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 08/24/2003 06:02:00 PM · #1
Hi --

So I went out shooting for "Monuments" today and I got this concept that I really really liked using a polarizing filter (don't worry -- I submitted something totally different for the challenge):



(Here's a link to a larger version.)

Problem is that I couldn't get the exposure on the facade of the monument right. It was either way too dark, like above, or everything was way too blown out.

I did get one shot that was kind of the middle-of the road (see it here) but the statues are way too dark still.

Two questions: I've tried to fix these with spot editing in Photoshop (not for the challenge) and they all look fake. I would like to know if someone knows of a way to fix these existing photos?

Second question: how can I take these again so that this doesn't happen? I know shooting into the sun is not the most brilliant idea, but I think you can see what I was going for.

Thanks!
Rob

Message edited by author 2003-08-24 18:03:55.
 08/24/2003 06:14:16 PM · #2
I don't suppose you could set up a big white sheet on a frame to reflect the sun's light onto it? Probably too big of a statue for that. I think your best bet is to just hide the sun behind it more.
 08/24/2003 06:15:28 PM · #3
//www.dpchallenge.com/portfolio_edit.php?IMAGE_ID=34842
I hope this is what your looking for. Im not the best at PS.
 08/24/2003 06:15:48 PM · #4


Message edited by drewmedia - Broken link.
 08/24/2003 06:16:28 PM · #5
Muckpond Indy monument
 08/24/2003 06:17:58 PM · #6
Working Link ;)
 08/24/2003 06:17:59 PM · #7
Please forgive me. I have no Idea how to post links. muck I tried to lighten your photo up for you. Im not that great at PS.
08/24/2003 06:19:15 PM · #8
Konador always at my rescue! Thanks
08/24/2003 06:20:48 PM · #9
Next time - put the cam on a tripod and take two shots: one overexposed and one under. Then you can blend them together. The way these three shots are, you can't really do it because they aren't of the same thing.

M
 08/24/2003 06:20:57 PM · #10
Originally posted by muckpond:


Second question: how can I take these again so that this doesn't happen? I know shooting into the sun is not the most brilliant idea, but I think you can see what I was going for.

Thanks!
Rob


First of all, it's really hard to tell from this photograph, but of all the monuments in the world I think this one looks like the one on the 'Circle' in downtown indianapolis.... am I right?

Here is how I would handle this...
Set up your composition using a tripod. Take a series of exactly the same shot, at different exposures (bracket). If you want some detial in the sculpture, take some with flash.

Open the images you wouldlike to use in Photoshop (the best sky, the best monument detail) and copy and paste into one Photoshop image. Then, you can either erase away the part you don't want, or paint in a precise layer mask to 'hide' a part you don't want. (ie if you have the best sky on top, erase the monument portion of the top picture. You are left with the best sky inthe top layer, and the best monument in the lower layer. This takes a little practice, but it works well. I've done this with up to 7 or 8 layers for noe photograph to get awesome results!

As far as getting an accurate exposure that meets your needs shooting into the sun, I can't help you there... Not sure there is a way to do this well in camera (without lots of lighting to get the monument the way you want, not very feasible).

Hope this helps!
JD Anderson


looksl ike Mavrik beat me by a few seconds! LOL Same idea, fewer words... I guess I'm long winded...
[edit]Message edited by author 2003-08-24 18:23:35.
 08/24/2003 06:43:40 PM · #11
Shooting into the sun like this is one instance in which fill in flash can work very well. It won't change the color of the sky, or the sun, but it will add light and detail to the sculpture, and if your exposure is right, it won't look obviously like you've used a flash.

I used this technique with this shot, though my specifics were different. I was extremely close to the bricks in the shot, and I wanted a darker sky, so I changed the levels dramatically in Photoshop--and got a lot of grain because of it. But with your statue, you shouldn't have this problem as much.

Message edited by author 2003-08-24 18:46:06.
 08/24/2003 09:09:17 PM · #12

thanks for the suggestions!

i think i'll play around in PS some more and see about combining images. let's see what i can come up with.

any other shooting-into-the-sun suggestions?

08/24/2003 09:31:05 PM · #13
I think this is a simple example of a photo that can't be done the way the photographer wants it to be done. When you have an extremely bright area and an extremely dark area in the photograph, you have to compromise somewhere. You can expose for one or the other, but getting acceptable results inbetween is not easy.

A fill flash could help depending on the size of this 'monument'. Your flash finite effective range, and from this particular view, I don't think it would help much. Most of your light is gonna fall on the closest part of the monument since you are photographing from an angle.

This is a good learning photo, but it's unfortunate that the lesson learned here is that there are just some photos that can't be the way you want them :)
08/24/2003 09:33:15 PM · #14
Originally posted by jmsetzler:

This is a good learning photo, but it's unfortunate that the lesson learned here is that there are just some photos that can't be the way you want them :)


...unless you overlap layers in photoshop, no way in the camera...

I'm still wondering if that is at the Circle in Indianapolis... It's kind of an abstract photo and I haven't been there in years, but that is what comes to mind.
JD
 08/25/2003 07:03:24 AM · #15

Yeah, smelly, ya caught me. It's the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Indy.

John: WRONG ANSWER (lol), but probably true. *sigh* My too-high expectations once again come crashing down to Earth.

Thanks for the tips everyone!
 08/25/2003 09:03:26 AM · #16
Rob,
One final observation; are you shooting in raw? If not, you're missing detail that you might capture in the dark areas; you could bring this up as desired by dodging.
Regarding fill flash, the 7i is pretty capable with external flash support; I would suggest an off-camera flash and a long cord. If my memory serves me right on the size of this monument, you would want to hold the flash maybe 6-10 feet in back of the camera. As suggested above, set up on tripod, then trigger with timer. Start the timer, then walk back with the flash.
I think you could pull off a very good, subtle fill flash effect this way. I'd still shoot this difficult subject in raw.
In short I think this is very doable, just damnably difficult.
 08/25/2003 09:10:55 AM · #17
there's an action that does an amazing job of blending an over and under exposed image into one perfect image.

send me a message . .
08/25/2003 09:30:42 AM · #18
Is this any better ?


I made a fairly rough/ ready selection so it could be improved quite a bit if you wanted to spend some time doing it.

Technique was as follows:
In photoshop:

Select using the 'colour range' option. Change it to select only the highlights (drop down 'colour' selection dialog)

Create two duplicate layers - in one, delete the highlights and keep everything else, in the other invert the selection and delete everything else and keep the highlights.

To brighten up the mid-tones/ shadows, change that layer to 'screen' blending mode, and play with the opacity. If it doesn't brighten things enough, create a duplicate of that layer and again play with the opacity in the screen mode.

You can do the opposite (to darken areas that are too bright) using the multiply blending mode, though for this example all I used was screen.

You could get finer control by spliting the image into highlights, midtones and shadows, rather than just highlights and everything else like I did here.

To fix it, fill flash may work, but it is a huge subject, not so sure that you could get this same flare effect and good lighting. Another way to 'fix' it is to try and use something that will make a clearly defined shadow, and try to get the foreground really dark.

A cleanly defined subject can look quite good like this, I think.





Message edited by author 2003-08-25 09:32:56.
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