J11 wrote:
My first post last week, PixelStan77 said "Light is our language". He was right but controlling light or keeping light from being blown out is difficult. I find it hard to control "hard" light and keep the overall image presentable. Attached are some photos I took in the past both with hard light and soft or flat light. The first was yesterday morning in Biloxi, MS. with the sun shinning through the fog. The next image is Ocean Springs Harbor after dusk with the street lights blown out. The next image is the Biloxi lighthouse with hard light from the light house and the last is the same but with flat light. I try to use exposure compensation to control the light. Is there any other method to control the light????? All taken with a Nikon D7000. Thanks and have a great week and be safe. Jim.
My first post last week, PixelStan77 said "Li... (
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Dynamic range is the issue, as others have stated. Many options are available, depending upon whether you are in nature or in a studio.
Recording JPEG files at the camera, about your only options are:
> Use dynamic lighting control options in the camera menus (probably the best JPEG option for nature scenes such as your lighthouses)
> NAIL your exposure and white balance by using some sort of exposure/white balance aid
> Use fill flash at close range (5' to 15' for on-camera shoe mount flash)
> Use reflectors, scrims, and diffusers to control portrait lighting
Recording raw files at the camera and post processing on a computer with Lightroom, etc. is a good option:
> Intentionally "overexpose" a little (test to determine how much EBTR — exposing beyond the right side of the histogram — you can tolerate). How much you can get away with depends on the sensor. The JPEG PREVIEW image may look burned out, but the raw file will record more highlight information that can be recovered. The overexposure gives you more recoverable shadow detail.
> ETTR — Exposing just TO the right of the histogram is my preferred method of working. The sliders in Lightroom have controls for Whites, Highlights, Exposure, Blacks, and Shadows, plus curves and many other enhancements. I can recover plenty of additional details from raw files of normal scenes. (See samples below.) I'm usually able to get most of the effect I'm going for. If there are extremes, I'll use EBTR and then HDR stacking:
> Use your camera's "auto-bracket" feature to make several exposures of a nature or still life scene, so that you can do HDR stacking (high dynamic range, also jokingly known as "high definition reality") in software. Many post-processing apps allow such stacking and will blend over, under, and normal exposures together for dynamic range compression. Results can range from subtle to horribly over-done, so exercise restraint! I was looking at some real estate photos on Zillow this weekend that were waaaaay over-processed with HDR technique.
> In the studio, you can use multiple lighting instruments with umbrellas, soft boxes, beauty dishes, or polished bowl flash reflectors. You can use scrims, "flags," gobos... reflectors in white, gray, gold, silver... "bare bulb" technique, and "Chinese lantern" fill sources.
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