Re-Imaging Does A Lot But Black is Black

Posted by Dave Smith on Jun 13, 2009 in Photography Tips

What do I mean by this. The same way you can blow out details by over exposing there are times when an image, even one shot raw, is so underexposed some of the image detail is black. Trying to raise details out of black will usually result in a lot of “Noise”.

Lost Detail Creates Noise

If you aren’t familiar with noise it is those speckles of color you get in some of your digital photos. Some time it is possible to use noise reduction software. A little noise can be dealt with quite effectively. But a lot of noise is, a lot of noise.

Here is an example of an image where the camera light meter was fooled. It took the reading from the back of the room near the large light source (Large Light Source is technical for Window).

The rest of the room had dark wood floors and limited lighting. The light that did exist was mixed from several sources.

The end result, an under exposed image. Even so with Re-Imaging some detail was brought out. However, even with Re-Imaging details can’t be brought out that were not recorded on the camera’s sensor.