People asked me about my switch to Sony. Was it worth it? Is the dynamic range really that much better than Canon's? As a landscape photographer (primarily) dynamic range is very important to me. For this blog I am going to use an image shot in very harsh light. The image is not a good image but I shot it specifically to test and play with the raw file just to see what can be done. First up, have a look at the final image:

Mac Mac Falls, Mpumalanga, South Africa This image is a nightmare to photographers. The waterfall is in direct harsh sunlight while the cliff on the right is in deep shadow. Bright white water in direct harsh sunlight coupled with much darker cliffs in very dark shadow is just about impossible to shoot without blowing either highlights or shadows or both. With the Sony A7R II you can expose for the highlights and almost forget about the darks.

          In post processing I simply drag the shadow slider to the right and set the black point correctly. In this case I also moved the highlights slider to the left allowing me room to move the exposure to the right. With only these four sliders the entire image is transformed. Look at the original raw file below; you may not even believe what you see!

This sensor is simply amazing. It allows the photographer to get images that I would have never attempted using the Canon system. The processed image is from this raw file: no HDR, no double processing (processing the same raw file twice - once for the highlights and once for the shadows). I am very excited about my new system and glad I switched to Sony.

          Many people will say that I should not be shooting in this kind of light; I agree. If you want to know what I need this kind of dynamic range for come back and read next week's blog ...