After some recent comments by Canonguy, and a link provided to a online tutorial, I decided to give STTR a go.
Results have been excellent. Using the histogram to just bump against white clipping takes some getting used to as the images on the camera LCD can seem very overexposed, but I have learned to ignore that and just trust the histogram.
This doesn't always work, especially in bright, contrasty situations, but is good for most times and you soon learn to not go so hard on the contrasty days. I liken it to judging how much exposure compensation to use if shooting aperture priority, you just know after a while.
To see the detail in the bird come out in PP is just great when in the past that detail would have been lost to underexposure.
Hope to see more tips on here from some of the more experienced photographers around as they can save a lot of trial and error.
I have also stopped shooting much in Aperture priority and am using manual almost all the time as I find it gives me much more control of the immediate situation. Though you do lose some shots from being not quite quick enough. This applies mostly to birds in flight but is probably better discussed in another post sometime.
Cheers
The practice of slightly over expossing photos to bring up highlights is not a new idea it was used back in the " old days " of film then we would " push " the developer to bring up the detail.
We didn't have histograms we relied on experience and it was trial and error , lots of error !
Loud cursing was often heard from dark rooms when this and other things didn't go to plan.
Canonguy to his credit was the first to bring it to my attention in digital photography with a post on ETTR a lot of photogaphers don't understand histograms or think there complicated and therefore don't bother to even look at them , when I started using it in my bird photos I saw an immediate improvement even in the sharpness of my images .
Rick try turning down your LCD screen to make it a little darker ,your highligh warning will still work turn it on so you don't blowout your whites.
Thanks Woko,
That's a great idea about turning down the LCD, at times I have trouble seeing the flashing highlights with my oldish eyes
I can imagine there would have been lots of cursing back then after the investment in time and money on film, chemicals etc.
I did dabble in the old days with a small darkroom setup but only in a very amateur fashion.
Cheers