Hello everyone,

I've got a problem when shooting landscapes. A forest edge for instance : with my camera on auto, speed, or aperture mode, when I take my focus on the trees, I get a right exposed forest with a white sky. On the other end, if I focus on the sky, I get a beautiful blue sky with neat little white clouds, but the forest edge is under-exposed and beautiful autumn colored leaves keep too dark...

How could I do to get both the blue sky and the golden trees ? It must have something to do with light measurement mode, isn't it ?

Thank you,

Sam

a polarizer filter works well for those bright days when the sky is so intense.. you can also bracket your shots.. exposing for both areas & layering them in your editing program

I agree with Cindy on this one....like i dare to do otherwise, lol. A polarizer is really good. But before i bought my filter i used to brack them like Cindy said. Not sure how those gradiant Natural Density filter works but they should also help in conditions like these. #:o)

Ditto to that...or shoot in the morning or at sunset. Good luck!

Instead of a polariser I think you'll benefit more from a gaduated neutral density filter.

Thank you for your answers. I don't understand what you exactly mean by "bracketing". Is it shooting two pictures with different exposures, then superposing them with a software ?

In this case I need a support for my camera (the two pictures have to be composed exactly the same way) and I need also some explanations about how to you Photoshop (or other) in order to complete the job.

I took my pics between four and five AM with a very low sun, in this part of the world, and the matter is how to capture this magical light.

I thought I could under expose my shots, and then add brightness to the lower part with a software, but it's very difficult to select the exact area that has to be modified. Some tips ? Or is it too difficult that way ?

Regards,

Sam

Message edited on: 11/01/2005 13:52

Hi Sam

You won't be able to sort out the problem entirely with camera settings no matter what you use. There is a too bigger gap between the brightness of the sky and the darkness of the forest for the camera to be able to capture both well.

There are many answers, some of which have already been given.

If you have gone there to take a landscape photograph and are prepared to take time and spend some money then filters will probably answer the problem. Not only will you need to buy filter/s, but to use them you will need a sturdy tripod too as exposure times will be longer than usual. I personally use the Square type filters that slide into a holder that fits to the front of the lens.

Another way would be to take 2 exposures, one for the sky one for the forest and blend these together with an image editing program so you get the best bit of both. Again you will need a sturdy tripod so the 2 exposures are framed exactly the same.

If there is some detail in the sky of your image and it just too light to look good then rescue in an image editing program can be done by using an adjustment layer and applying a gradient to it to fade the effect or painting on the layer with black or white.

A purely editing method can also be used by replacing the sky with one from another pic or one you have rendered in PS.

Lots of choices all depending on your personal tastes preferences wishes and desires.

Message edited on: 11/01/2005 13:52

What image editing software do you use ?

Attached Link: http://members.aol.com/kevinoneil/nd.html

Canon 350D with a Canon 16-35mm lens

i would like one of those filters too.. perfect example azy

If you can handhold or not would be dependant upon the prevailing light and how much dof you are after. If you need to use a small aperture and hyper-focal focusing to increase your dof you won't be able to handhold unless the foreground is a long way off.

Oooh, that is indeed a fine example azy. Now why didnt i order one of those when i was at it...sigh...guess im adding that to my x-mas list..me gonna be a good boy. #:O) Great tips Master Richard by the way. When do the classes start again?

The tips stated sofar are the best...in a pinch, if you can set exposure to the sky and shoot the shot...with digital you may bring much of the darker foreground up with some but not disasterous effects on the sky. Seems to me the filters are the best way to go..seeing the posted image which is beautiful.

WOW - cough, choke to the above pic!

@ Onslow : the software I use is Photoshop, perhaps someone knows a link to a tutorial that could save my life ?

@ Azy : you understood the problem, even if my sun is rather backward than in front of me. Could you give me more details about the way you managed darkening this sky (or enlightening this ground ?) I'll try to post an example picture too.

Thanks to all for all your advices. Perhaps the stuff could be gathered in a "white skies" tutorial because I sometime see some on RDS... It could be useful to many of us.

Bye,

Sam

Message edited on: 11/02/2005 04:01

Attached Link: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/ss/adjustmentlayer.htm

Thank Onslow. I didn't knew this site. It seems very interesting. Regards, Sam

Why dont you post the two photos youre talking about? It would be fun to see just how "bad" they really are. And it would be easier to provide you with pointers knowing what they look like. #:O)

Here it is. I realize that the two pictures are not the same, but it doesn't matter much. If I sum up there are two solutions : photoshop and a superposition (with the "laircir" blend mode ?) or a filter. Simply setting the camera is useless ?

Message edited on: 11/02/2005 10:18

"Using with a high-res..." SIGH...of course i meant "WORKING with a high-res".....

Ok, that seems to be the way. So, how did you do ?

At first i took the "sky-photo" and duplicated that, then i played with the overlays. And i chose a multiply with about 85% opacity....used a layermask to hide that multiply on the ground, so that the "muliply" only would affect the sky and the trees....with me so far? Cause i lost myself, lol. Then i just copied the ground from your "ground-shot" and pasted it in there...blending the edges using a layermask again....as you probably can tell...i suck at explaining, LOL. Dont even anyone ask ME to write a tutorial, LOL. #:oP

Sam love to know what camera you have.. early digital camera s didnt have the contrast range of that of the modern, hence the use of polarized filters..which essentailly reduce constrast.. but reducing the level of the sky leaving the darker areas untouched because because a polarising filter is not a neutral density filter.. it only effects the whites.. centre weighted metering would help a camera to not over expose the sky.. and because now the over all exposure is now lower the darker areas of the scene would have to be lifted in post pro...then the added problem..of artificialness. the second of your pictures uploaded to me looks as seen.. to much of a lift can and will make it look artificial. and thats what your trying to avoid at all cost...advise given on filters matt box tripod is a way to go.. but may even be future investment to up grade camera if you own an earier version digital camera.... prosumer cameras dont have the contrast range SLR.s have.. saddly a marketing ploy.. by the manufactures... hope this helps Sam...

I've got a Fuji Finepix S5500 which I bought less tahn one year ago. So this isn't an old camera. I have three light metering modes : average, center and multi. But in the situation we're talking about I can't see any big differences between them. The part where I focus is well exposed and the other is not. If I mean to solve the problem only by postworking. It seems obvious to me that I have to take the second picture as a starting point. Then I encounter two problems : how to do a proper selection as the line between sky and trees is not a straight one (that's my major problem I think) ? Then I can add setting layers (luminosity/Contrast, saturation...) The selection will automatically work as a mask (which I can blur a bit to soften the transitions) Here's the second point : which setting could I apply and where to stop to avoid artificialness ? The link given above by Onslow explains this method, but the selection is pretty simple ! Selection is, I think, the most difficult job when postworking. There are many ways to do it, and I'm a bit lost. This would be a good tutorial theme too ! Regards, Sam