Northlander Loc: Waipu, New Zealand

Thanks for the comments dat2ra. The subject was the little boy and his pensive look on his face - with of course, thoughts of the school fair in the background. I knew it was to be difficult given the conditions (bright sun) and because of the circumstances, I was afraid the child might move away or shift his stance. Yes - I did adjust the polarizer, but I don't have the experience to do it quickly, by which time, the shot has gone. All of this - the fair, and these comments add to experience ;-)

Northlander Loc: Waipu, New Zealand

I was trying to darken, if not at least 'soften', the very bright sun. I was interested in a similar image which was published in our local Newspaper (taken by the Journalist) with the same problem - glare circles on the Zorb balls.
From comments received - I'd better get some more practice in with the Polariser filter!

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Under the same conditions, no. The sun is there,and the reflections are going to exist.

But there are some things that could be done. The most significant would be to reduce the contrast and lower the brightness in the RAW conversion process. It could be that the actual blown out highlights are indeed overexposed and clipped in the raw data, but I doubt it. By changing the gamma curve during the raw conversion process, rather than trying it on these JPEG's, a much better job can be done. Instead of blown out specular reflections it might be made to look just as the normally brighter areas of a texture illuminated with bright light.


I suppose each could be cloned out, but I doubt it would look better, and I'm sure it would be very tedious work.


That is actually fairly easy. I thought that working on the entire boy, rather than just the face, provide a more natural looking result.


That is an excellent camera for that type of photograph. The D600 gets its highest dynamic range at ISO 100, and is less by more than one full fstop at ISO 250 used for that photograph. When shooting in bright sunlight, because it has so much contrast, it is best to use ISO 100 if at all possible. That would make for nicer results in this image for the reflections on the globes and when the boy's face is pulled up out of the shadows.

One technique that would help is exposure bracketing. Set the camera to shoot continuous, set the limit to 3 shots per burst, and have it shoot in 1/2 stop increments. For every shot, press the shutter release and let it go! You'll later be able to pick the best exposure and process only one of the three shot burst.

Below is a sort of weird edit that I did on you image. But it would really be fun to see what can be done with the original RAW file! If you are willing, send me a PM and I'll set up an FTP login on my web site where you can upload it.

Edit with several modifications

(Download)

Howard5252 Loc: New York / Florida (now)

[quote=Northlander]
1: Could a photographer with a lot more experience than I, have photographed these Zorb balls without those glare spots being so obvious
Comments and/or advice would be appreciated.
You could have moved so that the sun did not glint off the balls into the camera. If you wanted the boy in the photo, you could have asked him to come sit in your picture. It is my experience that people are very cooperative when asked.

Northlander Loc: Waipu, New Zealand

Thank you Howard5252. I agree with your suggestions - one doesn't think of these things - logical and all as they are, at the time. Stored in the "knowledge bank" for next time!! :D
Thanks for the response.

Howard5252 Loc: New York / Florida (now)

I wasn't too concerned about the lighting - it's close enough to pass (in my OPINION) That was so I don't get flak from other HH'ers. Does my copy look different ? I checked the ORIGINAL, oh well ... magnify both images and if you open up a second window with UHH, you will be able to see them side-by-side. PS To magnify use the CTRL key and the PLUS sign.

The realism is in the details