Big Thicket - How to set exposure question

[Sailor Don]

I sort of lost touch with this forum for the last 4 months. I like the new format. Still have to work out the direct image link.

I was taking pictures on a hike through the Turkey Creek Unit of the Big Thicket National Preserve on Sunday. The mosquitoes were killing me, but I managed to take this photo of a cypress swamp scene.

Problem is, how can the exposure be adjusted to compensate for the bright sky and the dark woods. It is amazing how the human eye can compensate. Is there any way to make the camera do the same? Or is this a "no-win" situation?

I also noticed significant "blue fringe" on the edge of the tree trunk on the left where it meets the sky. (Most evident on full size image.) I have never seen it that bad with this camera (Canon PowerShot Pro1) before. What am I doing wrong?

http://users3.ev1.net/~sailord/0_Photo/IMG_5338_sm.jpg

Full size

http://users3.ev1.net/~sailord/0_Photo/IMG_5338.jpg

Sailor Don

[DavidEB]

It's a beautiful shot, but in difficult lighting. The sky is blown out (that is, sky pixels register at 255 intensity -- can't get any higher). If you had underexposed a little you could have used levels in photoshop (or elements, which is what I have). But then you might not have had the same rich colors and light in the forest. There are many ways to do this, I know only a few.

1) take two identical shots, one exposed for forest one exposed for sky. Change the shutter speed rather than the f-stop so the depth-of-field doesn't change. Then in photoshop elements, select file -> new -> photomerge, pick the two images, and click the option "keep as layers". Then erase the blown-out sky parts from the darker image, and flatten the layers.

2) With the image you have, again in photoshop elements, use the magic wand to select the blown-out sky (set wand threshold to 5, turn off "contiguous" and click once on the sky). Create a duplicate layer. Invert the selection and delete the non-sky parts. Create a solid color fill layer, pick a light blue that approximates the sky color you want, make sure you still have the non-sky parts selected, and delete that from the fill layer. Set the the layer mode to darken (so you're not replacing sky, you're just darkening it), and adjust the opacity slider until you have a better-looking sky. Attached is a quick attempt. If you fiddle around with the color & opacity of the fill layer. or try fill mode of color dodge, you can get a variety of results. If you have a spare blue-sky-with-puffy clouds shot lying around, you could use that to paint in the sky portions.

3) tricky method, not always successful but can give great results - create a levels adjustment layer, add a black to transparent gradient to it, lower the opacity. Under that create a transparent layer. With a black brush, paint in the areas to adjust.

[Sailor Don]

DavidEB,

Thanks for the ideas. I have tried the first technique you listed a couple of times in the past. I even thought of it when I took the photo. But the mosquitoes were swarming and made me highly motivated to get moving on the trail again. So to save a quart of my blood, I decided to do a quick shot that barely gave the camera time to autofocus before I moved on.

Next time I will remember to bring mosquito repellant.

Due to the large difference in light levels, I don't think there is a "one shot" solution. Now if the digital camera manufacturers could only come up with a setting that would adjust for the over exposed areas the way the human eye does.

Sailor Don

[gsmx2]

I have a question on the double-shot technique.

I've used that when I have a clear horizon. How will it effect the exposure of the trees that jut over the horizon?

gsm x2

[Sailor Don]

gsm x2

Here is the link to one of my attempts at splicing two exposures of the same picture together.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=41761

In the cypress swamp scene, it is likely that the trees that jut over the horizon would be difficult to balance the exposure properly. Not as simple a separation as the bridge picture.