I haven't been able to go shoot for a bit, so diving back into the hard drive helps "scratch the itch". Here's one from the second weekend in Oct. CC welcome.
Posted by Glenn Randall on January 8, 2012 at 11:27 AM
The combination of snow on the peaks and colorful leaves is always a winner. With that said, this was a tough situation in terms of exposure. Backlit white clouds are always crazy bright, and you've really lost most of the detail there. This is probably a situation requiring that you shoot at least two exposures, one for trees and one for sky. If you were shooting on a tripod (and maybe even if you weren't) you could then stack them in Photoshop and blend them with a gradient on a layer mask. You might check out my article in Outdoor Photographer that explores this technique from both a practical and a psychological viewpoint. http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/how-to/shooting/rembrandt-solutions.html. And of course you could use HDR techniques.
Thanks for the feedback Glenn. This is from a single shot, handheld. I was hesitant to push the file further, as I am not a fan of HDR when it starts looking fake. I went back and added a gradient to the sky in NX2, and brought detail back to the sky/clouds. Thoughts? Too much? Thanks, Josh
Posted by Glenn Randall on January 8, 2012 at 1:55 PM
Hi Josh,
This is an improvement, but it looks like you weren't able to quite solve the problem. Some of the clouds still look blank white on my screen, and the gradient looks a bit unnatural. I agree with you about HDR, by the way -- it's hard to get it to look natural. One more suggestion: Can you double-process the raw file (assuming for the moment you were shooting raw)? Process it once for optimum cloud detail (let the shadows fall where they may) then process again for optimum tree detail (let the clouds fall where they may) then stack the two images and merge them with a gradient on a layer mask? The clouds may be beyond hope, of course, regardless of how much you decrease exposure in your raw processor. Hope that helps!
Discussion
4 repliesThanks,
Josh
This is an improvement, but it looks like you weren't able to quite solve the problem. Some of the clouds still look blank white on my screen, and the gradient looks a bit unnatural. I agree with you about HDR, by the way -- it's hard to get it to look natural. One more suggestion: Can you double-process the raw file (assuming for the moment you were shooting raw)? Process it once for optimum cloud detail (let the shadows fall where they may) then process again for optimum tree detail (let the clouds fall where they may) then stack the two images and merge them with a gradient on a layer mask? The clouds may be beyond hope, of course, regardless of how much you decrease exposure in your raw processor. Hope that helps!