Help with a sunset photo

Went out for a little drive with my daughter tonight, just to get out of the house. A nice sunset so I tried to capture a few shots. I liked the set up on this one but not how it turned out. Original file is mRAW. Suggestions on how to do it differently appreciated.

I've had this problem myself. Blown highlights, darkened foreground. As has been explained to me, you must choose between the background and the foreground. The other option is to shoot one exposed for the sky, followed by one exposed for the foreground, then merge the two in post.

Maybe could have tried to use the on-camera flash to fill in a bit, I don't know...

This is a text book case for using flash.

This was shot at the same time using the 7DII on camera flash.

duckster wrote in post #19050246
This was shot at the same time using the 7DII on camera flash.

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Did you adjust the flash exposure compensation. By on camera do you mean the pop up or n actual flash mounted on the camera?

It is the pop up flash. I don't own a "real" flash...

duckster wrote in post #19050515
It is the pop up flash. I don't own a "real" flash...

The pop-up is not really powerful enough, esp at 200 mm. How far away were you from your daughter? Anything more than 10 feet and the flash is basically useless.

You can try setting the flash to manual and bump up the flash output level to 1/1. Also try increasing the ISO and closing the aperture proportionally to now blow out the background. It might take a few iterations dial in the numbers.

john crossley wrote in post #19050537
All you need to do is lift the shadows. You will get far superior results working on a RAW image.

Gosh, I really need to learn how to post-process!

RhodyPhotos wrote in post #19050531
The pop-up is not really powerful enough, esp at 200 mm. How far away were you from your daughter? Anything more than 10 feet and the flash is basically useless.

You can try setting the flash to manual and bump up the flash output level to 1/1. Also try increasing the ISO and closing the aperture proportionally to now blow out the background. It might take a few iterations dial in the numbers.

I was probably 15-20 feet away. I know I need to get a real flash and learn how to use it..Just have not made the leap yet

john crossley wrote in post #19050537
All you need to do is lift the shadows. You will get far superior results working on a RAW image.


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I do have the RAW image. I will mess around with it a bit. I usually do very little (read no) post processing. Another skill I need to work on!

Tried to do some PP. It did help (I think?)

duckster wrote in post #19050813
Tried to do some PP. It did help (I think?)

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forum: General Photography Talk

Sure did! And the result is better IMO than with on-camera flash. If you feel ambitious, you could try to warm up the colors in the figure.

So, I use the PP the is part of Photos on Mac. It has some of those adjustments, but I am not really familiar with them.

Well; here is my version.
Could not do much with jpeg file.