More K5 DR Magic

[Ron Kruger]

The toughest DR shots I've ever taken is of kayakers at Tieman Shut-ins, and it is the best test of the K5's DR of anything I can imagine. The sun is high and behind; the water is frothy and hot; the background is in dark shadow; and everything is moving fast. I went there today just to see what I could do. I purposely underexposed all the shots to keep from blowing the highlights, then brought them back by bumping the exposure about one stop and dodging 100 percent in PDCU4. I've posted similar shots before, but this time, before doing any PP, I converted the shots straight from the camera and then processed the same exposures to shot the difference.
This is pretty amazing. Check it out.

[Ron Kruger]

Sorry, I hit the one straight from the camera for 1936 twice. Here it is again with the PP comparison.

[blackcloudbrew]

Well in this series, you can really see the difference. Thanks for this good post guy!

[Ron Kruger]

Thanks Tim. Shots were all with my 35mm Limited at f-7.1, sometimes 1,000th sec., but also down to 650th sec., 80 ISO. No noise at 80, no matter how much you push it. Yes, I pixel peep. Recovery of shadow detail, even in black areas, is impressive.

[davidhampshire]

these are excellent,  ron

[Pacerr]

Impressive demonstration of the K5, Ron.

[Ron Kruger]

Thanks David and Hank. It is quite a versatile machine.

[Ron Kruger]

The DR of the K5's sensor is so wide, I no longer see any need or use for HDR processing, unless one just wants the look that comes from overdoing it. I have also tested the in camera HDR settings on the K5, and while a couple of them are pretty good and natural looking, they still have a bit of that flatness I don't like and I think I can do better by simply exposing for the highlights and bring back the shadow detail such as I did here. Besides, HDR in the K5 only works with JPEG and I like to work with RAW.

[kshapero]

Yes, really excellent.