[Tom Woj]

Hi all,

Still new to using a dlsr, but I'm realy enjoying it. One thing I've been finding it hard to do is take decent pictures where I can't expose for two things at once.

From what I've gathered using a graduated filter would help, so i'll pick one up, but let's say I don't have one. Now what would you expose for so that you can get the best of both things in a shot - e.g. a landscape foreground vs the sun, so that you could easily edit it in post?

I tried a shot today of a sunrise over some train tracks with a train passing by - I wanted to get both element's of the scene in, so I exposed for the sunrise in the hope I could bump up the exposure of the train in post. I'll include my attempt below, any suggestion's on how I could do it better/easier?







Cheers,

Woj

[Ishpuini]

Did you shoot RAW or JPG? And what ISO?

If you shoot RAW and the lowest possible ISO (using a tripod if necessary) you should get the most dynamic range in your image. Try to expose this to the right. You original looks a bit dark to me (but that could be the lousy monitor I'm looking at here at work), so possibly you could have exposed a bit more to begin with, allowing you to pull up the image a bit more.

In your result I would have kept the sky a bit darker I think, the foreground looks acceptable. Which software do you use to process your images? Try experimenting with graduated overlays if your software allows for this. These are the digital equivalent to the graduated filters and could work all right provided your original image has sufficient dynamic range.

If you don't manage to pull out enough detail to your satisfaction while retaining sufficient detail in the sky, your best option is to try HDR. Bracketing two or three images 2 stops apart should do, but in more extreme situations you may prefer 5 or more. Merging can be done either manually in Photoshop (to avoid ghosting of moving objects) or automated using HDR or Enfuse software. Personally I use Adobe Lightroom for which there is a LR/Enfuse plugin available that I find does the job great.

hth, Wim

[aurele]

the sensor of DSLR are not good enought to be able to expose correctly a sunset and a forground. But some tricks do exist to "counter" this fact.

The easiest is the HDR. Some body can do it by themself.

the HDR is in fact a superposition of pictures with different exposure.

Here is a simple superposition of your 2 pictures. I just put one with 50% less opacity



edit : powned !

[procyon]

Choosing to expose for the sunrise is absolutely correct in this case. If ever in doubt always expose for the brightest important part of image. You can always bump up the shadows but clipped highlights are gone forever. Did you shoot in RAW? RAW processors are usually very good in getting nice details out of shadows and not wrecking the brighter parts in the process. Even if you generally don't want/need RAW files I suggest to make an exception in those more difficult cases. Also an option is to shoot an exposure bracket where the darkest image would be something like your current image and then use one of many HDR/exposure fusion programs available(NB! these programs are not only for producing wildly oversaturated and overprocessed looking images, they are also very helpful in getting a nice expossure blended image).

[Tom Woj]

Cheers for the help folks, got some nice stuff to try

Did you shoot RAW or JPG? And what ISO?

Sorry should have put that with the image. It was in RAW (dng), ISO 100, 1/2500, Pentax K-r. Can't remember the exact aperture as I was using a manual lens, probably f4 or 5.

And it's not your monitor, it is really really dark :P In fact I was surprised at how well I was able to bump up the train part of the image! RAW is awesome!

Which software do you use to process your images? Try experimenting with graduated overlays if your software allows for this.

Aye I did put a grad filter on the sky, using Lightroom to edit. There's just so many ways to change the style of image, I could be here forever getting so many different versions of one image ... don't know if that's a blessing or a curse

The easiest is the HDR. Some body can do it by themself.

Good idea. I'll definitely give HDR a go at some point. I didn't have a tripod with me for this pic but i'll try it for landscape next time round.

I tried a slightly altered edit also. Look's more like a sunset than a sunrise now, but oh well.

[dadipentak]

Look's more like a sunset than a sunrise now,

It does--but why is that?