@Mkiv wrote:
What is the best way to capture the highest possible dynamic range in a single frame(not video)on the Canon R6 Mark II? I’m not talking about HDR processing and compositing of multiple images, rather capturing the highest amount of highlight and shadow in a single frame. My guess would have something to do with custom profiles? I realize that the out of camera image may be flat but that is adjustable in post processing. TIA
I hope some of this might be helpful.
I am not certain so check the manual, but I expect that your camera will capture 12 bit data if using electronic shutter and 14 bit if using electronic first curtain or mechanical shutter. Under some circumstances, those extra two bits may be used to extend the dynamic range. If the eventual display is sRGB eight bit per channel JPEG, then either bits will be thrown away or the tone curve will be compressed in at least some part of the brightness range. If the eventual display is a print, then use a color space and dynamic range that works well on that particular printer. On a screen on the internet, it is usually sRGB that works best.
As others have said, the largest dynamic range is usually at ISO 100, but maybe at ISO 200 or ISO 400 for some cameras. For the EOS R6 II it seems likely to me that the dynamic range at ISO 200 will be less than at ISO 100 and also less than at ISO 400 because that sensor chip has at least two ways of reading the count for recording in the raw file.
If editing a RAW instead of sharing out of camera JPEG: In DPP, it seems good to me to use the dynamic range adjustment ( https://cam.start.canon/en/S002/manual/html/UG-04_EditImage_0040.html "Adjusting Dynamic Range" ). I increase the dynamic range by moving the "input white point" to the right until no color channel has a value greater than 254 on the brightest pixels that have information I might want to display. The same can be done using curves in DPP or in other sofware.
Curves may be used to preserve detail in the brightness range that contains the most important information whether using DPP or some other raw development software. For some software, it may be useful to over expose by one or two stops and do what the rawtherapee program calls highlight recovery, but that would not work for a Northern Cardinal bird in bright sunlight.
For a Northern Cardinal or a red flower in sunlight, I use exposure compensation of -2/3 EV to avoid clipping the red channel and if backlit, a positive exposure compensation sacrificing the background. This seems to work better for me than the Auto lighting optimizer. The negative exposure compensation seems to work better for me than the Highlight Tone Priority. I speculate that Auto Lighting Optimizer, Highlight Tone Priority, or Peripheral Illumination Correction enabled in the camera might result in the camera choosing a different exposure than otherwise when any setting is auto, so I disable all three in the camera menus and only apply them later in DPP if desired.
I suggest auto ISO, possibly limiting the range, to take full advantage of the knowledge embedded in the camera software instead of a fixed ISO. I base this on the assumption that getting a photo to document something is more important than getting a perfect photo, but in a studio with controlled lighting ISO 100 is best. In post processing, noise reduction loses detail for very high ISO. Keeping some of the noise might make it look like old fashioned film grain and be pleasing. Down scaling the image followed by unsharp mask makes it look good again by trading resolution for increased image quality (maybe start with 75% of the original size). The noise reduction can also be done using a median filter if the software you use has it and the media is a robust statistic in the presence of noise. The down scaling also helps with motion blur if one had to make the photo in a very dark setting with a slow shutter.
