[Photography] Auto Tone or Not? (contains spiders)

As of Thursday I have been the proud owner of a Panasonic Lumix LX5 which is the latest in a long line of cameras I have owned. I’ve not used it very much but so far I am very impressed with aperture priority mode and it’s ability in low light. The latter is the reason I have always been disappointed with compacts and bridge cameras, and my de quervain’s tenosynovitis has put a stop to my use of a DSLR, as I found out earlier in the week when I received a Sony A200 in amazing condition only to find my hand and wrist hurting after just minimal use. So, after much research and question asking over at AVForums I decided that the LX5 was for me. I am sacrificing a great deal of zoom compared to previous cameras but I rarely used the high end of the zoom and the photos produced are of little use offline. One of my goals for 2011 is to take a photography that is good enough to frame and out on the wall, and my LX5 will be my tool of choice to achieve that goal.

This morning I had a play with macro mode, which considering the windy conditions outside, had to be contained to an indoor pursuit. I found a spindly spider in the downstairs toilet but he was right in the corner of the window frame so light wasn’t great and the flash just turned the photo into a white explosion. It was also in an awkward place for me to get too, but exscuses over, let’s get on to the reason for this post. I opened the photo in Photoshop (JPEG mode as it won’t open the LX5′s RAW file, I’ll have to see what I need to do enable that) and applied Auto Tone. My dilemma is deciding what one is better; the photo with the Auto Tone applied or the one left alone. Without further ado, here they are (click for bigger versions):

Spider with no Auto Tone

Spider with Auto Tone applied

The Auto Toned photo does seem to be more like the original colours. It’s almost as if straight out of the camera the shot is sepia, which is an effect I could have chosen, but didn’t. I may be imagining it, but I’m sure that by applying Auto Tone it’s increased the noise. I’m thinking this makes the case for me to need to shoot in RAW and then make the necessary adjustments at the post processing stage.

Auto Tone aside I’m pleased with the results, given the conditions and lighting. I’m chomping at the bit to take it outside in good light and with some interesting subjects to photograph.

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