BOOK CLUB: UNDERSTANDING EXPOSURE - Chapter 4 (LIGHT)

[bayhli]

Objective: Chapter 4 (Light) of Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson:

• Exploring the Types of Light (pages 94-113)
• Metering (pages 114-127)
• Low Light and Night Photography (pages 128-135)
• ISO (pages 154-55)

Timeline: Finish up by Christmas, whatever that means to each of us!

All righty then..... post your questions, comments and practice right here in this thread. (I can't help it, it's the "teacher" in me! )


Chapter 1 - Defining Exposure
http://www.elementsvillage.com/forum...ad.php?t=29371

Chapter 2 - Aperture (part 1/2)
http://www.elementsvillage.com/forum...ad.php?t=30025

Chapter 2 - Aperture (part 2/2)
http://www.elementsvillage.com/forum...ad.php?t=30434

Chapter 3 - Shutter Speed
http://www.elementsvillage.com/forum...ad.php?t=31181

[nkeevers]

LOL! Pat, your're a great teacher!!

[GaryK]

Yes ma'am.

[bayhli]

If we're all done clowning around.....

I don't know how the rest of you are doing but between the cold and/or snow I'm not getting out with my camera. Kind of hard to keep the momentum going without related practice so thought perhaps we can at least get some general discussion going.

I took these back in the middle of November when the lakes were only partially frozen. Judging by the settings I used, I was falling-down drunk that day! Other than straightening and taking out the worst dust spots I left the images as-is given the topic. WB was on auto.


1. Manual Mode, SS 1/10, AV 22.0, Evaluative Metering, ISO 100 17-85mm @ 85.0mm

I was on the other side of the highway fooling around with a trivial subject - happened to turn around and see beautiful colour that I was totally missing, so mad! Luckily my camera was on a monopod but trying to recall what to do with settings before the scene disappeared was stressful.

I probably metered off the sky even though I was in evaluative, figuring I would be getting a silhouetted foreground. Probably should have used spot or partial metering...

It was only about 4:30 pm, still quite light out as you can tell from the sky. I would liked to have captured this scene as it was naturally, with the foreground properly exposed as well as the sky. If it were more planned would it be possible to do this with a neutral density filter for the sky? Or is this a case where you take multiple exposures for the sky and for the foreground and blend them together?



2. Aperture Priority, SS 1/60, AV 20.0, Evaluative Metering, ISO 1600 17-85mm @ 70.0mm

I wandered down to the lake attached to the creek in the image above, and had the same thoughts. What do I do with the settings to have this exposed as it really looks, which meant it was still light enough to see the whole scene, not underexposed as it turned out.

In my wisdom I decided to pump up the ISO and as a result I have grain, grain, grain. I've read various recommendations for ISO from 100-400 for dusk/sunset images, not sure where to go with that.


3. Aperture Priority, SS 1/50, AV 16.0, Evaluative Metering, ISO 1600 17-85mm @ 61.0mm

More of the same, except now we bring in some of the surrounding snow to see what would happen. I'm pretty sure with this one that I just focused on the coloured reflection on the water and metered the whole scene to experiment.

In my part of the country it is hard to escape the reflection of the horizon trees in the water, which leaves you with a silhouette that is an ugly wide dark band, that spoils sunset images. I would be nice to have some detail in the trees reflection in the water, but how given you have the dark horizon surrounded by the bright sky and the bright sky reflection in the water also. Suggestions?

How do you meter for a sunset, water reflection and snow?

If you'd like to enlighten me with your comments, please do.

In temporary lieu of practice, perhaps we can post images that aren't exposed correctly, for us to test out what we might have done instead based on what we're reading. Do you have any you are puzzling over?

In another thread, Laurie suggests capturing the same scene in the different lights as the day progresses. An excellent learning exercise if you are lucky enough to have the weather for it right now.

[bayhli]

Elizabeth, did you manage to pick up a copy of the book?

[lexcell]

Pat,
In response to your questions...
1. It would not look all that natural to have the foreground well lit and the sunset perfect. The silhouette subjects are backlit by the sunset and if they were lit up, people would know that you added light. That's ok if that's what you want but your first image is actually quite good...a little darker would have brought out more of the sunset color. There is a bit too much dark on the right side but overall good start.

2. Actually, another good job. I like the separation of the grasses in the foreground from the dark horizon. You could probably bump up the saturation/ color of the sky and you've nailed it.

3. If you want the snow and grasses to be lit and capture the sunset you will need to introduce flash or take two images and blend them in Elements. As a single capture another good job. There is some detail in the foreground, the sunset could have more color and you can get that by underexposing the image a bit or by enhancing it in elements to look like what you originally saw.

Keep up the good work.

[bayhli]

Thanks for the critique Laurie. It will be fun to see what I can do with your editing advice, haven't tried the blending of images as yet. I've sometimes changed the WB to cloudy for a more colourful sunset but you tend to lose the "blues" which I like.

Forgot about flash as an option - now that I'd like to experiment with.

[GaryK]

Pat

Not much more to add other than to say I like the photos.

The silhouette look is perfect. I thought you exposed fine.
As Laurie said a a bit darker even, to get some more colour. I'm not sure I would want the foreground lighter in the third photo (Im not taking the picture though )

One thing you can try as a semi substitute for the dual photo. Is to open the photo in camera RAW, lighten it to your liking, save it as different name, then open the original and the lightened version and try merging them.
This won't be quite the same look as exposing it lighter but it will give you an idea of what and how to blend the two.

Good idea about posting some older photos. I am having a heck of a time getting out. The fact I leave for work at 5am and get back at 530pm is making it hard to get out in any type of daylight. Plus a few other things going on are eating my weekends. I'm off the week of the 17th so I'm hoping most of my time commitments wll be done and I can get out that week.

[Chuck S.]

Gary, your suggestion of processing an image twice through ACR is intriguing. What techniques would you suggest for doing the merging?

[GaryK]

Chuck

With PE it will pretty much be selection based unless you can find a blend mode that works. That would likely depend on the photo.

In CS (not sure of the versions, 3 for sure though) you could use the blend if mode, and split the sliders to help smooth out the transitions.

While it won't be a true dual exposure and might look a bit "processed". it will give you a good handle on what you would need to do in a dual exposure situation.