process!

---

Note that DPP 4 has an "Auto" button under "Gamma adjustment" that can give you a starting point.

[John_SD]

Thanks for that tip, Bob. I'll give it a shot. 

[jrhoffman75]

I set my warning settings based on the output. From the test image I see that my printer cannot reproduce a difference less than 8 or greater than 251, so I set my warnings at 9 and 250.