brian night Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 Hi, I am not sure where I make the mistake and I hope there is someone who can help me in here. I have a Canon 20D with a 17-85 IS lens, and I like to take nature photos. I was in Turkey couple of weeks ago and I visited very beautiful villages on the southwestern part of Turkey. I was taking pictures in a small town called Old Datca and that?s when I had this problem. I was trying to take a picture of the streets of this old town, however the sky in the background looks very bright. I tried to reduce the exposure compensation to capture the blue sky as well, however this time the street looked very dark. In fact anytime I try to take a picture on the shadow in a sunny day, the background is always overexposed. How could I capture both adequately lighted foreground and not overexposed blue sky background at the same time? Thanks a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mendonphoto Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 Not a metering problem. Welcome to the harsh reality of exposure. The best solution that I know of is to wait for better light. Light low on the horizon diffused by haze sometimes works. In good conditions (if important objects don't protrude deeply into the sky) you can use a neutral density graduated filter or composite two different pictures at two different exposure settings. Good luck. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCL Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 If the light was right, a polarizing filter may have reduced the sky. Another solution might be the use of a gradient filter to reduce the range of brightness in the sky. Lastly, this is the type of situation frequently calls for manipulation in PS wherein you create layers, one optimized for the sky, one for the buildings, and erase part of one layer to reduce the overexposed (or underexposed part), then flatten the image. Go to Fred Miranda's site, he has a tutorial with actual photographs illustrating how to correct the situation you describe. I've tried it and it works great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimstrutz Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 Another option that sometimes works, is to shoot in RAW and process the image twice. Once for the bright areas & once for the darker areas. RAW will get you an additional stop or so of exposure latitude. Then combine as layers, and do what Stephan suggested with two images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimstrutz Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 Excuse me, that's "Stephen." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mendonphoto Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 ...I've done the 2-RAW thing lots of times. Sometimes it works great. Sometimes it just doesn't. It's a good stop-gap, but it finally convinced me to get an ND-Grad system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anupam Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 I would recommend a basic book that explains exposure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cghubbell Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 If you really want the shot badly, and were using a tripod, and have Photoshop CS2, you could consider the merge to HDR functionality. It works in some places, and does wierd things in others. The bottom line is that you tried to shoot a scene that had too much range. Next time, meter the brightest spot you want to retain detail in, then the darkest spot you want detail in. If BOTH don't measure within your meter, then you need to wait until the sun gets lower, use fill flash, or otherwise "deal" with the lighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian night Posted October 5, 2005 Author Share Posted October 5, 2005 Thank you for all the answers. I will try them all and to see which works better. Thanks again for taking time to respond. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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