Beginner Does it annoy you that there are things you can't photograph?

sirch

sirch

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I spent some time yesterday evening trying to photograph some reeds against a sunset. The seed heads on the reeds were glowing nicely with the back light from the sun but of course getting the exposure right for the seed heads meant the sky was washed out and the foreground was under exposed. HDR was not an option because the reeds were moving about in the breeze and I don’t own any gradient filters but I’m not sure they would have helped because the foreground would still be under exposed.

It’s not the first time I have encountered situations like this where there is what I think is a good shot but it seems technically impossible to capture and it’s a bit irritating. Is it just a lack of experience or am I being over ambitious or are there ways round these issues in PP?
 
A reflector might have helped, or a very muted burst of flash. I've put white paper over my flash sometimes to pull it back. I should add though, flash and movement don't always work well. It depends on the movement and shutter speed.

Also, shooting RAW, exposing for the bright light, editing the image twice for background and then reed heads and bringing them together to work at in layers in software is perhaps an option. And it could be there is more useful detail in the reeds than you think. Have you tried lifting them in software? Can you share an image you did get?

But I know what you mean -- some things are tricky and need workarounds. Some things are impossible, but I think you could get a result here.
 
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Try a few different settings/techniques, walk around the subject and try a few different angles (of you can), accept the limitations and work with what you've got - there's nothing wrong with letting the sky wash out of that comes closest to the shot you had in mind.

But did you consider using flash to bring up the foreground exposure on the reed heads? Or a reflective surface to bounce some of the back light onto the foreground? If the foreground is under exposed compared to the background, the foreground needs more light - wherever you can beg, steel or borrow it from.
 
Thanks for the replies, I'll see if I can get an image back from the recycle bin tonight and post as an example.

I didn't consider using a flash, something to try next time. I do shoot raw but just didn't think of merging adjusted images in this case even though I have tried that in the past, perhaps something to try.
 
fill flash is an option - but in most cases like this a sillohuette with rim lighting may be more preferable(that is expose for the sky - let the shape of the reeds go black in consequence, but be outlined by the sun behind them)
 
Or plan b - shoot it in Portra 400 !!

:coat:
 
And I just noticed the typo in the title, can I edit it because that is annoying me now :arghh:
 
sirch said:
And I just noticed the typo in the title, can I edit it because that is annoying me now :arghh:
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Edit the first post and you should get the option to edit the title.
 
its in the thread tools menu (i could be wrong but i think you can do it from any post by the OP these days)
 
I was getting very annoyed last night :) trying to photograph my wife running outside at night with ambient lighting.
 
If you could have got yourself a little higher and/or gone to a longer focal length, you could have caught the backlit glow of the reeds against the darker skyline and excluded the sky completely.
 
Fair point but those things are over 6 foot tall and I'm not. I did try some holding the camera high above my head but got nothing worthwhile.
 
Frankly I think in situations like these the only viable option is HDR, stting your camera to take 3 or more shots at differing exposures, one for the reeds only, one for the sky only, and one for the in-between shot at the top of the reeds.

Combined in an HDR program you could get a good result.
.
 
As I said further up the thread, the reason I couldn't use HDR is that the reeds were moving about in the breeze and since they don't all move in the same way it is not possible to combine multiple images.
 
Reeds in this kind of low light are very attractive subjects but difficult to make good pictures of.

It's all about the relationship of the angles, as Alastair implies, between you the reeds the background and the light. Waiting for the sun to move might make a difference. Or change your expectations and try for the silhouettes mentioned earlier.

For what it's worth here's one of mine - picked out from goodness knows how many attempts from different levels and positions, using various exposure values as the sun set. It's not great, but the best I managed while fishing the other week.

cheesy sunset 2 by davelumb, on Flickr
 
Thanks Dave, a lot better than my attempt and all part of the learning process.
 
I can see from your shots the difficulties you faced here, Chris. One solution here is to close in on some detail (as Dave has done so well) because farther away makes things more difficult. Then a small reflector could work wonders. Because of the movement flash and HDR wouldn't work that's for sure, or wouldn't get the results you had in mind.

Anyway, it can be frustrating and even disheartening, but the learning curve is worth it.
:)
 
sirch said:
As I said further up the thread, the reason I couldn't use HDR is that the reeds were moving about in the breeze and since they don't all move in the same way it is not possible to combine multiple images.
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If your camera model has exposure bracketing, set it to take a series of shots 2 stops apart. Set the drive mode to high speed continuous and hold the shutter down until the bracketing sequence is complete. Blend the exposures in post. The higher the number of frames per second your camera can take the better, because there will be less movement between each shot.
 
Paul Griffin said:
If your camera model has exposure bracketing, set it to take a series of shots 2 stops apart. Set the drive mode to high speed continuous and hold the shutter down until the bracketing sequence is complete. Blend the exposures in post. The higher the number of frames per second your camera can take the better, because there will be less movement between each shot.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I am aware of that and I tried it in this case, the 6D does 6fps I believe but it does not seem to be anything like that with exposure bracketing. It also has an HDR mode which seems subjectively to be quicker than exposure bracketing. Neither of these were fast enough, the reed stems are thin and don't have to move very much to appear blurred or double. Also they don't all move the same amount at the same time and the tops move more than the bottoms so it is not possible to correct for the motion. Need to go back on a very still day.
 
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