Posted by Barry Southon on August 21, 2009 at 5:46 AM
In my a effort to understand how to best deal with harsh light I mixed the ISO settings and under exposed the shots. From the previous answers I have a better grasp. Just one more point and this Glossy Ibis best illustrates the point.
Having under exposed in an effort to reduce the harsh light can I then bring selected parts back in PS to enhance the image?
Canon 1D3 f/5.6 1/6400 ISO320 800mm Tripod RAW L to lightroom PS resized.
Having under exposed in an effort to reduce the harsh light can I then bring selected parts back in PS to enhance the image?
Yes, to a degree. But if the dark areas are completely blocked-up then any recovery will likely have a marked negative impact on overall image quality, with one of the most likely problems being an unwanted increase in noise.
Exposing the image to the right of the histogram, as far as possible, but without clipping any important highlights, will record the most information to work from.
The recovery slider in Lightroom is an excellent tool for recovering any overly bright areas.
Posted by Sarah Smith on August 21, 2009 at 6:23 AM
Will send you an email later, a few ideas have been suggested.
Posted by Mark Davies on August 21, 2009 at 1:06 PM
As Justin has stated blocking up at the 0 end of your histogram is as bad if not worse than 255's at the other.Shooting in 14bit will extend your exposure latitude to its maximum .
In wildlife I find bracketing and HDR don't always work ,as HDR is useless if you subject moves.You could try processing the image twice ,once for hi's and once again for shadows, a HDR blend from the resultant tiffs may just give the desired effect.Also in PS, try control ,alt, shift and tild (~) together on a 'qwerty' key board .This will select mid grey and above ( mainly high lights ) invert this selection ( to select darks ) then control j to copy and paste and change the blend mode to screen adjust opacity to suit.( use the same proceedure for the high's once selected and change blending mode to multiply.)
IMHO the best option when the sun's up ... get a beer ,a decent book sit on the porch and wait for the sun set.
Discussion
3 repliesHaving under exposed in an effort to reduce the harsh light can I then bring selected parts back in PS to enhance the image?
Canon 1D3 f/5.6 1/6400 ISO320 800mm Tripod RAW L to lightroom PS resized.
Critique Advice Comments most welcome.
Thanks for looking
Yes, to a degree. But if the dark areas are completely blocked-up then any recovery will likely have a marked negative impact on overall image quality, with one of the most likely problems being an unwanted increase in noise.
Exposing the image to the right of the histogram, as far as possible, but without clipping any important highlights, will record the most information to work from.
The recovery slider in Lightroom is an excellent tool for recovering any overly bright areas.
In wildlife I find bracketing and HDR don't always work ,as HDR is useless if you subject moves.You could try processing the image twice ,once for hi's and once again for shadows, a HDR blend from the resultant tiffs may just give the desired effect.Also in PS, try control ,alt, shift and tild (~) together on a 'qwerty' key board .This will select mid grey and above ( mainly high lights ) invert this selection ( to select darks ) then control j to copy and paste and change the blend mode to screen adjust opacity to suit.( use the same proceedure for the high's once selected and change blending mode to multiply.)
IMHO the best option when the sun's up ... get a beer ,a decent book sit on the porch and wait for the sun set.