Help, snow and sun and my pics are a nightmare!!!!

E

Ellekes

Suspended / Banned
Messages
468
Name
Vicky
Edit My Images
Yes
Hope someone can help me out.

We're in sunny Austria and the weather is amazing. Lots of mountains with crispy white snow, sun burning in the sky and the girls are skiing like future Olympic godesses :)

But al my pictures come out wrong. I know it's difficult to get lighting good with a bright snow background, but whatever I do doesn't seem to work. Fill flash works in some cases. But when I use my telezoom to follow my daughter coming off the mountain, i's no use. So I end up with this kind of pictures:

Camera Model: Canon (Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS)
Lens Focal Length: 250.00 mm (EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS)
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
F-Number: F13.0
ISO: 100
Compensation: EV 0/1





So you see, snow is close to being overexposed, daughter underexposed. What am I doing wrong? Should I use the flash anyway, even if it's at 250mm focal lenght? I am using a Speedlight 430, by the way.

Thanks for any advice!

Vicky

(BTW, how can I get the image to turn the right way? It is facing upright in my gallery?)
 
firstly your flash sync speed is not quick enough for that shutter speed in the picture above. I think the max you can go to is 1/250th.

You need to use exposure compensation to expose the dark areas better.

If you are using Av or Tv mode dial in up to +2 or -2 exp comp to suit your situation..

Somebody with a more detailed way to do this will be along very shortly. (I hope)

Here is a quick video of it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFkTjVw55AQ
 
tiler65 said:
You need to use exposure compensation to expose the dark areas better.

If you are using Av or Tv mode dial in up to +2 or -2 exp comp to suit )
Click to expand...

which is it ?? +1 or -1 EV.......:thinking:

thanks
 
As has been said, if you set your camera's exp comp to +1 this would help.
The reason behind this is that a cameras metering system evaluates everything as an 18% grey so when its presented with bright snow etc it tones down the exposure to 18% grey. To overcome this you dial in +1 or thereabouts. Perhaps more or less depending on the conditions.
Same when shooting something black or dark the meter sees it as 18% grey so you need to shoot at a minus exp comp.
A bit technical I know but if you remember the saying "If its bright, give more light" and you'll be on the right track.

Also setting the camera to spot metering and taking a reading from the subject might help.

All is not lost though.
I hope you don't mind but I ran it through Photoshop.
I increased the shadow detail in the Shadow/Highlight tool and increased the levels slightly.

sized_IMG_9808.jpg
 
Don't be afraid to get that snow even closer to blown out. On my screen it looks like your camera adjusted because of too much whites. I find when shooting in snow ETTR is a must. Either open up the aperture a stop or 2 and leave the same shutter speed, or if you're shooting in Av/Tv up the exposure compensation for a brighter shot.

Also, looks like you were almost shooting into the sun too judging by the shadow. That won't have helped either
 
In manual mode, when using the cameras internal light meter, you normally adjust aperture and shutter speed until the lightmeter reading is centered in the viewfinder. To apply compensation, instead of centering the reading, leave the "needle" to the right or left of centre. In this way the exposure will be over or under exposed compared to the centred reading.
 
Aha, never thought I could learn so much in one tread ;-).

@mstphoto, thanks for the photoshop advice and help! That sure looks a lot better. I'll try it on the other pictures as well.

@ karmagarda, it was indeed partly into the sun, for lack of better position.

@tiler65, thanks. I didn't know how to do that. I basically took a picture in automatic to know the settings my camera would choose. I then switched to manual and adjusted shutter speed to compensate exposure.
 
A few problems there Vicky.

Main one is simply underexposure. Snow is white, not grey. That's getting on for two stops under just on the snow, probably caused by the camera seeing a massive area of bright light and being misled into setting underexposure. This kind of situation commonly fools metering systems and the camera will attempt to get it back down to an 18% grey average, and it's done quite a good job ;)

The subject is also in deep shade - you're shooting stright into the sun, meaning she is even further underexposed. You've also got some flare going on there, reducing contrast - lens hood please.

Then there's the question of dynamic range, from bright light to dark shadows, which is too much for the sensor. Fill-in flash would be the answer there but probably difficult at the range you're at. Might be worth a try though. Increasing ISO and reducing f/number effectively increases the flash power dramatically, but then you run into high shutter speeds where the flash won't sync - it's 1/200sec max on your camera. You could then switch to High Speed Sync mode and use any shutter speed you like, but this reduces the power output and range pretty severely, so for closer subjects only really.

I would say though, if you get the exposure right, use a lens hood, and shoot closer with HSS flash at ISO400, shutter speed no higher than 1/1000sec (higher speeds reduce HSS flash power) and whatever f/number that gives you, you'll get the result you want.

You can work in any exposure mode, using plus+ exposure compensation on Av or Tv. The main advanatge of manual is that it locks the settings, which is good if the light doesn't change. Auto will track the light if it's changing. Use the flash on E-TTL of course.

EdiT: crossed post with, erm, everybody! Photoshop result looks good. It shouldn't be necessary though and it will generate a lot of noise in the lightened areas.
 
Thanks all. I used all of the above tips, except for the position, as I don't really have a choice there (somehow that sun seems adamant to come up on the same side every morning ;-) ). The pictures looked a lot better today. Both snow and the girls well lit!
 
If it's a nice bright blue sky, turn the camera to manual and take a meter reading pointing at the sky. Change the shutter and aperature so it reads a correct exposure for the kind of shot you are after.

Then keeping those settings, re-compose the shot you are actually after and ignore the camera moaning that it's now under exposed. You should find the shot comes out just fine. You could also check what the exposure is when you re-compose so you know what to dial in if you wanted to do it the way suggested above.

No one way is best. I prefer to meter from the blue sky as it gives me some form of actual physical reading of light rather than guessing what the exposure should be and missing the shot.
 
If all else fails shoot your own hand! Or someone else's if possible. You need to expose for the skin tones first (which is where the 18% grey thing started with I think)

Use Manual Mode and take a couple of test shots of your hand in the same light as your subject will be. (You can do this while everyone else is getting themselves to the right place ie the top of the hill.) This is a good start point, then fine tune around that to stop the highlights (& snow) blowing out completely.

Shooting RAW will also give you more latitude to fix things later if you're not already.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top