Dynamic Range

Dynamic Range

This project is designed to establish the dynamic range of your camera in f stops.

I initially followed the subsequent procedure which was best carried out during a sunny day.  This proved extremely difficult as the sun has been scarce this year so far.

I selected my mother's house front door, which faces the morning sun and, I thought, was in enough shadow to find the lower end of the range by displaying noise. (image 1)

I placed my white / grey card next to the front door (image 2) and, putting my camera on a manual setting, set up to show highlight clipping in the white /grey card at an aperture setting of f2.8 at a shutter speed of 1/1000 (image 3). 

I there after took a series of other images, all with a shutter speed of 1/1000 at f4 then f5.6.

On both these images I increased the brightness, in Photoshop, allowing me to see whether or not noise had been introduced in the shadows (image 5).

I felt that this occurred at f5.6.

This gave the image and camera a Dynamic Range between f2.8 and f5.6 or 3 stops.

Image 1





Image 2



Image 3

Image 4

Image 5