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Quick Menu: Dynamic Range & White Balance

Lesson 13 from: Fujifilm X-T2 Fast Start

John Greengo

Quick Menu: Dynamic Range & White Balance

Lesson 13 from: Fujifilm X-T2 Fast Start

John Greengo

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Lesson Info

13. Quick Menu: Dynamic Range & White Balance

If you shoot JPEG, you can adjust the dynamic range of the image to prevent blowing out the highlights. Learn how to adjust the dynamic range, as well as how to quickly access different white balance settings on the X-T2.

Lesson Info

Quick Menu: Dynamic Range & White Balance

Next up in the quick menu is the dynamic range and this is a JPEG only feature and what it's doing is it's trying to control the highlight information and so at ISO 200 which is the native sensitivity it's really not doing anything so the DR100 100% it kind of another way of saying off. It's just that's a standard JPEG. At ISO 200, you need to be, excuse me at DR200 percent you need to be at ISO And DR400 you need to be at 800. Now what the camera is doing is it is underexposing the scene. It's boosting the shadows to make sure that the highlights are not blown out. And so let's take a look at what this looks like in real photos, okay. So we're out on a sunny day using ISO 800, you can see a lot of the information is kind of bunched up to the right hand side of the histogram. Just note this histogram is not from Fuji this is from Lightroom and so it's going to look a little bit different than you see in the camera. When we set the camera to DR200 percent you can see how the highlights...

are not as bright because they're being dragged more towards the center of the histogram which is your middle of the exposure. And if we put it in DR400 400%, that little green spike I'm guessing is the green leaves of the tree. And those green leaves are not being blown out. We're seeing more detail in them. And as well as in the clouds and if you look at the blue of the sky as well less of that sky is blown out. And so, the downside is that we have to shoot at ISO in order to get this and of course we're only in JPEGs. I wanted to look at it in another situation here and notice where that histogram goes up to the right hand side and how close it is with the different settings between 100, 200, and 400%. And so if you are shooting JPEGs and you are trying to make sure that you do not overexpose the highlights, this is a good way of making sure that those highlights are not going to be blown out. You have to shoot JPEG, you will have to shoot at ISO if you want to get up to the DR400. In your case, you're wondering what a raw image looks like it's going to be closer to the JPEG. There's a good chance that you're going to be able to rescue that data from a raw image. But if you're trying to shoot with a JPEG and protect the highlights, that's when you would be using this particular feature. And so, it's a good feature and some people are going to find use of it. Some people are not going to use it because they're shooting raw, or they're not concerned about the highlights in that manner. Next up is the white balance which is the color that we are shooting. Now this is all based off of a Kelvin temperature, that ranges from red to blue. We have daylight and a shade setting which are a little bit different because we have a big blue reflector up there. We have a number of different artificial light sources. The biggest, the most different one is the incandescent or Tungsten setting. And this is for the orange lights that many of us happen to have in our homes. They don't seem orange, but they do to the camera because they are that color in reality. Our eyes correct for it. There's a number of different fluorescent settings depending on how warm or cool the fluorescent settings are there is even an underwater setting. We also have a Kelvin setting where you can set a particular number. There is a custom setting, actually three custom settings, where if you are in an unusual light source you can calibrate the camera to that situation. And then finally, there is auto-white balance. And in an auto-white balance, the camera looks at the image, it's looking at the highlight information to see what color that is and it corrects for that color. And I have found that auto-white balance does a good job most of the time. And so if you're a raw shooter, you could leave it in auto-white balance all the time because if you're shooting raw you can correct for white-balance later on. If you're shooting JPEG I would say auto is a good default position to put it, but if you don't like the colors you are getting, to go in and make a change selecting one of the other different options in there. And so you can just go in there and you can turn the dial and select any one of those options. And we'll talk a little bit more about white balance because we're going to see it again in the menu setting where there's some more adjustments that we can make to it.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Fuji X-T2 Recommended Settings

Ratings and Reviews

John Simpson
 

I highly recommend this class! Been shooting Nikon for 40+ years and decided to give my Nikon gear to my daughter and go the smaller and lighter Fuji X-T2 for travel. Excellent camera and this course was outstanding in helping me learn how to use the camera. I have watched a number of Nikon oriented instructional videos. This video by John Greengo is the best organized and informative presentation I have ever watched.

a Creativelive Student
 

Really appreciate John putting these Fast Start Series together. Went through part of the training waiting on my Fujifilm X-T20 to arrive, which did today. That allowed me to dive into the menu settings and get the camera ready to use. I found that we are on Firmware 3.0, so, I have some updates to get installed. The training was great and informative as always. Don't hesitate to look for his Fast Start for your particular camera, and the in-depth training on Photography Fundamentals. It is well worth your time and money to get this training, especially if you are an amateur like myself, but, thanks to John Greengo I am quickly learning to use my camera in Manual Mode, most of the time.

Monroe Nevels
 

We all learn from different methods. I, for one, learn best by watching you while teaching, and being able to work along side you, with my camera in hand, and then follow you. I highly recommend this class if you really want to know how to use your camera. Thank you John for helping me to relive my film days, and integrating into Digital. I now have my Fujo X-T2 programmed and I LOVE IT!

Student Work

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