Canon PowerShot G16 review – Dynamic range
Image: Taking a raw file into a Adobe Lightroom allowed me to bring back more detail in the highlight areas
As mentioned in Metering, the camera often loses highlights in high-contrast scenes. This is largely due to the G16’s small 1/1.7in sensor. When compared to other sensors of the same size, the dynamic range is good, but there is only so far a sensor of this size can go.
By shooting images in raw format and underexposing the image by 1EV, I was able to retain far more detail in highlight areas but this was at the expense of some shadow detail. Thankfully, much of the information remained in the shadow areas so I was able to brighten these in Adobe Lightroom/Camera Raw. However, this did inevitably introduce some luminance noise, especially at higher ISO sensitivities, which resulted in less detail in the shadow areas.
The HDR scene mode can be used to extend the dynamic range in-camera. Also, Canon has a ‘shadow-correct’ option in the function menu that can be used to lighten areas of dense shadow in-camera.
