John
One of the interesting observations about digital vs. film is in your question.
With film, you were always careful not to underexpose -- if you have too much black in the image, the corresponding negative is clear -- no usable information to "bring out". As JT pointed out, with the right combination of filters and exposure time, I could do LOTS of stuff IF the information is in there.
With digital, the OPPOSITE is true. You want to be careful when you overexpose. Overexposure leads to all zero's in an area of an image -- no information at all to work with. If it's underexposed I can use the curve or level tools in Photoshop to bring out some of the information.
And related to this the late film has a longer curve. In other words, film has more gradations between high and low. You can "blow out" an image in digital more easily, and you also have nothing to recover in that area of the frame.
Rule of thumb in digital -- meter the hot spots so that you make an informed decision about the exposure.
Regards
Bob
