photographing rainbows: Last Sunday I was invited by my son to watch his fire station do drill practice. Of course I took my camera. It was outside and sunny around 8:00am. Their...

chrisewers Loc: born UK. live in USA.

Last Sunday I was invited by my son to watch his fire station do drill practice. Of course I took my camera. It was outside and sunny around 8:00am. Their ladder truck extended the ladder and turned on the water. I could see a lovely rainbow below the ladder in the water mist. I looked through my canon 70d viewfinder and there it was so I took a picture. In fact a few of them. I shamed was in auto with landscape selected. I was using my 18 135 kit lens with no filter or hood, some 100 feet away.
When I looked clearly at the picture later on my pc the rain bow was much shorter and no where near as clear. Any thoughts as to what happened and how should I do a better job next time?

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

It may be that the rainbow is still there, but got truncated by conversion to the .jpg mode. Take your photo into a photo editor and increase the vibrance and/or saturation, perhaps make it brighter, and lower the contrast. You might be surprised what you see. Alternatively, you could post the original photos with (store original) in the PP forum and some of those folks could bring it back.

dlmorris Loc: Loma Linda, Ca

Probably set the camera to manual and purposely under expose just a little.

LouT Loc: Maryland

I haven't tried it, but it hear a circular polarized filter works great.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

LouT wrote:

I haven't tried it, but it hear a circular polarized filter works great.

They work like magic! You have to adjust it (twist it around) to get maximum benefit.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

dlmorris wrote:

Probably set the camera to manual and purposely under expose just a little.

And possibly you needed a faster shutter speed for the clarity issue.

chrisewers Loc: born UK. live in USA.

Linda From Maine wrote:

And possibly you needed a faster shutter speed for the clarity issue.

So in addition to over expose (i did bracket 1 stop either way but that was no different) maybe 1/500 shutter speed?

chrisewers Loc: born UK. live in USA.

minniev wrote:

They work like magic! You have to adjust it (twist it around) to get maximum benefit.

have to get one, tried my friends 70-200 f4 L lens a few months ago photographing swans on a river and it got rid of the glare.

chrisewers Loc: born UK. live in USA.

Bob Yankle wrote:

It may be that the rainbow is still there, but got truncated by conversion to the .jpg mode. Take your photo into a photo editor and increase the vibrance and/or saturation, perhaps make it brighter, and lower the contrast. You might be surprised what you see. Alternatively, you could post the original photos with (store original) in the PP forum and some of those folks could bring it back.

I also have the raw files so Ill look at those and see if the rainbow can be rescued.

chrisewers Loc: born UK. live in USA.

Bob Yankle wrote:

It may be that the rainbow is still there, but got truncated by conversion to the .jpg mode. Take your photo into a photo editor and increase the vibrance and/or saturation, perhaps make it brighter, and lower the contrast. You might be surprised what you see. Alternatively, you could post the original photos with (store original) in the PP forum and some of those folks could bring it back.

I also have the raw files so Ill look at those and see if the rainbow can be rescued.

(Download)

chrisewers Loc: born UK. live in USA.

chrisewers wrote:

I also have the raw files so Ill look at those and see if the rainbow can be rescued.

i was wrong about the lens - it is my 10-20 EFS with uv filter.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

chrisewers wrote:

I also have the raw files so Ill look at those and see if the rainbow can be rescued.

One trick for emphasizing rainbows in post is to paint the thing carefully with a local adjustment brush set to increase color saturation. The brush should be soft and a little narrower than the rainbow. That way you don't wreck your whole photo trying to deal with the rainbow, everything else stays normal.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

chrisewers wrote:

So in addition to over expose (i did bracket 1 stop either way but that was no different) maybe 1/500 shutter speed?

To clarify, you would want to under-expose for darker, richer colors in the bright water... not over-expose. For shutter speed, it's often mentioned to use the inverse of your focal length. So if you were using a 135 mm lens, you'd want about 1/200 sec. Lots of variables to that, though, including how steady you are on your feet and with your hands :) And if you're trying to "stop action," then yes, 1/500 sec would be better.

chrisewers Loc: born UK. live in USA.

Linda From Maine wrote:

To clarify, you would want to under-expose for darker, richer colors in the bright water... not over-expose. For shutter speed, it's often mentioned to use the inverse of your focal length. So if you were using a 135 mm lens, you'd want about 1/200 sec. Lots of variables to that, though, including how steady you are on your feet and with your hands :) And if you're trying to "stop action," then yes, 1/500 sec would be better.

So you think shutter speed would have no effect on my rainbow?

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

chrisewers wrote:

So you think shutter speed would have no effect on my rainbow?

You mentioned clarity issue in initial comments, so I was thinking there might have been camera movement from too slow a shutter speed. Without seeing the image or knowing what shutter speed was used, I'm really just guessing :)