Hey everyone, I know I haven't posted much here in a very long time. I'll try to begin making up for that over the next weeks.
This morning I had a really nice sunrise at Sprague Lake and captured about a dozen images that I am semi-happy with. One of the things I'm not sure how to deal with are situations like this where the spot that the sun is rising is so bright in comparison with the rest of the scene that it always gets blown out unless I underexpose by at least three stops. Any thoughts on how else this could be handled and yet still look natural? Thanks! As always, any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated!
BTW, I recently returned from a SW trip and have lots of new images. When I finally finish processing them, I'll post a link here.
What a magnificent sunrise! Excellent, awe inspiring work here.
Thanks a bunch for sharing that with us.
As far as that bright spot, it doesn't really bother me 'cos it's not that distracting.
All I can think of is either using a reverse grad. filter, underexposing even more than three stops to tame that small area and blending that area back in or figuring out how to get the lesser exposed areas that are reflected in the lake on a couple of them and mirror them back up to the skies.
Looking forward to seeing your work from the Southwest.
You must have been that blur going by other photographers What a haul from one morning's work! These are all excellent.
I have the same problem, and as far as I am concerned (of course, I am not the expert here) I don't think digital handles the bright areas as well as slide film did. Well, today we do try to get detail in shadow areas, where before, we accepted that the shadows would block out with Velvia. But it is one of my pet peeves about sensors. I have just made up my mind to shoot north or south at sunrise and not directly into it.
Looks like it was quite a nice morning up there. Welcome back and great selection Erik. #4 is my fav here. Looking forward to seeing some more RMNP stuff as well as selections from your recent SW trip.
As far as the bright spots go there are a few options. Maybe you've played around with some of these a bit: Option 1: GND filters: They can control the sky highlights very well, especially when reflections are involved. The downside is flare happens more often at certain angles when shooting toward the sun. Option 2: Bracket exposures and blend manually in PS. I think this leads to the best quality photo in the end however it can be time consuming. Option 3: Process the same RAW file in different ways and blend or use a tone-mapping program like Photomatix. My luck with this method varies but it can be a quick software fix for the highlights (or shadows). The downside is you're pulling a lot of info from one exposure and noise issues can arise. Option 4: Use the PS color picker to select a darker color from your image and "paint" over the highlights using different layers and opacities. Takes a little practice but I've read some recommendations of this method over at ESS. The nice part about this is you don't have to bracket exposures or reprocess entire files.
Thanks for the feedback guys. Joshua, I think your idea #4 might be the best for me. I'll have to look into that. I find that when I do blending of really extreme exposure differences like this that I don't get the natural look I want. This morning I didn't even bother bracketing. As for the GND, I don't leave home without them. I shot these images with a 3x soft GND. I'm not sure if a reverse grad would work for these situations where the bright sky takes up just a sliver above the trees, it might darken the trees too much. Morris, I am not going back to film unless you agree to pay for the scanning.
That's okay, it's actually been quite nice around here without you around! I hate to say it but these images really aren't that bad. The bright spots aren't overly distracting. Have you tried a simple Highlight Recovery in Lightroom? Nat says you shouldn't push it past 20, but sometimes I go crazy and push it to 100 just to see how it looks...it's a quick and easy approach and sometimes the results are satisfactory to me. If not, I'll pull back on the slider. I might also do a tiny rotation clockwise on the 2nd shot.
Hi Erik,
Glad to hear you're still alive and well. :)
These are great! I'm no expert, so I can't advise on how to mitigate the problem, but I can say that the highlights in the 1st one don't bother me.
I LOVE the light on the snowbanks on the right side in the 3rd image. And # 5 is a winner for me, also. Just love the light in the sky and the reflection.
Beautiful collection.
Discussion
24 repliesThis morning I had a really nice sunrise at Sprague Lake and captured about a dozen images that I am semi-happy with. One of the things I'm not sure how to deal with are situations like this where the spot that the sun is rising is so bright in comparison with the rest of the scene that it always gets blown out unless I underexpose by at least three stops. Any thoughts on how else this could be handled and yet still look natural? Thanks! As always, any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated!
BTW, I recently returned from a SW trip and have lots of new images. When I finally finish processing them, I'll post a link here.
Thanks a bunch for sharing that with us.
As far as that bright spot, it doesn't really bother me 'cos it's not that distracting.
All I can think of is either using a reverse grad. filter, underexposing even more than three stops to tame that small area and blending that area back in or figuring out how to get the lesser exposed areas that are reflected in the lake on a couple of them and mirror them back up to the skies.
Looking forward to seeing your work from the Southwest.
I have the same problem, and as far as I am concerned (of course, I am not the expert here) I don't think digital handles the bright areas as well as slide film did. Well, today we do try to get detail in shadow areas, where before, we accepted that the shadows would block out with Velvia. But it is one of my pet peeves about sensors. I have just made up my mind to shoot north or south at sunrise and not directly into it.
As far as the bright spots go there are a few options. Maybe you've played around with some of these a bit: Option 1: GND filters: They can control the sky highlights very well, especially when reflections are involved. The downside is flare happens more often at certain angles when shooting toward the sun. Option 2: Bracket exposures and blend manually in PS. I think this leads to the best quality photo in the end however it can be time consuming. Option 3: Process the same RAW file in different ways and blend or use a tone-mapping program like Photomatix. My luck with this method varies but it can be a quick software fix for the highlights (or shadows). The downside is you're pulling a lot of info from one exposure and noise issues can arise. Option 4: Use the PS color picker to select a darker color from your image and "paint" over the highlights using different layers and opacities. Takes a little practice but I've read some recommendations of this method over at ESS. The nice part about this is you don't have to bracket exposures or reprocess entire files.
Glad to hear you're still alive and well. :)
These are great! I'm no expert, so I can't advise on how to mitigate the problem, but I can say that the highlights in the 1st one don't bother me.
I LOVE the light on the snowbanks on the right side in the 3rd image. And # 5 is a winner for me, also. Just love the light in the sky and the reflection.
Beautiful collection.