Metering for Landscapes and Seascapes

Speedy136

Speedy136

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Nick
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Just putting it out to you experts for a bit of advice when it comes to metering for seascapes and landscapes. Where is the best place to meter from? Do I meter from the sky especially if the sky is dramatic or from the sea, or is it always best to meter from the foreground or the main interest of the shot.
 
i haven't learnt / read / been taught any hard fast methods, so for me i generally take a few of test shots with metering;

1. foreground
2. dead on the horizon
3. sky

but i try not to pick any extreme of light or dark. Then i look at the results and tweak it from there. I suppose it differs greatly depending on what you actually want to achieve from the shot.. i might look at a scene and think well i can get a fantastic moody sky here but i'll have to work a little on the foreground in pp or vice versa. As long as i don't blow the sky so i've nothing to work with, i usually end up coming home with a good selection to choose from and work with. But that's just me.. i'm sure there'll be others who prefer to set up and get things right straight from the off.
 
I generally use a tripod and live view for my landscapes, and use the histogram for judging exposure.
 
Yellowbelly said:
I generally use a tripod and live view for my landscapes, and use the histogram for judging exposure.
Click to expand...

:agree:
That's what the histogram is for, if you lose detail in the darks then it's time to get filters on or take a few different exposures and merge them.
 
Thanks for the replies fellas, are there any good histogram tutorials on the forum? I know the basics but it wouldn't hurt to learn more.
 
Nick
in the majority of situations the correct exposure setting at the upper part and lower part of a landscape with be different.
What you need is a graduated filter to balance the diffrent parts of the frame.
The filter is dark at one end and clear at the other. Just like sunglasses.

Hope this helps.
stuart
 
stuart anthony said:
Nick
in the majority of situations the correct exposure setting at the upper part and lower part of a landscape with be different.
What you need is a graduated filter to balance the diffrent parts of the frame.
The filter is dark at one end and clear at the other. Just like sunglasses.

Hope this helps.
stuart
Click to expand...

On the subject of nd graduated filters with landscapes. I have a cokin slide in filter (3 stops) and attempted to take a shoot of the sunset. Long story short, it wasn't enough stops to expose the foreground enough and not blow out the sky. I went to buy a darker filter but could not find one locally (U.S) so the sales guy suggested I stack two of the same filters in order to get 6 stops. My question is if this is a good practice. Image quality is most important to me and I have read that stacking hurts I.q. but I'm not sure by how much or if it's even enough to worry about. Thoughts.
 
You could always try the 'Scene' mode on the camera, should be quite accurate I would have thought.
 
Dave in Wales said:
You could always try the 'Scene' mode on the camera, should be quite accurate I would have thought.
Click to expand...

I don't follow. The issue is a bright sunrise and trying to expose for it without loosing the rest of the seen in the shadows of darkness. The filter is a ND graduated filter for those situations. I shoot this type of shot in full manual mode for control. I'm not sure why a preset mode could help.
 
shaylou said:
On the subject of nd graduated filters with landscapes. I have a cokin slide in filter (3 stops) and attempted to take a shoot of the sunset. Long story short, it wasn't enough stops to expose the foreground enough and not blow out the sky. I went to buy a darker filter but could not find one locally (U.S) so the sales guy suggested I stack two of the same filters in order to get 6 stops. My question is if this is a good practice. Image quality is most important to me and I have read that stacking hurts I.q. but I'm not sure by how much or if it's even enough to worry about. Thoughts.
Click to expand...

Stacking Cokin filters usually results in a magenta colour cast, white clouds in particular show it. With Lee I often stack filters to achieve a higher strength and get no ill effects on IQ. If you can't stack them you can always underexpose the foreground slightly and then pull it back in post processing, assuming you're shooting in raw. Sure, you might get some noise as you pull up the shadows but as long as they're not completely blocked out you should be able to get some back, it is easier that way than trying to recover a blown sky.
 
when using filters i find its imperitive to have them absolutly spotlessly clean, any dust spots or marks tend to show up, think its something to do with them being further away from the optics.
 
markmullen said:
Stacking Cokin filters usually results in a magenta colour cast, white clouds in particular show it. With Lee I often stack filters to achieve a higher strength and get no ill effects on IQ. If you can't stack them you can always underexpose the foreground slightly and then pull it back in post processing, assuming you're shooting in raw. Sure, you might get some noise as you pull up the shadows but as long as they're not completely blocked out you should be able to get some back, it is easier that way than trying to recover a blown sky.
Click to expand...

Thanks that was the info I was looking for. My gut told me that stacking a lower end filter was a bad idea and you confirmed it. I didn't want to get to deep into buying filters that I would end up replacing for better quality so it looks like I need to look at a better option. I appreciate your help.
 
HoppyUK said:
Have you tried HDR yet? See this thread http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=416411
Click to expand...

I have actually but only once. I took you advise and downloaded it about a week or so ago. I took some bracketed shoots that I thought would work out but the first attempt was a failure. :/

I need to try again. I plan to take some shoots and play with it on the plane trip to my vacation on the second of next month. I'm going to San Fransico california just for a week of taking pictures, can't wait so I will take some just for the purpose of bracketing.
 
shaylou said:
I have actually but only once. I took you advise and downloaded it about a week or so ago. I took some bracketed shoots that I thought would work out but the first attempt was a failure. :/

I need to try again. I plan to take some shoots and play with it on the plane trip to my vacation on the second of next month. I'm going to San Fransico california just for a week of taking pictures, can't wait so I will take some just for the purpose of bracketing.
Click to expand...

Sounds good :)

You can always just do the bracketed shots for HDR anyway, alongside grad filter images or whatever. Just set the camera to auto-bracket +/- two stops and it's done in half a second, then you have the files recorded to play with at your leisure.

Then you've got all your options open.
 
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