Zone Matching with RAW - Do you use it?

[rawshooter]

If you shoot raw, do you still use Zone Matching setting on your Alpha? I am planning to use Zone Matching +1 or +2 for my friend's wedding. Is it worth the effort to activate the ZM from time to time (with chance to miss critical shots) or just process it later?

[MontoyaSG]

u're better off shooting in jpg with DRO enabled

[rawshooter]

Originally Posted by MontoyaSG u're better off shooting in jpg with DRO enabled

DRO sometimes make portrait looks weird, guess i will just stick to cRAW to play safe. I typically use it where there are area of high contrast like sunny/shade area.

[MontoyaSG]

when shooting portraits leave it @ DRO Advanced as the maximum setting. DRO+3 and above seemed a little bit too extreme on the skin tones

when doing AD wedding shoot it's advisable to have the shots out in jpg as there may be no pc available for you to do raw conversion and the couple may want the shots for the dinner montage.

my advice is to reach the location early & do some test shots to tune the exposure while for those on the move shots shoot in 'AP' mode. DRO if utilised properly can help to correct those slightly overexposed shots

[Agetan]

Personally, just shoot evrything in raw. Would rather capture it rather playing with the mode.

Normally just shoot with cRaw in M mode and spend all other time visualize the image.

good luck

[MontoyaSG]

Originally Posted by Agetan Personally, just shoot evrything in raw. Would rather capture it rather playing with the mode. Normally just shoot with cRaw in M mode and spend all other time visualize the image. good luck

depends more on situation IMO. but if got those 16GB cards can shoot RAW+JPG to get the best of both worlds

[Getz10]

I still agree with agetan to shoot everything cRaw.....there is no "if" for what the client need as everything should be confirm from the start.
If he needs jpeg for montage, Raw + jpeg for morning then switch back to Raw for the whole nite

There's so much more u could do with Raw and do remember not to use a single CF for the whole event.

[Agetan]

16GB card? wow... i will be very very worried.

The larger card I will do is 4Gb which is about 160 shots for cRaw on A-900 and I think it is big enough. Though, I normally would bring a minimum of 40Gb card with me for a wedding shoot.

Anyway, back to the topic, the less you are playing with your camera and looking at those LCD, the more time you will spend on taking photos. It is our policy now to shoot everything using available light.

Its too risky to let the camera to decide for you. Hence, it is probably best to do the least with the camera.

Hart

[rawshooter]

Just got back from the event. Took everything in cRAW and was lucky enough to do it. Some of the morning shot were underexposed due to flash setting. I was using my 5600 flash while leaving ins Auto TTL (I didn't set it in manual for I do not want to fiddle too much during the event). Nothing wrong with that. Only when i took a break and return in the afternoon to check the photos and I realised that most of the wide shots were underexpose and tele was ok. Later then I realised that I have set to Manual Zoom set at 85mm throughout the duration.

During the morning, i keep wondering if there was some exposure setting error as it was inconsistent. But now, only raw can safe the slightly underexposed wide angle shots.

Thanks for the tips.

[rawshooter]

Originally Posted by Agetan 16GB card? wow... i will be very very worried. Its too risky to let the camera to decide for you. Hence, it is probably best to do the least with the camera. Hart

I have to agree here for trusting the flash setting too much by leaving it in 'auto' with manual zoom set. If i have shoot with manual flash, the trouble may be very much reduced.

[rawshooter]

below is an example of what happened. The first photo is under exposed by 0.5stop compared to picture 2. Both with bounce and diffuser. Unprocessed except for cropping to compare.

24mm


60mm