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11/14/2004 01:10:40 AM · #1 |
Took this picture around midnight tonight to see how well my FZ20 would perform under a cloudy sky with just the building lights. This is the local government building and they light the 11 story building pillars very brightly [I would say the lights are 10 X brighter than any other lights on the building. My question is how could I keep from them being so blown out at the same time keeping the other areas from darkening out?
ISO: 100
SS: 6 sec.
AP: 2.8
EXPOSURE: +/- 0.00
FLASH: NONE
LENS: 36mm |
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11/14/2004 01:29:36 AM · #2 |
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11/14/2004 01:34:23 AM · #3 |
This might work.
I don't know what software you use, but in Photoshop and a bunch of others programs you can select a certain area useing color select or magic wand tool.
Once the area or color you wish to dim is selected, use brightness/contrast or hue/saturation to dim the parts that are too shiny. Hope this helps. |
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11/14/2004 01:43:00 AM · #4 |
Thanks I tried both contrast/brightness and desaturation using the magic wand and since there are no colors in the burned out area it just gray out like it has been painted on.
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11/14/2004 01:46:21 AM · #5 |
You're going to have trouble lighting the dark sections of your photo without blowing out the bright ones since the lights are so bright. You might want to try reducing the aperture to let less light in. If you have any way to light the foreground, that would help. A flash might even help if it's strong enough, especially if you can fire it more than once during the long exposure.
If you have a recent version of Photoshop, you can use the Shadows/Highlights feature to help lighten the dark areas and dim the bright ones. But once any part of the photo is pure white, there's really nothing you can do to change it, short of coloring over it or burning highlights.
Your best bet is probably to go back out there and play with aperture/shutter time combinations until you find one that works. Good luck!
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11/14/2004 04:16:15 AM · #6 |
| Try taking your night shots while there is still light in the sky, tha light in the buildins and the ambient light can balance out at this time, You can use the compenastion button and give a series of exposures at -1/2stop and-1stop inrements and see how that works. |
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11/14/2004 04:27:39 AM · #7 |
Set your camera to 50 iso. This way, you will have to use a twice lower shutter speed.
Now, with about 15s exposure, you can "emulate" a graduated ND filter:
Take a piece of black paper or something similar (I usually use my camera remote control for this). Hold this black "occluder" in front of the less, just where the building is.
Hold it for about 1/3 to 1/2 of the exposure timing, then remove it.
When holding it in front of the lens, slowly move it in order to smoothen the transition in the final picture.
With a little practice, you will have some quite good results. |
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11/14/2004 04:33:08 AM · #8 |
| My camera lowest ISO is 80 and my longest exposure is 8 sec. But I will try what you said. I believe my shot came out pretty good except for the burned out areas because of such bright light. I was pleased with the low noise. Thanks for the tips. |
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