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Washed out background
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May 26, 2014 10:47:04   #
Tom S. Loc: Hillsboro, Ore.
 
CaptainC wrote:
The prevention is in the choice of background ...


That, and the woman could/should have changed into a lighter outfit.

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May 26, 2014 11:10:25   #
CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver
 
gkrishnan wrote:
Here is my simple solution to try to keep the background same in one of Ur photos.


Look at all the clone tracks on the right side. This is nice of you to try, but the clone job is not good at all.

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May 26, 2014 11:34:50   #
Meives Loc: FORT LAUDERDALE
 
bsmith52 wrote:
Afternoon river walk, sun on river in background. We were under trees, shady. I know this is a tough time of day.

Nikon D700 with sb600 using fill flash. What can I do to prevent the washout. Settings? Filter? Thanks in advance.


Enclosed is camera data and I tried to magic wand the outside and darken it. The Captain was right. PP does not work. David





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May 26, 2014 13:15:24   #
speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho
 
bsmith52 wrote:
Afternoon river walk, sun on river in background. We were under trees, shady. I know this is a tough time of day.

Nikon D700 with sb600 using fill flash. What can I do to prevent the washout. Settings? Filter? Thanks in advance.
The only way would be to use a slower shutter, but I think your images look ok as is!

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May 26, 2014 13:42:56   #
Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA
 
bsmith52 wrote:
Afternoon river walk, sun on river in background. We were under trees, shady. I know this is a tough time of day.

Nikon D700 with sb600 using fill flash. What can I do to prevent the washout. Settings? Filter? Thanks in advance.


bsmith52,

Lets put image 1 on the bottom of the pile, it is too far gone, it may not be worth considering. Looking at image 2, it had potential just before pressing the shutter button.

The task here is to better balance the exposure between the bright background and the shaded subjects. You can do this with Neutral Density filters (ND), if your external flash has enough light power to overcome the ND effect. With a ND filter in front of the lens, the camera will meter the light coming through the lens, the background light and the reflected light from the flash. If the external flash is powerful enough to overcome the ND effect you might get a good overall exposure.

Another alternative is to use the computing power of the camera and a ETTL flash. The technique here is to use the camera to expose for the background, and the flash to expose for the subjects. The camera will measure the light reflected from the subjects through the lens(TTL) and control the flash duration for exposure.

I do not own your model of camera, but the settings are similar and you should be able to find exact information in your camera owners manual.

We will concentrate on your camera's built in flash, an external flash will work the same as long as it is ETTL capable.
1. Turn on camera.
2. Make sure flash is enabled.
3. Set camera Mode Control to Program (Not Auto).
4. If you have Exposure Lock (Back button exposure lock) use it to measure and lock the exposure for the background).
5. Set camera exposure metering to Average, or Center Evaluative measurement.

When you are ready to capture the image, perform the following:
1. Pop up the camera flash head.
2. Using the viewfinder make a rough composition of the subject to photograph.
3. Move the center spot of the viewfinder over to the bright background.
4. Press the back button exposure Lock button to lock in the exposure value for the bright background.
5. Recompose the viewfinder image and place the center spot on the ladies eyes.
6. Depress the shutter release button half way down. (This is Focus Lock).
7. Recompose the viewfinder for a final composition and depress the shutter all the way down.

Technically what this has done is to preset the camera shutter speed to expose for the background. Set the camera flash to expose for the subject. Set the focus for the ladies eyes. and captured a well balanced image over a bright background.

Practice this method with your on board flash, it is a lot easier getting used to all the steps than trying to use an external flash, sync cord, and flash bracket. Once you get used to the process you can move up to the big external flash system.

When you get used to using the fill flash on your camera you may want to experiment with Exposure Compensation for the background. You would start with a -.63 Ev cor the background, this will under expose the background by 63% of one stop.

Good luck,

Michael G

Library Reading Room
Library Reading Room...
(Download)

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May 26, 2014 13:59:29   #
jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ
 
bsmith52 wrote:
Afternoon river walk, sun on river in background. We were under trees, shady. I know this is a tough time of day.

Nikon D700 with sb600 using fill flash. What can I do to prevent the washout. Settings? Filter? Thanks in advance.


It's not washed out, it's blown out. There're no recoverable highlights in blown out highlights due to overexposure of that. As the Captain says, either find a darker background for your subjects, or I suggest you expose for the background and use fill flash for your subjects. For this, you may actually need a ND filter if the BG is too bright.

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May 26, 2014 14:58:39   #
Indi Loc: L. I., NY, Palm Beach Cty when it's cold.
 
Best I could do in LR 5.4.
Exposure +.51
Contrast -.6
Highlights -100
Shadows +15
Whites -100
Blacks +94

Clarity +26
Vibrance +54



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May 26, 2014 16:51:22   #
bsmith52 Loc: Northeast Alabama
 
Armadillo wrote:
bsmith52,

Lets put image 1 on the bottom of the pile, it is too far gone, it may not be worth considering. Looking at image 2, it had potential just before pressing the shutter button.

The task here is to better balance the exposure between the bright background and the shaded subjects. You can do this with Neutral Density filters (ND), if your external flash has enough light power to overcome the ND effect. With a ND filter in front of the lens, the camera will meter the light coming through the lens, the background light and the reflected light from the flash. If the external flash is powerful enough to overcome the ND effect you might get a good overall exposure.

Another alternative is to use the computing power of the camera and a ETTL flash. The technique here is to use the camera to expose for the background, and the flash to expose for the subjects. The camera will measure the light reflected from the subjects through the lens(TTL) and control the flash duration for exposure.

I do not own your model of camera, but the settings are similar and you should be able to find exact information in your camera owners manual.

We will concentrate on your camera's built in flash, an external flash will work the same as long as it is ETTL capable.
1. Turn on camera.
2. Make sure flash is enabled.
3. Set camera Mode Control to Program (Not Auto).
4. If you have Exposure Lock (Back button exposure lock) use it to measure and lock the exposure for the background).
5. Set camera exposure metering to Average, or Center Evaluative measurement.

When you are ready to capture the image, perform the following:
1. Pop up the camera flash head.
2. Using the viewfinder make a rough composition of the subject to photograph.
3. Move the center spot of the viewfinder over to the bright background.
4. Press the back button exposure Lock button to lock in the exposure value for the bright background.
5. Recompose the viewfinder image and place the center spot on the ladies eyes.
6. Depress the shutter release button half way down. (This is Focus Lock).
7. Recompose the viewfinder for a final composition and depress the shutter all the way down.

Technically what this has done is to preset the camera shutter speed to expose for the background. Set the camera flash to expose for the subject. Set the focus for the ladies eyes. and captured a well balanced image over a bright background.

Practice this method with your on board flash, it is a lot easier getting used to all the steps than trying to use an external flash, sync cord, and flash bracket. Once you get used to the process you can move up to the big external flash system.

When you get used to using the fill flash on your camera you may want to experiment with Exposure Compensation for the background. You would start with a -.63 Ev cor the background, this will under expose the background by 63% of one stop.

Good luck,

Michael G
bsmith52, br br Lets put image 1 on the bottom of... (show quote)


I tried this under a little different situation around the house using on camera flash...very good results. will try with SB600 soon.
Thanks, Michael.

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May 26, 2014 17:17:35   #
icke
 
Hello bsmith52 ...not sure if this option has been covered but you may also add a texture layer...the sleeve is left unfinished for comparison...I would opt for the warmer textured look...lots of options here...you could use a written baby shower invitation for example...play with it :{)



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May 26, 2014 17:45:45   #
CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver
 
Well I think we have proven...for the 6783rd time, that trying to correct a BIG exposure error is a fool's errand.

Not one of the so-called "fixes" is even close to acceptable—depending on your standards, of course. The one halfway decent being the minimal correction Indi did on #2.

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May 26, 2014 18:58:47   #
Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA
 
bsmith52 wrote:
I tried this under a little different situation around the house using on camera flash...very good results. will try with SB600 soon.
Thanks, Michael.


bsmith52,

You are welcome.

Notice, I did not propose trying this on the first image, you will need a lot more experience in using this technique to correct for an exposure under the conditions #1 was photographed under.

Michael

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May 26, 2014 21:49:53   #
mrtobin Loc: North East Ohio
 
CaptainC wrote:
Well I think we have proven...for the 6783rd time, that trying to correct a BIG exposure error is a fool's errand.

Not one of the so-called "fixes" is even close to acceptable—depending on your standards, of course. The one halfway decent being the minimal correction Indi did on #2.


and it is all for naught, because it is out of focus

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May 26, 2014 22:18:02   #
bsmith52 Loc: Northeast Alabama
 
mrtobin wrote:
and it is all for naught, because it is out of focus


ok. you saw the camera data that meives posted above. the lens was a nikon 70 - 300 mm. This was a walk around, all pictures handheld.

I did not attempt any sharpening in pp. What settings could/should be changed to make it more in focus/sharper.

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May 26, 2014 22:46:25   #
Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA
 
bsmith52 wrote:
ok. you saw the camera data that meives posted above. the lens was a nikon 70 - 300 mm. This was a walk around, all pictures handheld.

I did not attempt any sharpening in pp. What settings could/should be changed to make it more in focus/sharper.


bsmith52,

To the question on making the picture in sharp focus.
Start with setting your Aperture to f/8 as a reference.
Set the camera shutter speed to around 250/sec.
Set the ISO = 200.
The next setting may alter the previous settings a small amount.
Set the camera mode to Aperture Priority. (The exposure will be controlled by the shutter speed adjustments in the camera).
Set the focus mode to single shot, and the focus measurement to center spot.

Make a preliminary composition through the viewfinder, then move the center spot in the viewfinder over the subjects eyes.
Depress the shutter release button half way down to lock focus.
Recompose the image in the viewfinder and press the shutter all the way down to capture the image.

With aperture priority set to f/8 you will have enough depth of field focus range to get sharp focus from the back of the head to the tip of the nose.

I strongly recommend you open your camera's owners manual and study all the adjustments, and how they affect capturing an image. If you don't have the manual you can connect to the camera's web site and download a user manual for free.

Michael G

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May 27, 2014 00:37:37   #
bunuweld Loc: Arizona
 
bsmith52 wrote:
Afternoon river walk, sun on river in background. We were under trees, shady. I know this is a tough time of day.

Nikon D700 with sb600 using fill flash. What can I do to prevent the washout. Settings? Filter? Thanks in advance.


I agree with Captain that the first action is to choose settings that demand no further post-processing steps. the second picture has so poor and scant background that it is impossible to get good results by cloning. The only acceptable solution is to isolate the subjects and superimpose them on a background of your choice. That's what I did, but with a background from one of my pictures that probably doesn't come even close to your setting. Just an example of what you could do in this situation. I did not spend much time on the isolation of figures but it could be improved by doing it more carefully,



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