Original poster: "Daniel McCauley" <dhmccauley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Terry,
If you are looking for the "dim" stuff, you do really need to go with RAW
conversion and then convert to 16-bit LINEAR TIFF files. They must be
LINEAR however. In the digital camera, JPG images are automatically
"stretched" by the processor to map the data into something the eye would
see. This stretching curve looks somewhat like the BH curve of magnetic
materials if you were to actually look at it. The same goes when you
convert the RAW to 16-bit NON-LINEAR TIFFs. The software does an automatic
stretch. Problem is that when you let the software do the stretch, it
basically throws out the "real dim" information since in most images this
stuff is irrevelant. However, for what you are doing, this information in
the dark is what is important.
Dan