Exercise 2.01 – Sensor linear capture

I chose this tiff image of a group of fungi as it had a fairly average contrast with a reasonable tone range:

The histogram looked like this:    With this adjustment curve applied, the image looked like this - a resemblance of what should be the 'linear' capture:

The histogram then looked like this: The greatest amount of data is concentrated in the darker area as expected. The area available for the lighter tones is far greater than that for the concentrated dark areas.
Applying this curves adjustment:   to the dark ‘linear’ image produced this image:

This image is fairly close to the original ‘normal’ capture. On close examination there is an increase in noise in the dark areas.
As the noise is present mainly in the dark areas it seems logical that to get the best image, the exposure should be taken for the lightest areas. That way the lighter areas will have more information and concentrate a higher percentage of the memory away from the area where noise is likely to occur – more data to the right hand side of the histogram.