Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hello all,

I'm very new to photography and at this point I'm still learning things especially in shooting. So, if you don't mind please feel free to give me any advice on things.

I hope this question is on the right category

First, I have encountered situations where there is a contrast in lighting. Take example of this photo:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/41255242@N04/4861642797/" title="Untitled by ndutzie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4074/4861642797_446289610f.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt=""></a>

The situation was that the water area is a lot darker than the light, which actually was a pretty bright blue. I have never successfully tackled this situation since if I want to get the bright blue the water and cliff area will get too dark. On the other hand if I want to get the cliff, then the sky will get white (like above).
So in your opinion, what would be the best solution and setting to use so that the result is balance yet good in colour balance?

I also like aerial photos, but I find that the photo I took wasn't really sharp and crispy (in colour). What kind of settings do you recommend me to use to produce a good sharp and crisp photos?

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/41255242@N04/4861644607/" title="Untitled by ndutzie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4139/4861644607_7e69c2b22a.jpg" width="500" height="257" alt=""></a>

You can see that the blue sky is blown to white, and yet the green is not that green. I'm very curious as to what kind of settings you usually use for this kind of situation to produce a sharp crisp photos.

I admit that I'm only using Nikon D3000, which may not be an adequate camera, but I'm hoping that I can produce better shots with this camera.

Thanks for all the input

Graduated Neutral Density Filter.

There's also HDR... meh.

What might help you is a polarizer filter. It cuts down reflections on surfaces, so you get more saturated colour. As for the exposure, you have two approaches:

1. Meter sky, take note of the exposure settings, meter shadows, take note of exposure, meter something in-between, do the same, then see where the main focus needs to be (what are you trying to say with your photo) and adjust exposure for that. Also use Graduated ND filters.

2. HDR or exposure fusion. You take several shots from the same point with different exposures and combine them into 1 shot in post

Either way, if you're very serious about photography, you might consider working on photos after you have taken them. i.e. learn post-processing. Shoot Raw, see my first method and then in post do some adjustments.

I prefer #2 as I don't have graduated ND and I simply like processing more than taking a photo

Usually.. right white balance and exposure will get you right colour...

For the sky issue.. hdr...filters... as PotatoEYE said...

don't underestimate the power of your camera. you will still run into this even with a D3!

as already suggested, shooting raw really helps as it retains a lot more information that will let you recover the sky or the mountains.

i saw a post on nikoncafe a while ago where someone had the exact same issue. The suggestion was to fill the white area with a cyan colour that emulates the sky. it actually worked out really well (no clouds though) i'll try to find it.

had the most trouble with this photo with the exact issue. tried bracketing a couple shots to merge but it looked too fake. gotta practice this a bit more. eventually i settled with playing with 1 raw image.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/delsorbo/4689548377/" title="NL1_0052 by Delsorbo, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4689548377_fcfe876325.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="NL1_0052"></a>


actually i've run into this sorta problem with most of these shots and raw really saved them
http://www.flickr.com/photos/delsorbo/s ... 689548377/

Regarding the blowouts: This is known as dynamic range limitations. All cameras/films have this limitation - your eyes too. If you google digital dynamic range you'll find tons of articles on it.

The basics are: your camera is only capable of capturing 5-10 stops of differentiating light. That means anything on the left or right of this range will be pitch black (no data) or blown white (no data).

You need to a) expose somewhere in the middle to catch the stops you want or b) composite multiple exposures (layering, hdr, whatever).

About the colors: White balance will go a long way to get them right. You can set a custom white balance for each scene by using a white piece of paper in the scene light. You'll also want to play with the color/saturation knobs in your post process tool, you'll be able to bring out a lot of what you desire.

One of the strengths of digitals is at low iso there is low noise in the darks while one of the weaknesses is that highlights clip if they are too bright (each of the RBG channels clip separately so this is not only for whites). There are routines like in lightroom that try to recover clipped highlights but in general they do less then a good job.

So the best way to handle highlights is to expose so they don't clip (use you camera histogram). Using graduated filters and polarizers help make it easier.

So now you have good highlights but the subject is too dark. Here's where your low noise and shooting in RAW come to the rescue. Learn to dodge and burn your image to bring light onto your subject and some contrast to the skies. The brush tools in Lightroom allow you to do a relatively good job or work with layers. An alternative easier but with less control is to use some tone mapping tools borrowed from HDR.

Now if after this your subject has too much noise you have to make some more compromises.

Here's a quick example of how I shoot high contrast situations without doing HDR or multiple exposures:

<img src="http://www.ljplus.ru/img4/m/o/moontemple/_Untitled-1.jpg" alt='210.35 &#1050;&#1041;'>

Image on left is straight out of camera raw, no processing except export
Image on right is the result of adding two gradient overlays + exposure tweaks + colour boost - all in Lightroom

To obtain the starting point I shoot with polarizer, expose so that nothing clips in histogram, barely touching the right side, I don't care so much about shadows here. Then bring the shadows in in Lightroom. This would have been much easier to do with a graduated neutral density filter as purists will do, I don't see myself as a photographer, so I don't care about this purist bullcrap, I do whatever it takes to get the result I am after

Thank you all for some comments. It really gives me more insight. A couple more questions about this:

@PotatoEYE:
If we want to have several images with different exposure so we can do a layering, is there any other way of doing this without bracketing? My camera unfortunately does not have bracketing capability (and I'm talking about taking a completely same object from same angle and distance at the same position in different exposures)
Also, Am I right to assume that if we shoot in RAW, we don't need to have several shots with different exposures?

@vincedotca:
Thanks about the white balance, do you have an article in mind where to find the right tutorial about setting a white balance on the spot (using a paper as you mentioned)?

Thanks all

Even if you shoot Raw, doing several exposures improves the look of the final result. If you don't have bracketing use your M mode (manual) to set aperture, shutter speed, iso. Use the built-in meter (little needle with numbers) and shoot 3 or more exposures with different values. The more you do the better it looks, 3 is usually enough though. Try it on a tripod first

I always try to use M. Still learning.
You mean 3 more exposure on the F-stop correct?
Also, 3 from darker to lighter?

This is a serious cry for help!

A lot of good suggestions above. Using a tripod and bracketing will give you lots of room to play with.

If you have a tripod. Take one shot with a properly exposed image ... And 1 shot with an underexposed image (raise shutter speed) and one over exposed image (lower shutterspeed)

Thank you!

Look at it as enjoying the darkroom developing process more than taking photos themselves

This is the best I can find, it's a d90 video but it should generally apply to the d3000 as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MQTO9tiXb0