Hi all,

Just wondering what the best way is to tackle a shoot like this:

http://www.users.on.net/~lyntonius/Misc/....08.41.png

As you can see, there's a lot of dark areas, with one small patch that's very prone to highlight clipping. So on the histogram you have very heavy dark tones, a big gap for midtones, and then a small blip for highlights that threaten to clip with each adjustment.

Is it best to underexpose further, and clip the blacks a little? Or is this sort of scene simply too much of a stretch for a DSLR?

Any advice would be massively appreciated. Have shot a few timelapses now, and having a ball, but holy grails are much tougher!

The histograms you see are JPG histograms - you have lots of dynamic range in the shadows. When I shoot scenes like this the histogram is always "cut" on the left side. The sensors of a D600, D800 or 6D are pretty capable of handling this.
So yes, just underexpose more.

The histograms you see are JPG histograms - you have lots of dynamic range in the shadows. When I shoot scenes like this the histogram is always "cut" on the left side. The sensors of a D600, D800 or 6D are pretty capable of handling this.
So yes, just underexpose more.

Thanks Gunter, will give that a go! Appreciate the help.