Hey !!! I'm here ! Incredible ! Thanks for including my picture and thanks to all advisors/commentators who allowed me to progress.

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

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

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

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

@ 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

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

There's no focus lock button, but there's a way to lock focu thought. But I'm still trying to understand it : on the web I got my camera for a very low price... bu with a german operating manual...

I hear nothing but sometimes an arrow appears on one or the other side of the focus "ricule" It gives someting like that :

->> [ ]

or like that :

[ ] <<-

perhaps it means that I went to far this or that way ?

I ever noticed it : the autofocus is quite reliable. As for enlarging a part of the screen I'm afraid that I don't have this feature on my camera (however I'll search the manual closely again) but you spoted the problem : this LCD screen is too small !

I made my tests with a great shutter speed, so I don't think it explains the blur...

The problem is that the pictures seems sharp on the camera screen, but keeps a little blurry when seen on computer screen.

The true question would be : how to be sure that my focus is good (as this small screen seems to be of poor help) ?

Sam

Message edited on: 07/19/2005 16:10

I was trying to shoot a flower. Auto focus works well on my camera, but I wanted to try manual setting. It's indeed very slow, fortunately flowers don't run very fast :-) What do you mean by "the screen maybe off" ? English is not my mother tongue... Bye, Sam

With computers, storage of digital datas is nowadays cheap, fast and easy. So I would say that the best storage is... many storage ! Hard-drive storage + network storage + CD or DVD storage (several copies, why not ?) ... It's very unlikely that all these support would be destructed at the same time (except in case of atomic bombing, but...) For DVDs I use TDK, or Sony, or Verbatim. It depends of the price. Anyway they all come from the same factories somewhere in Asia... Hope I helped a "byte" Sam