Help on reducing the overexposed portion of this picture

[jaybo25]

I'm trying to better understand how I could have(when I took it) reduced or eliminated the overexposed sunlit portion of this picture without negatively impacting the foreground. Any and all comments and suggestions are appreciated.

Shutter speed was 1/30th second, aperture was F3.34

Thanks,

Jay

[BrianSkibinski]

Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but theoretically I think you would take different exposures and merge them later in PS. I don't know how... but I think that's the idea.

[DomCotton]

Hey Brian,

Yes your right its called exposure bracketing - I am currently trying to learn this. There is another way that you can deal with this is to focus on an area where there is no light and hold the exposure lock button - then you can lighten the darker areas in PS - maybe i got that wrong way round? Expose on the sky? I think you get the hint... maybe a pro (Dustin) can step in here?

Dom

[Hards80]

you can always take 2 exposures.. 1 for the highlights and one for the shadow.. put one over the top of the other as a layer.. then erase the part of the top image that you do not want.. so if you have the layer with shadow detail on top.. then erase the sky to let the detailed sky from the one exposed for the highlights to shine through.. that is probably the easiest way to do it..

if you only have 1 exposure, if you shoot raw, you can convert one for the highlights as best you can and convert one for the shadows as best you can and then do the same thing.. of course this will not work as well as 2 images..

you can even get fancier and do a HDR merge.. which is basically several exposures bracketed around an average value.. most ppl use about 7-8 exposures.. then using the HDR merge feature in PS you blend them all together and then can play with the varying amounts of each image..

-dustin

[msantos]

If you don't want or don't like PS, you can try with a graduated ND filter. With it wou can stop some ligth from the upper middle of the scen, and let full light on the bottom.

[limeyg]

Because of the range , two exposures combined would be the way to go.

I took your image and did some very selective masking etc to see what I could come up with .
Hope you don't mind
Geoff

[SlapNTickleJr]

I feel this would be a good subject to use Merge to HDR. There is a lot of dynamic range that I'm sure was there (can't see it with this pic) that could be captured 100% with Merge to HDR. I think 6-8 exposures merged together would really help capture the feel of the shot.

Merge to HDR rocks, but it's rather tricky to get the shot to look right, especially since most people are used to viewing a photo with a lack of the true dynamic range. Just my two bits.

[jaybo25]

Thanks for all of your comments. I look forward to trying your suggestions. I guess what I'm getting from what you all are saying is that it may not be possible to deal with the overexposure without some post processing of the picture. Am I correct in this?

Thanks again,

Jay

[SlapNTickleJr]

Yuppers! At least that's what I'm saying. This really would be a great attempt with Merge to HDR after looking at it more. I think the subject and time of day could produce a very pleasing picture. Maybe with a different angle or something. I like the low perspective, but looking at the image makes me wonder if there would be a better place to capture the image from maybe a few feet away or so.

Also, with the low perspective, it might look better using a polarizer to reveal thestones in the creek. I know that would change the name of the image, but it might look better.

[slipe]

jaybo25 wrote:

Thanks for all of your comments. I look forward to trying your suggestions. I guess what I'm getting from what you all are saying is that it may not be possible to deal with the overexposure without some post processing of the picture. Am I correct in this?

There is no way to properly expose both in a single shot. If you expose for the bright part you will get a lot of noise when you bring up the rest of the picture. If you expose for the main subject you are going to get blown highlights and they are hard to recover even with post processing.

Your G3 has a relatively small prosumer sensor and the dynamic range isn't good enough to capture both. A DSLR with a little better dynamic range would also have problems. Film would do better, but it would still be a difficult shot with a single frame.

A graduated neutral density filter is only really useful if you have a cutoff like sky/ground. It wouldn't work for that shot.