Help me fix my mistake during my last trip

[VVFF]

So here are some, in my opinion, "ugly" pics from my last trip. During this trip my solution for this situation was going to HDR. However, the blowing grass kinda screwed that up. So...I have thought that perhaps I should have just used the pop up flash on the S3 IS I had at the time, however, I wonder if that would truly have fixed these overexposed skies.

Another thought is perhaps the extended dynamic range of a larger sensor may have helped a bit. I don't think it would have made much of a difference though.

My guess is that these images just would have had to be taken during a different time of the day. Is that a correct feeling?

[ukcatfan]

The flash would not help. Your shutter speed was at 1/250, which is probably the fastest possible with a flash on your camera. You simply overexposed them. Even with JPG, you can bring the shadows up from being too dark easier than you can recover a blown out sky. Next time I would suggest underexposing the subject by about a stop and bringing it up in post processing.

[VVFF]

Originally Posted by ukcatfan

The flash would not help. Your shutter speed was at 1/250, which is probably the fastest possible with a flash on your camera. You simply overexposed them. Even with JPG, you can bring the shadows up from being too dark easier than you can recover a blown out sky. Next time I would suggest underexposing the subject by about a stop and bringing it up in post processing.

Yeah fortunately some came out with the sky metered instead of the subject. I was able to take these and do exactly what you described here. I think I will be more successful with this technique when I get my SLR which will give me less noise in shadow regions.

Always looking to improve!

Here's one I fixed via that very technique a few months back.

[YesDear]

Does your camera have a spot metering option? If so, then this would be a perfect time to use it and meter on the animal. Or if you can lock the meter setting, step up and meter on the figure, lock the meter and step back and take the shot. the sky may be blown out but you are more interested in the detail of the creature.

[VVFF]

Originally Posted by YesDear

Does your camera have a spot metering option? If so, then this would be a perfect time to use it and meter on the animal. Or if you can lock the meter setting, step up and meter on the figure, lock the meter and step back and take the shot. the sky may be blown out but you are more interested in the detail of the creature.

Actually that's exactly opposite what I want to do. In these pictures my main complaint is the completely blown out sky. I wasn't shooting into the sun, its just the limited dynamic range of the camera. So, I think in this case metering somewhere between the sky and "animal" might be best, then fix later.

[YesDear]

It is sometimes like taking a picture of a person in the snow or at the beach. The camera will never be able to balance that broad a spectrum of light. That is why the sky usually wins. The subject comes out really dark. Remember that your camera will always try to balance the entire picture to 18% neutral gray.

I have always been taught that in those circumstances meter for what you want part of the image you want the most detail. More times than not you want the detail in the animal than the sky. With digital, I can replace the sky if I want to in post production. It is far more difficult to replace the detail in the animal. The animal is what the eye is drawn to.

So unless you can change your directions to change the direction of the light you then must determine your subject and meter accordingly.

[pjacobi]

I would suggest using a polarizing filter to improve sky photos and to cut through haze.

Choose carefully the time of day for your photos.


-Paul

[WDWFigment]

Besides the above advice that has been offered, do your HDR processing, then layer one image over the top that has the grass properly exposed, do a layer mask on it, and brush it through so that only that one layer of grass is showing. In essence, you then have an HDR shot minus the grass, which is a single exposure.

The best advice, though, is to choose a better time of day to take these pictures. Obviously that doesn't help you now, though, so hopefully the above advice helps.

[Quicklabs]

Here's a five minute fix it job.