 Frank Goodin |
Exposure Challenge: Dark Subject, Bright Sky I recently had the chance to take some shots of a locomotive engine sitting on the tracks with a beautiful sunrise as a backdrop. While trying to keep the beautiful color saturation of the sunrise itself, I lost all definition on the train. When I opened up to get more detail on the train, I lost the colors on the sunrise. Any advice on doing this exposure for the next time would be greatly appreciated ... thanks.
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Jon Close |
Your recording medium (digital sensor/film) is not able to capture the full dynamic range of this scene. Reflectors or fill flash can normally be used to put more light on the backlit subject, but a locomotive is too large for this to be effective (unless you've got many large reflectors or strobes). Another alternative is a split/graduated neutral density filter to lessen the difference between the sky/background and subject/foreground exposures. Lastly, I haven't done this myself, but I've read that it's possible: With digital you can merge two images, one exposed for the sky and another exposed for the foreground subject.
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Frank Goodin |
Thanks, Jon, for that advice. I was using a Nikon D70 for this paticular shot and it did everything it was supposed to do except, as I said, I lost the details on the train. I'll give the neutral density filter a try next time. I don't know how to merge the two pictures, I'll have to learn that one.
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BetterPhoto Member |
Take a picture of the sky and then of the train. Then stitch them together and crop a little
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daryllucarelli.com - Daryl R. Lucarelli Contact Daryl R. Lucarelli Daryl R. Lucarelli's Gallery |
I would do like Jon suggested too, since you have a digital camera. Put your camera on a tripod, expose one image for background lighting (do not move camera, use trigger to snap), then take a second image exposed for the train lighting - again, without having moved tripod. Then put in Photoshop. Duplicate a layer in the open layer palette -one layer for the train, one layer for the sky. Since they will match up well, you just fill one black then paint with white (remember: black hides, white reveals) and you have a good shot. When painting, use a soft-edge brush and use one of the selection tools to select either the entire sky or the entire train, invert and you got it. Hopes this makes some sense ... daryl
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Jon Close |
Here's a tutorial I found about merging 2 or more images taken with different exposures: http://194.100.88.243/petteri/pont/Photography_lessons/ppf_Lesson_5/a_Layers_and_Masks.html
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