Need Help on Sky and Tree Exposure Problem

Katmitchell

:helpPlease help me.. I am new to photography and am working at going pro.. There is so much to learn.. Digital Grin has been a lifesaver.. I hope that I have posted this in the correct forum, if not please tell me.

I need help in what I am doing wrong here. No matter how hard I try, my outdoor images have (2) issues.. The sky is always blown out, and if you notice in this photo, the tips of my trees are having the same problem, they get blown out white.. How do I expose for the subject and the sky..?

I do appreciate your help..

Thanks
Kat









here is the shot info..

F/5.6
ISO 200
No Flash
Manual White Balance
Aperture Priority Mode

jfriend

You've got the equivalent of a backlit subject. Dark foreground, bright background.

Expose for the sky and treetops and your foreground will be too dark.

Expose for the foreground (which you've done) and the background will be too light.

There is no magic dial on your camera that can solve this. Here are some things you can do:

• Photograph this scene when the lighting is more to your favor (either when the sky is darker or ideally when there is more light on your foreground). Photography is all about lighting. The great photographers make their best images with great lighting and this scene will look best when you photograph it in lighting that is much more favorable to what you are trying to show. More light on the foreground allows you to reduce the overall exposure which pulls the sky into a range that makes it look better.
• Use a gradient ND filter at a slight angle to knock some light down from the sky. Unfortunately, this will probably not work real well because of the tree on the right which protrudes into the sky will probably look too dark.
• Take two exposures and combine them in post processing. From a tripod and varying only the shutter speed (keep aperture constant for the same DOF in each shot), take one shot exposed for the sky. Take another shot exposed for the foreground. Digitally combine them to get the best of both shots into one image.
• Add some artificial illumination to the foreground. Probably not practical in this case given it's size and distance, but is a common solution to backlit shots of people.
• If this image was shot in RAW, there may be more you can do just this single image either using a gradient in the RAW developer or by developing two different exposures from the RAW and combining them in Photoshop.

pardes

jfriend wrote:

• If this image was shot in RAW, there may be more you can do just this single image either using a gradient in the RAW developer or by developing two different exposures from the RAW and combining them in Photoshop.

Wow, I never even thought about combining two differently processed RAW files. What a concept!

pathfinder

pardes wrote:

[/LIST]Wow, I never even thought about combining two differently processed RAW files. What a concept!

The introduction of Smart Objects made it very easy to process a single RAW file twice, once for shadows, and once for highlights, and then blend them in Photoshop.

Smart Objects have probably hurt the sale of graduated ND filters, they are so effective. Shooting HDR images, where 3 to 5 separate exposures are combined in HDR software to create a full tone image of the scene, and then render that as an 8 bit image that can be displayed on a monitor or paper (neither of which can really display the full tones on an HDR image) have also probably hurt graduated ND sales. But Grads can still be handy to have a few of.

Katmitchell

Thank You Jfriend
Awesome.. thanks.. bowyou have explained it so well.. SO many options...

I am not familiar with the smart objects and I am just learning on the DG about HDR and stacking several different photos. I can tell that it is going to be time well spent on learning these techniques..

before I posted here I only knew of a filter.. so it is nice to see all of these additional options.. I did shoot in Raw and at different exposures too, I just had no idea on how to use the smart object techniques. I need to go find some step by step tutorials on this. I could not employ a tripod here because it was private property and I had to shot from a hill off the side of the road and I am dealing with a normal kit lens right now, no telephoto..

all this time when I first got started, I assumed that landscapes and photos like the one above would be the easiest to learn and to my surprise, I am finding they are the most difficult due to the skyline and the sun.. I failed horribly at a sun set the other day for the same reasons.. Tennessee sunsets are right down gorgeous and fill the entire sky with orange and reds, but hard to shoot for the same reasons.. I always end up with the silhouette effect on the landscape..

so thank you for your help.. much appreciated and I am off now to study up on the stacking techniques, I am hearing and seeing more and more about them on DG.

Kat

pathfinder

Here is a dgrin tutorial on blending two RAW exposures, but they can actually be two different renderings from a single RAW file.

A description using Smart Objects to blend two different renderings of a RAW file is in Scott Kelby's "7 Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3" beginning on page 54.

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1856992

Katmitchell

Thanks Pathfinder
will go and check it out... thank you.. I was lost on this one.. better to go here on referral than to end up confused on the net...!

Kat

pathfinder

I tried to find a direct video tute on using Smart Objects to blend two different renderings of a single RAW image, but could not find what I wanted quickly. I am sure they are out there, maybe someone else has the right link.

There are other tutes for blending separate exposures for sky and forground

Here is one for scans from film, but the basics never change

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/blended_exposures.shtml

Here is one for digital images by the same gentleman

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml

Ultimately it comes down to layers and masks, and selections, which are truly the secret to the power of Photoshop.

I wrote about swapping backgrounds and masks here - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=116223

The technique is essentially the same for skies, but you don;t need such precise selections for many skies. You can use Quick Mask which I wrote about here - http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=1089466&postcount=16

Here is another drin tute about painting a mask - http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/2302389

Katmitchell

Yippie
thanks again.. wow, super resources here.. I have CS3 and I really need to learn how to truly use it..



thanks a million pathfinder

Kat

pardes

pathfinder wrote:

The introduction of Smart Objects made it very easy to process a single RAW file twice, once for shadows, and once for highlights, and then blend them in Photoshop.

Smart Objects have probably hurt the sale of graduated ND filters, they are so effective. Shooting HDR images, where 3 to 5 separate exposures are combined in HDR software to create a full tone image of the scene, and then render that as an 8 bit image that can be displayed on a monitor or paper (neither of which can really display the full tones on an HDR image) have also probably hurt graduated ND sales. But Grads can still be handy to have a few of.

Sadly, I discovered that Photoshop Elements 7 doesn't have Smart Objects. Sigh. :cry

jfriend

pardes wrote:

Sadly, I discovered that Photoshop Elements 7 doesn't have Smart Objects. Sigh. :cry

No problem. People were doing this long before Smart Objects came along. Here's how I did it in earlier versions of Elements:

1. Create your darker exposure. Save to sRGB TIFF.
2. Create your lighter exposure. Save to sRGB TIFF.
3. Open the first TIFF in elements.
4. Create a levels adjustment layer on top of it (you will use this adjustment layer as your mask)
5. Open the second TIFF in elements.
6. Select all and copy to the clipboard
7. Paste as the top-most layer in Elements
8. Group the top layer with the adjustment layer (see this blog post for another description of how to use layer masks in Elements 7)
9. Now, you can use various masking techniques to decide how much of the lighter TIFF you want to block so that the darker image below can show through.