Exposure

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Keith Butler

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Keith
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Hi,
When trying to get the light right, is this a balancing act when taking pictures outdoors, will certain objects always appear in silhouette?, and should we use this to our advantage?. I know what we see through our eyes has a brilliant sensor(your eye) and a magnificent processor(the brain) at work so I will never capture what I can see.
 
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It depends on the contrast range of the scene. On a dull day there would be little contrast.

'...so I will never capture what I can see. '
We can have a good attempt at it though!

Two photographers, same scene, different results.
 
The issue is one of dynamic range, our eyes are much better at resolving a scene that runs from dark to light than a camera.

Assuming you're looking at landscapes there are several ways around the situation, filters, exposure blending, HDR (which is a form of exposure blending) etc.

My favoured technique is to use ND grads, have a look at my blog post http://www.markmullenphotography.co.uk/blog/2013/3/filters-for-landscape-photography

If you're looking at smaller things, like people, or cars, then you could use flash, drop the exposure to take into account the brightness of the sky, then use a burst of flash to illuminate the subject.
 
Hi. Keith. You have to decide which part of the scene is your 'subject' and expose for that. If you are indoors pointing the camera at something with a window behind it, the metering will often expose for what it considers the 'right' part of the image as it doesn't know what you are trying to take a picture of. It 'sees' the bright part of the image and 'thinks' that is right. That's where manual settings come in. You could use flash, or you could expose for your subject and have the window over exposed. It depends on what you are trying to achieve.
 
markmullen said:
The issue is one of dynamic range, our eyes are much better at resolving a scene that runs from dark to light than a camera.

Assuming you're looking at landscapes there are several ways around the situation, filters, exposure blending, HDR (which is a form of exposure blending) etc.

My favoured technique is to use ND grads, have a look at my blog post http://www.markmullenphotography.co.uk/blog/2013/3/filters-for-landscape-photography

If you're looking at smaller things, like people, or cars, then you could use flash, drop the exposure to take into account the brightness of the sky, then use a burst of flash to illuminate the subject.
Click to expand...

Mark,
I checked the link out and you have explained possibly what I was looking for. I tried a water fall with the sun in front of me and your example picture is very similar but I had a greater variation of light and shade.
Many thanks
 
Keith Butler said:
Mark,
I checked the link out and you have explained possibly what I was looking for. I tried a water fall with the sun in front of me and your example picture is very similar but I had a greater variation of light and shade.
Many thanks
Click to expand...

I think I mentioned it when you asked last time (apologies if I didn't).

The only way to get the shot that you posted would be to combine exposures, the dynamic range in that scene is simply impossible to reproduce with any current camera. You've got dark things in the shade and bright things in the sunshine. My guess is that it was so bad even your eyes would have struggled.

I rarely do this, but if you were to post a link to the RAW file in the processing section I bet someone could get you a printable image from it.
 
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