Exposure issues in Muir Woods

pmaxwell · May 1, 2011

I spent the day with my family in Muir Woods. I got to spend some time taking pictures along our hike.

I had a lot of problems getting the the exposure correct. There trees are dark and the canopy blocks a lot of light, but bright rays come through. I end up with either trees that are correctly exposed, but rays of light that are washed out or rays of light that are good, but really dark trees.

Any thoughts or suggestion on how to handle this environment?

I'll upload some pics when I get to good WiFi.

Thanks,
Pete

Nikolai · May 1, 2011

pmaxwell wrote: »

I spent the day with my family in Muir Woods. I got to spend some time taking pictures along our hike.

I had a lot of problems getting the the exposure correct. There trees are dark and the canopy blocks a lot of light, but bright rays come through. I end up with either trees that are correctly exposed, but rays of light that are washed out or rays of light that are good, but really dark trees.

Any thoughts or suggestion on how to handle this environment?

I'll upload some pics when I get to good WiFi.

Thanks,
Pete

It's a tough case. Shoot RAW. User a tripod and bracket. Be ready to spent some time in PS afterwards. There is no silver bullet.

Art Scott · May 1, 2011

as Nikolai said....and shoot and make hdr's.....

pathfinder · May 1, 2011

Shooting in deep woods on sunny days, one is going to be confronted with very deep shadow and very bright spots of sunlit areas. This light range is usually beyond the contrast range ability of the sensor.
Like Nikolai and Art said, there is no free lunch here. One cannot use neutral density filters, like are used along a bright horizon and sky, because the separation of light an dark areas have no smooth boundaries.

Shooting HDR, or multi- frame exposures and blending in Photoshop are alternatives to single well managed exposures.

I find HDR very helpful in these situations.

pmaxwell · May 2, 2011

Thanks everyone.

I did shoot in raw, and on a tripod, but didn't bracket exposure too often. I guess I to learn photoshop a bit better.

DeVerm · May 2, 2011

pmaxwell wrote: »

Thanks everyone.

I did shoot in raw, and on a tripod, but didn't bracket exposure too often. I guess I to learn photoshop a bit better.

Download a trial of Photomatix Pro and drag&drop a raw capture onto it's icon. This allows you to work with the single capture and is much easier to get results than with Photoshop. The photo below was shot bracketed but also into the sun so normally a silhouette.

ciao!
Nick.

LiquidAir · May 4, 2011

Muir woods is a difficult place to shoot; I have gone there several times and often come home with nothing of value.

You need to avoid any direct sun. The best time to shoot in the morning. HDR helps but even the slightest breeze will mean your exposures won't blend nicely. The breeze usually kicks up in the afternoon but if you are lucky the early morning can be pretty still.

pathfinder · May 4, 2011

Shoot on an over cast day, or even better, on foggy days.

Nothing like fog to caress an image. Or rain.

Nikolai · May 4, 2011

pathfinder wrote: »

Shoot on an over cast day, or even better, on foggy days.

Nothing like fog to caress an image. Or rain.

+1 totally; Besides, over there a fog is more like a rule than an exception, which makes it rather easy ;-)

Exposure issues in Muir Woods

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