Canon autolighting optimizer

[Devrij]

Well, it's a bit pants on my 550D. Was reading Digital Camera and there was a mention of how it sapped the contrast from a lot of the shots, making them look washed out. "My shots often look a bit flat, which I thought was mostly down to it just not being great/bad exposure. It's enabled by default so I thought I'd try turning it off. Lo and behold, contrast returns to my photos, richer midtones abound. If I need a tiny tiny bit more detail in the shadows, I'll use fill light.

Point of the post: if you haven't messed about with the autolighting optimizer on your canon camera (at least on the xxxD series anyway) and find your shots always need a contrast boost, try it.

 

[Devrij]

You think sports photographers at the champions league final shoot raw?

I have alo turned off on the 50d and I shoot raw because it effects the raw file too, it shouldn't but it does.

Well this is it, I was noticing a difference in the RAW shots I was taking. I only shoot jpeg when I need more than 6 shots in a row, or if I'm doing a timelapse, everything else is RAW. I'll take some example shots from a tripod with everything on manual to see if there's a difference for sure. Will post results later.

 

[Devrij]

Okay, uploading the shots now. The difference on the camera LCD is pronounced and very noticeable, and looking closely at the RAW files there does seem to be a very very small difference in a few areas of the shot (the overexposed trees on the hill seem darker in the "off" shot). It's extremely subtle though so I'm not sure if it's just me/small changes in lighting between shots, and the camera is showing me some sort of processed image rather than what the RAW file looks like.

Shot all in manual, from a tripod, in less than 5 seconds for all 3 shots. Converted to jpeg for the sake of your bandwidth using the same camera raw settings.

Off
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo159/The_Devrij/IMG_7505.jpg


Standard
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo159/The_Devrij/IMG_7506.jpg

Strong
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo159/The_Devrij/IMG_7507.jpg

So for all intents and purposes, it has no effect in RAW, but WILL affect what you see on your LCD, so if you want to see what your RAW files will look like it's still worth turning it off.