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What's the difference between Fujifilm's Dynamic Range and Dynamic Range Priority settings? They both have similar names, and it might get a little confusing. They're not the same, but they're both ways in which you can alter how your JPEGs are processed in the camera. One reason why so many people get into the Fujifilm system in the first place. And you can learn all about, uh, how to do that in the Perfect Fujifilm In-Camera JPEGs course, linked in the description here.
But right here, we're going to talk about the difference between Dynamic Range and Dynamic Range Priority. Starting with Dynamic Range. Uh, you need to have an idea of what Dynamic Range does before understanding Dynamic Range Priority. Simply put, the Dynamic Range setting underexposes your highlights, your bright areas, so that you can better expose for the shadows, the darker areas, without blowing out those highlights, making them too bright and washed out. You can see in this scene that if I expose for the trees so they're not just dark shadows, you can see the limbs and everything, the sky is completely blown out.
Setting the maximum Dynamic Range setting brings back the color in the sky and the details in the clouds with a fairly decently natural look. This setting has its limitations. It, of course, does not give you the control or the range of processing a RAW file on the computer, but it is a quick way to do it in your camera for your JPEGs to reduce the contrast in those pictures. The settings here: DR100 is off, so there's no correction at all. I don't know why they just don't call it off, but that's DR100. Then you have DR200 and DR400, 400 being the strongest setting.
Here's that last photo that we just looked at, comparing all three of these settings: off, 200, and 400. DR Auto will let the camera choose between 100 (off) and 200. In order to use DR200, you need to have a minimum ISO one stop higher than your camera's base or native ISO. For example, if your base ISO in your camera is 160, you need a minimum ISO of 320 to use DR200. Then you need to double that again to use DR400, so you'd need a minimum ISO of 640 to use that setting. And if you're using Auto ISO, the camera will adjust that automatically. And I did a video all about how Auto ISO works with the Dynamic Range setting that you can watch later if you wish. So that's the quick and dirty on the Dynamic Range setting.
Dynamic Range Priority, you can think of as a package setting that includes Dynamic Range and adds camera control of the tone curve settings, highlight and shadow tone. So Dynamic Range is one setting that does one thing. Highlight and Shadow Tone is another setting that does another thing. Dynamic Range Priority doesn't really do anything much different, it just combines the functions of Dynamic Range and Highlight Shadow Tone to further reduce that contrast, but in ways that you can't by adjusting them separately. What it does with both the Dynamic Range and the Highlight Shadow Tones, that all happens behind the scenes. You don't have control over those settings when using DR Priority, and you don't really know what the camera is doing either. Notice in the menus when DR Priority is enabled, Dynamic Range and the Tone Curve settings are disabled, they're inaccessible, saying DRP, letting you know that Dynamic Range Priority is in control.
There are four DR Priority settings: Off is obviously off, the setting is disabled. Then you have Weak, Strong, and Auto. Weak is moderate compensation to further reduce the contrast that requires the same minimum ISO as DR200. Strong is extra compensation to reduce that contrast, requiring the same ISO as DR400. And if you set this to Auto, the camera is going to choose between Off, Weak, or Strong based on the overall contrast of the scene. We can compare this same scene again, this time looking at Dynamic Range Priority settings of Off, Weak, and Strong, and look how flat Strong is. You might like it or just completely hate that look.
The big takeaway for understanding the differences between Dynamic Range Priority and Dynamic Range, uh, is that package concept. Okay, Dynamic Range Priority includes Dynamic Range. The regular Dynamic Range setting just sometimes isn't enough for really high contrast scenes. Dynamic Range Priority can further increase dynamic range by outputting a much flatter image. Think of Dynamic Range Priority as like a boosted Dynamic Range setting.
So when should you use Dynamic Range Priority, U, and or Dynamic Range? First off, as mentioned in the beginning, these settings are good for JPEG photographers to be familiar with. But beyond that, it's all a matter of personal taste, and that's unfortunately the best I can recommend. Do you like contrast? Then you probably don't want to use Dynamic Range Priority at all because it can make those photos look really flat, depending on the scene and the setting. But you still might want to use just plain Dynamic Range. However, if you like flat, low contrast photos, if that's your style, and there's nothing wrong with that, DR Priority may be something that you prefer over just plain Dynamic Range. You just have to experiment with it yourself, see how it looks with the things that you photograph and the style that your pictures are in. Um, and with the film simulations that you use. Film simulations also affect how these settings behave. Film simulations are like your starting point, your base layer on which all of these other different layers of settings are added. We see here the differences between Velvia and Reala Ace with these different combinations of settings.
Personally, I don't use DR Priority. I just like to have a little more refined control, control over the highlight and shadow tone curves. That's just me. So in the Q menu, I can quickly change my Dynamic Range setting and then go to each individual tone curve and adjust those myself based on the scene, rather than giving complete control over to the camera. So here's again a comparison with DR Priority and then me manually controlling both DR and tone curve myself. But I mean, like I said, that's just me. It is an extra step that you may not want to do. So if you instead want to use DR Priority, you can see how to combine all of these settings and all of the other image quality settings to get those excellent in-camera JPEGs in that Perfect Fujifilm In-Camera JPEGs course that's at photocourses.ljeg. You can get 20% off with the code TUBE2. Let me know in the comments if you have any further questions about these settings. Subscribe for more great tips like this every week, and we'll see you in the next video.