Kmar
Truth is my Bitch
+5,695|6571|132 and Bush

mcminty wrote:

Sorry for taking so long to reply. Got rather hammered last night, went to the beach today and then basically straight to soccer this evening.


Ok, so the main problem in taking this kind of photo is the difference in brightness between the sun and the object you are photographing. The difference in brightness is too large for the camera (even DSLRs and larger medium format digital camera backs) to capture detail in both the shadows1 and the highlights2. This means that you'll either get very dark/black shadows OR blown out highlights (highlights "beyond" white).


The Photoshop approach

Kerry mentioned learning levels in photoshop (tbh, the Curves tool is like levels, but a LOT more powerful). If you do this, you'll need to know that you can not recover blown out highlights. For example, if you blow out the sky, you can't use levels to darken and bring back colour to the sky. Once a highlight is blown out, it looses all colour value. For good.

But, you CAN get detail back from dark shadow areas, as long as they are not too close to pure black. The only side effect of this is that you increase the noise (graininess) of the shadow areas. Obviously, the more you push it, the worse the noise is.



The Exposure approach

While manipulating the image in photoshop to get both detail in the foreground and background.. they will often result in unnatural looking images. A better idea would be to make an artistic decision as to what you want correctly exposed in the photo, expose for that and then leave the rest how it comes.

An example:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/207/4879 … aba19b.jpg

First off, I took this with an old point and shoot while on a 62km 5 day hike. It was sunset on the first night, and everyone had stopped to take photos. Most people were just using their cameras on automatic mode, where the camera chooses the exposure (aperture and shutterspeed) for them. Their camera's would try to expose for the foreground. As a result, the sky would look WAY too bright and the photo would be ruined (maybe what is happening to you).

TO fix this problem, I set the camera to manual mode and put in my own aperture and shutter speed values. From the artistic point of view the colours in the sky were much more interesting than the valley in the foreground. So, I set my exposure to capture the detail in the sky/sun.

The sky was actually slightly darker than the photo shows, but I decided to overexpose the image slightly to get some more detail in the foreground. The lighter colours as the different parts of the valley progress to the background of the frame give the photo a 3D quality, a bit of depth. It makes for a much more interesting photo.

Another point to note when taking photos with the sun, especially around sunset - Set the White Balance on your camera to "daylight". If you let the camera decide, it will try to make the golden sunlight "white", thus washing out the colour from the sunset shot. I can post an example of the same shot with different white balance if anyone wants.
Long story short...
If you want to capture details in the shadow part of an image where the sun is in the frame, you'll pretty much always have to underexpose what the auto-exposure meter tells you. This way you retain details in the highlights of the image. You'll then need to use an image editing program to recover the details in the shadow areas of the image (to a certain extent).

The other way is to decide what needs to be correctly exposed, expose for that and let the rest of the photo fall into place. If you choose the sky as the most important part, the foreground will usually end up as a silhouette.



Note that there are more DSLR specific ways of doing what you are asking.. not limited to multiple exposures and digital blending, fill flash or off camera flash, and graduated neutral density filters...



Notes:
1. The shadows in this case are any detail on the objects between the sun and you. Since the sun is behind the object, anything your camera sees is in the shadow side.
2. In this case, the sun and sky..
True, curves are the advanced form of levels. I was trying to keep it simple. I'm taking a course now that spends hours just on curves .

Raw is of course better but you don't need to do this in Camera raw.

[google]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1497598951711296181&hl=en[/google]
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Kmar
Truth is my Bitch
+5,695|6571|132 and Bush

mcminty wrote:

EDIT: I saw an ad for the 40D in a photography magazine that would have been appropriate for once you have practiced enough. It was a photo of a sunset, with a caption like "Watching the sunset with the woman I love, I think to myself.. f/8 at 1/250th"

lol
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Jenspm
penis
+1,716|6702|St. Andrews / Oslo

Kmarion wrote:

mcminty wrote:

EDIT: I saw an ad for the 40D in a photography magazine that would have been appropriate for once you have practiced enough. It was a photo of a sunset, with a caption like "Watching the sunset with the woman I love, I think to myself.. f/8 at 1/250th"

lol
Aperture and Shutter Speed?



Fuck I'm awesome.



Spoiler (highlight to read):
'sif I know how to use it
https://static.bf2s.com/files/user/26774/flickricon.png https://twitter.com/phoenix/favicon.ico
mcminty
Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.
+879|6691|Sydney, Australia

Jenspm wrote:

Kmarion wrote:

mcminty wrote:

EDIT: I saw an ad for the 40D in a photography magazine that would have been appropriate for once you have practiced enough. It was a photo of a sunset, with a caption like "Watching the sunset with the woman I love, I think to myself.. f/8 at 1/250th"

lol
Aperture and Shutter Speed?



Fuck I'm awesome.



Spoiler (highlight to read):
'sif I know how to use it
Lol, but you got it right.


Kerry, and yes, RAW is much better. RAW files contain a LOT more detail in the highlights, so there is chance for some level of recovery (eg in Lightroom). But only DSLRs (and very advanced point and shoot?) can shoot in RAW, so Jenspm would most likely not have been able to use it.
mcminty
Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.
+879|6691|Sydney, Australia
For a beginners/introductory guide to exposure, I suggest the book Understanding Exposure, by Bryan Peterson.
Kmar
Truth is my Bitch
+5,695|6571|132 and Bush

For those going .

[google]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7006311778848065348&hl=en[/google]
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Hurricane2k9
Pendulous Sweaty Balls
+1,538|5672|College Park, MD
So I'm thinking of taking photos of DC and the area. The monuments, the suburbs, views from the subway etc. All I've got to my name is my little Canon SD600, but I'll just have to work with what I've got. I might even do this as my school Senior Project, idk.

Thoughts?

PS: Those photos of my dog on Flickr were taken by my mother actually, hence the insanely good picture quality compared to my photos (she's a photographer for a living so she's got those nice DSLRs)
https://static.bf2s.com/files/user/36793/marylandsig.jpg
Kmar
Truth is my Bitch
+5,695|6571|132 and Bush

Hurricane2k9 wrote:

So I'm thinking of taking photos of DC and the area. The monuments, the suburbs, views from the subway etc. All I've got to my name is my little Canon SD600, but I'll just have to work with what I've got. I might even do this as my school Senior Project, idk.

Thoughts?

PS: Those photos of my dog on Flickr were taken by my mother actually, hence the insanely good picture quality compared to my photos (she's a photographer for a living so she's got those nice DSLRs)
Sounds like a cool project. I would love to see your captures, have at it.
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Parker
isteal
+1,452|6364|The Gem Saloon
ugh. i think i have been really bitten by the photography bug.


damn you people!
Kmar
Truth is my Bitch
+5,695|6571|132 and Bush

Parker wrote:

ugh. i think i have been really bitten by the photography bug.


damn you people!
They'll be no turning back now.
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mcminty
Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.
+879|6691|Sydney, Australia
Lol @ Parker. Goodbye money.


New photo for my 365 project...

https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3069/3250141130_1bf7089197.jpg

It's me, on the exercise bike trying to get a lil more fit. Was trying to capture that feeling of being in the zone when working out. Bonus points to anyone who can guess how I did it..
Kmar
Truth is my Bitch
+5,695|6571|132 and Bush

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mcminty
Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.
+879|6691|Sydney, Australia

Kmarion wrote:

http://flickr.com/photos/amcintyre/3250141130/meta/in/set-72157611945860223

What did I win? lol
LOL

Not quite. All it tells you is that I used an exposure time of 1 second. But shouldn't everything be totally blurred?
Kmar
Truth is my Bitch
+5,695|6571|132 and Bush

PS tbh .. Macintosh PS to be exact .
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mcminty
Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.
+879|6691|Sydney, Australia
Nope, it was done in camera. No composites or that kinda thing here..
Kmar
Truth is my Bitch
+5,695|6571|132 and Bush

I'm guessing that the in focus area stayed still. Still relative to the camera at least.

Warm?

Multiple shots?
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mcminty
Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.
+879|6691|Sydney, Australia
Ok, I'll tell ya

I used the one second exposure to create a blurry kind of effect (that you can especially see with the dumbbells). I also had my 430EX flash set to manual mode, giving either 1/32 or 1/64th burst of flash. Having set the flash to "second curtain sync flash", the weak flash didnt overpower the image - there was just enough to "freeze" in the details.

DonFck
Hibernator
+3,227|6601|Finland

That's some fancy shit right there, mint.

I had my pocket Ixus with me to Tenerife, so I took some holiday shots.

https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3428/3249459055_fdc303cf3e.jpg

There be moar in the group. Oh yeah, did I mention I joined?
I need around tree fiddy.
Hurricane2k9
Pendulous Sweaty Balls
+1,538|5672|College Park, MD

DonFck wrote:

That's some fancy shit right there, mint.

I had my pocket Ixus with me to Tenerife, so I took some holiday shots.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3428/324 … 03cf3e.jpg

There be moar in the group. Oh yeah, did I mention I joined?
That looks beautiful. Not just the photo but the place itself. The water looks so clean

@Kmarion, it seems I won't be able to do that for my senior project. I'll still do it though, I doubt I'll start till the spring when 1) it's warmer and 2) it's prettier.
https://static.bf2s.com/files/user/36793/marylandsig.jpg
i joined the group! added a photo too yayyy!
menzo
̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏&#
+616|6416|Amsterdam‫
you guys got awsm photos
https://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee37/menzo2003/fredbf2.png
Catbox
forgiveness
+505|6686
joined... but i am beyond a noob with photography... been working on some photorealistic stuff with VUE6 program and may post some renders...
along with some pics...
Love is the answer
Jenspm
penis
+1,716|6702|St. Andrews / Oslo

I actually guessed that Don and Kim were the new members. /proud


This pic is amazing Don

https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3328/3249457885_c0df1c98f9.jpg?v=0
https://static.bf2s.com/files/user/26774/flickricon.png https://twitter.com/phoenix/favicon.ico
high fivea

that church is awesome jespm
DonFck
Hibernator
+3,227|6601|Finland

Jenspm wrote:

I actually guessed that Don and Kim were the new members. /proud


This pic is amazing Don

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3328/324 … f9.jpg?v=0
*blushes* I SO need a digital SLR, don't I?

I'm going to browse through the group pics tomorrow more, seen some awesome shots there. I'm in awe.
I need around tree fiddy.

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