Over Cast/Lens Flair Questions

DigiEyE

Below I have posted two shots that I can't seem to change much in CS2.

I took these at a recent trip to the Botanical Gardens in NYC; there was an overcast that day with sunlight breaking thru periodically.

This one has a lens flair, I know having a hood would have eliminated this but at the time I didn't have one, is this salvageable?


This one is something I had trouble with in a few shots. I tried my best to meter the whole scene and balance the difference but I just can't seem to win when it comes to overcast days like these. Anything I can do here with either CS2 or while I'm actually taking the shot?



I'm guessing the solution to my problems are simple. I appreciate any help guys!

pathfinder

Don't feel bad.

Shooting on overcast days can try the best of us. The light is soft, subdued, without shadows, but if you try to include the sky in the scene, it will be blown and turn white.

The best advice is to try not to include the sky, Shoot smaller details of the scene, shoot macros, crop out the sky, etc. The soft light is great for shooting flowers, portraits, closeups, just nor for large scale scenics.

This is not just your problem - it affects us all, and has been discussed in forums often. The sky can be selected and muiltiply blended to darken it, or you can use the blend if command in the lab color space to darken the blues, but the basic problem is overcast skies are bright, but dull at the same time.

Here is previous answer I made to this question...

A graduated ND is really not much use with tree lines, or city skylines, as they have too much fine detail.

Andy caught me handholding that graduated ND, but I was not shooting at that time, I was moving the filter up and down vertically to get an idea where the gradation line should be when I put the filter in the Cokin holder. That is why screw in graduated NDs are worthless - you cannot choose to raise or lower the area of density change and you NEED to unless you always shoot with the horizon dead centrer and we all know that is not ideal usually.

I used to try to use Color Select to help reclaim skys in Photoshop on overcast days, but its a pain too. and sometimes less than stellar.

I presently create a duplicate layer, and then use Apply Image on the RED channel, to the upper layer and and then blend in a Luminosity Mode - this will help darken skies relative to a foreground subject IF the subject is not Blue. Works well against a water surface background also.

You can also create a duplicate layer with ctrl-J, convert to LAB, Overlay Blend and use the Blending sliders to limit the effect to only the blue half of the B channel in Lab. This works pretty well - you get better selections for tree lines than I ever got with the magic wand or color tool.

A final suggestion is to limit shooting on days with lousy skies to close ups, macros, portraits and studies that take advantage of the soft light of the overcast day, but don't include it in the shot. You don't try to include the soft box in your nice portrait in the studio, and then Photoshop it to make it fit in. You omit it, and just use the light. That is what overcast days are - the world's largest softboxes.

The light in the tropics is so different from the light in the more northern lattitudes. It takes a change of view and practice to utilize. But overcast days can be very fun to shoot, but you have to "think different"
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Pathfinder

Here is a link to a longer discussion of overcast skies - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=28526&highlight=blown+skies

DigiEyE

Thank You for the advice Pathfinder, I tried both of you suggestions.

The first one you kind of lost me on the steps. I followed you up to " I presently create a duplicate layer, and then use Apply Image on the RED channel, to the upper layer" By upper layer I presume you the duplicate one I just made? After that step though I'm not sure where you're finding those options. This is what the pic looks like at that step;


The second one you suggested I tried but had some trouble with it as well.
I am just very new to CS2.

As for the overcast challenge, I understand what you mean. I will try to take more pics now with this knowledge in mind instead of getting frustrated by it.

pathfinder

DigiEye,
When I read the pixels in your skies in both images, unfortunately I find 255,255,255.

This means that your skies were completely blown out at the time of shooting and there is no data there to manipulate. No cloud detail, no blue sky, just competely no data - the sky was overexposed. The histogram was too far to the right for the highlights. The Photoshop moves I suggested do require some data in at least the blue channel to work.

Your profile says you are shooting with a Canon EOS 350. This camera will let you shoot in RAW, which will help in these circumstances, and will let you see if the highlights are blown at the time of shooting by looking at the histogram, then you could alter the exposure.

After the fact with the jpgs you posted, it is very hard to really make these look great. If you have the RAW files, there may still be hope, if all three channels are not completely blown.

pathfinder

In the second image, where the highly colored statue is highlighted against the sky, I would probably ignore the sky and let it blow completely to white, and concentrate on capturing the colors in the statue.

We do this frequently when shooting BIFs ( birds in flight) where they are silouhetted against a brighter sky and we are shooting the shaded side of the bird. You either underexpose the bird, or blow the sky, and we frequently choose to blow the sky. Look at some of Andy's gull shots - the skies are frequently white, but the exposure of the white gulls is dead on correct.