any tips on retaking this kind of pic

[dragondx]

guys i need help taking pics on this kind of situation,


so i took this shot :
http://users.adelphia.net/~eddierustandi/Picture2540.jpg

and i noticed that the trees turned out dark, but if i changed the shutter speed to a slower one i cant see the skies....
like this :


http://users.adelphia.net/~eddierustandi/Picture2543.jpg

i tried changing around the shutter speeds but i cant seem to get the lightning right so the sky and the tree will have the same brightness,is having both the tree and the sky shown at the same brightness possible ?

[eland]

Hi

Firstly, for my connection, your images are rather too large,
and take too long to download.
I stopped the download after seeing a few centimeters of each image.
Enough though to see what your problem is.
There is quite a large brightness difference between the sky and the palm leaves.
To get both areas pleasingly exposed can be done in an editing program
by using a mask. Then you can treat the sky and leaves separately.
If you choose to have the sky correct, then selecting the leaves
will allow you to lighten them.
If you have the leaves correct, you can select the sky and darken it,
or even add a different sky.
The first method is the better. Get the sky right and then
lighten the leaves using the tools in the program.
Use Levels on the leaves, or even Brightness & Contrast will do the job.

PS. From what I've seen of the image, it would be easier
to select the sky with the magic wand tool, rather than
selecting the thin leaves.
Then under Select or Mask depending on the program you can
change from selecting the sky to selecting the leaves simply by
inverting the selection.

eland

[ken-w]

dragondx wrote:
i tried changing around the shutter speeds but i cant seem to get the lightning right so the sky and the tree will have the same brightness,is having both the tree and the sky shown at the same brightness possible ?

Hi - first just a quick comment that I agree with Eland - post smaller photos for this type of demo purpose - big ones take too long to download.

Shooting a scene with a high dynamic range is always difficult. Sometimes a polarizer will help by darkening the sky and reducing the contrast range.

In post-processing, a great (and very easy) technique for fixing this type of problem is contrast masking which works on the entire photo (you don't have to mask off individual regions). A tutorial about this can be found at:
www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/contrast_masking.shtml

[Leighow]

DRAGONX

Look… my own opinion is to abandon these shots. There are fine…but…better to apply all of this great advice to a special picture. Because, even if you do succeed in your surgical moves, your picture will still lack oomph. Why?

1: Limited composition:
******************
The pool is severed. The fern is severed. The palm is severed. The house is severed.
You have to backup somewhere -- beyond the far side of the pool to shoot a fuller shot. Or find a camera with a wide-angle lens. If the house is surrounded by elms that will be tough. If you can get on a ladder or climb onto a neighbour’s garage roof, I’d try that.

2: Poor light:
***********
This was probably taken in too cloudy weather, or perhaps too close to dawn or dusk, or perhaps the sun was shadowed by a nearby hill. Keep in mind the wide range of light that the camera can deal with. Let’s take the G2. You can take photographs in the woods with limited light (ISO 400, Apertures 4.5, 1/13 of a second). So too, if you exit the woods and shoot a partly clouded sky (sun shielded by the clouds), the G2 will do same at ISO 100, Ap 6.3, and shutter at 1/800. In your case, I would try to fine a better time of day, and weather permitting shoot when some sun is (hopefully) coming in from behind and lighting the house.

That’s my opinion. I have to buzz off now and give others a chance to reply.

HOWIE