metering forests

OK so I went out a couple weeks ago to shoot in a somewhat dark forest, metering for the darks of course blew out the lights. Metering for the lights and I lost detail in the darks and got grain. I'm not into HDR.

For anything with the sky it's easy, a GND filter is the trick, but for brooks in dark forests, or a bit of sun shining on a fern with a mossy background I just can't get it the way I want it.

LOL- boy do I have fun with this. I shoot in the rainforest all the time, and have to choose- lights, or darks. That's all there is to it. Shoot in RAW, at ISO 100 or 200, use the spot meter and Exposure lock to get a proper exposure of your subject, and try to avoid sky patches.

I find an under-exposed shot looks dark and broody, which is cool, and an over-exposed shot just looks blown out.

A circular polariser works to cut down on glare from leaf reflections and so on.

If all else fails, bracket your shots.

I shoot RAW and find that allowing just a little of the "blown highlight" blinking of that sunlight coming thru, but mostly obscured by branches, bushes, etc. can be easily corrected in post. This allows me to squeeze another zone or two out of the bottom of the histogram.

thanks. I'll try to shoot RAW more, my crappy laptop won't read the RAW files so maybe I'll have to download them at work and try it that way. I do use the exposure lock, but it's just not enough sometimes. And yes I too prefer the darker moody shots so I tend to expose more for the lights then the darks.

Anyway here are some examples of what I'm talking about.

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You need some post processing my dear! I lightened the shadows in Photoshop, darkened the highlights, uped the saturation a hair, and sharpened it, a bit too much I think. Look better? I really like this photo- I'd be putting it on the wall.

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I like the fall photo more than this one, but it still shows promise. Too much bare branch on the left side for my taste though. Same treatment as the one above.

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gardengirl13 wrote in post #6724567

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Back to the OP subject, this shot is exactly what I am talking about. See that little bit if sky coming thru, but mostly obscured by the bare branches? You can meter so that area is just hitting the top of the histogram, just a tad over. Doing so allows you to bring up as much needed shadows from the bottom as you can. The sky can usually be corrected very easily in post with a RAW file by bringing your exposure down 1/2 stop or less. (But then again, this might not be an ultimate example because there's no super-deep, almost-black shadows, but you get the idea.)

+1 for shooting raw and metering the highlights to just blow out. This should give you just the headroom required to bring the highlights back and get the most shadow detail (you can get up to 2 stops leeway in raw depending on your convertor).

The_Camera_Poser wrote in post #6730381
You need some post processing my dear! I lightened the shadows in Photoshop, darkened the highlights, uped the saturation a hair, and sharpened it, a bit too much I think. Look better? I really like this photo- I'd be putting it on the wall.

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That's great! Thanks! I'll have to work more on my PPing. I might also go re-shoot it over the holiday. I also want to shoot it in winter, which may be fun to get to in the snow, but I think it'll be worth it! Now I'll have to figure out how to meter snow in a dark forest!

So much to learn!

Ok, I'm going to go out again this weekend (if it gets above freezing! Man it's been cold!) I'll try different metering techniques and try shooting in RAW and will download here at work.

I'll work more on my PPing and see what I can do.

And camera poser, I'm very happy you made my lens look so good! With it being dark and damp and hard to shoot there I was worried about how soft the images were, you are a wizard with photoshop!

Ok here's my first try at an edit. Not quite as good as yours, but I'll keep messing with it.

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I disagree GG- I reckon yours is better than mine- working with the original file makes alterations in PPO look more natural, and you did a better job of sharpening it.

I went back to the same waterfall like 30 times to get it right, so I know where you are coming from!

love the water stream, how do you do that?

a long shutter speed makes water all silky.

you need to use a tripod, the timer or a remote trigger, and mirror lockup to minimize camera shake too.