shadows slider behavior changes at different focal lengths

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
July 16, 2023
2 replies
392 views

I'm using the new Canon 100-300mm f/2.8, but this issue also happened with the Sigma 120-300mm. I should try it with my other zoom lenses, but haven't yet. I just realized tonight that the issue was Lightroom's fault, and not the camera or lighting.

If I take two otherwise identical shots, one at a wider zoom setting, and one zoomed in, adjustments to the Shadows slider on the zoomed-in shot are very subtle, while the exact same adjustment to the wider shot results in a dramatically brighter image!

Here's a before and after. The first one is with no adjustments, the second one is with the Shadows slider pushed up - the exact same amount on both. The left side is a 209mm shot, while the right side is 100mm.

This is a HUGE annoyance! For one thing, I can't get enough Shadow boost on the zoomed in shots, and for another thing, if I apply presets with Shadow boost, the resulting exposures will be way different!

I tried it in Photoshop with Camera Raw and got the same result!

macOS

This topic has been closed for replies.

Rikk Flohr_Photography

"Nobody else experiences, or is concerned by this?"

I've seen no reports similar to this in the forums, so, yes, it is possible that no one else has the issue. In cases like this, providing a DNG export of both files with edit settings intact so that the community experts can review and attempt to duplicate what you are seeing is a great first step.

It is entirely possible that you have a local machine issue causing this as well but without additional information, that cannot be confirmed.

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

J

jjjdfkdiiiejsjnxniieAuthor

Inspiring

Here are a couple of DNG's with the same lighting, same apertture, shutter speed, etc. I cropped the wide shot to match, but one is at 100mm as the other is at 209mm. The Shadows and Blacks sliders are both way more drastic on the 100mm shot.

J

jjjdfkdiiiejsjnxniieAuthor

Inspiring

The forum said the content type didn't match on the attached photos, so here's a link: https://www.carlyonphoto.com/tempAdobe/

J

jjjdfkdiiiejsjnxniieAuthor

Inspiring

Nobody else experiences, or is concerned by this? Right now I'm trying out Capture One, and the difference is extreme! Here's another example. These two photos have the exact same edits applied (same exposure, shadows, everything except the crop). In Lightroom the left photo appears dramatically underexposed compared to the right photo.

And here are the same two photos with identical edits in Capture One:

(As a side-note, Capture One is able to do a much better job recovering that overexposed white roof in the background - the roof was lit by the sun while the subject was lit by flash. I'd like to see Lightroom do better in this regard as well)

This is such a big problem that I'm strongly considering switching, even though I have over 2 million photos in my LR catalog, and C1's interface seems much clunkier to me, and they don't have LR's fantastic new auto object/subject/sky masking, which is a huge benefit to my workflow.

But C1's images just come out looking so much more consistent, that I can't ignore that any more.

Is there some setting I'm overlooking that's causing such wild variations in edit-behavior from one image to the next? Shots at the same focal length and location seem to be consistant, but when I zoom in or out, everything goes out of whack! (And I'm not using variable-aperture zooms!)