Help with blown highlights

[Butterfly123]

I just purchased a Nikon D3100 this weekend. I've been taking pictures so far in the auto mode, as I'm still figuring out how to use the other settings. I took some pictures of my husband in our front yard patio area. It was about 9a.m., and it was light but still overcast. The pictures I take with my point and shoot in these conditions often have blown highlights, and that is what happened with the D3100 set on auto. I'm trying to figure out how to shoot pictures on manuel to avoid the blown highlights, but I'm not sure where to start. The camera on auto was set at 32mm, iso 400, 1/25s , F/4.8. When I messed around with the apeture the highlights still seemed to be there, but they were slightly blurred because the the shutter speed. I am a total newbie, so I hope my question is making sense. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[disneyboy2003]

I just purchased a Nikon D3100 this weekend. I've been taking pictures so far in the auto mode, as I'm still figuring out how to use the other settings. I took some pictures of my husband in our front yard patio area. It was about 9a.m., and it was light but still overcast. The pictures I take with my point and shoot in these conditions often have blown highlights, and that is what happened with the D3100 set on auto. I'm trying to figure out how to shoot pictures on manuel to avoid the blown highlights, but I'm not sure where to start. The camera on auto was set at 32mm, iso 400, 1/25s , F/4.8. When I messed around with the apeture the highlights still seemed to be there, but they were slightly blurred because the the shutter speed. I am a total newbie, so I hope my question is making sense. Any help would be appreciated!

Congratulations on your new dSLR camera. I know you're going to have lots of fun taking pictures and learning photography using your brand-new camera.

As you have just found out, owning a dSLR camera does not mean that your pictures are automatically better than a point-and-shoot camera's. The camera can only "guess" at what the, given the scene it is seeing, regardless of whether your camera is a dSLR or a point-and-shoot.

Without seeing your picture, I can only guess at what is going on in your photo. Based on what you describe, I suspect that your husband was probably in a darker, shaded area, and the bright sky was probably above him. I suspect that this bright sky is the "blown highlights" that you are seeing.

What you are encountering is a limitation of a camera's "dynamic range". The "dynamic range" basically gives an indication of how many levels of brightness we can see at one time. Our eyes, for example, can see about 10-14 levels of brightness at one time, which means that the difference between the darkest dark and the brightest bright that we can see at one time is about 10 to 14 levels of brightness.

However, a camera has a much smaller "dynamic range", and your camera's sensor can only see about 5-9 levels of brightness at one time. So even though you yourself can see both your husband in the dark shade and the bright sky above him at the same time, your camera unfortunately cannot see both extremes of brightness at the same time.

(here's where I got the information about dynamic range: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/dynamic-range.htm)

So your camera has to guess which one is the more important: your husband in the dark shaded area, or the bright sky above him. It looks like your camera chose to expose for your husband, giving you a slower shutter speed and moderate ISO. With these two settings, the camera lets in more light into the camera, allowing it to see your husband better, but also "blowing out" the highlights in the sky.

When you encounter extremes in brightness in your scene, such as your subject standing in the shade with a bright sunny background, there are several things you can try to do, however these are probably more intermediate-level photography topics that you can try to conquer in the next several months or next year or two:

• Use flash for your foreground subject, and expose for the background. When you learn about flash photography, you will need to have an external flash to give you enough flash power to brighten your foreground subject. You set your camera to give a proper exposure to the background, and you have your flash light your foreground subject. That way both your foreground and your background are properly exposed.
  
• Shoot in RAW. You are probably shooting in JPEG right now. Your camera has the option of shooting in either JPEG or RAW. RAW contains tons more digital information for your photo, so you might be able to use software (i.e. such as Photoshop) to correct the "blown highlights". However, if you shoot in RAW, you can't view your photos on the computer right away. You have to use the computer to convert your RAW photos to JPEG's before you can upload them to Flickr, post them on Facebook, etc. So if you're shooting in RAW, there are a bunch of extra steps before you can actually view your photos. The whole topic of "RAW versus JPEG" is often a very heated debate among photographers.
  
• Use HDR. HDR stands for "high dynamic range" photography. What this means is that you have your camera take 3 photos in quick succession: 1 photo with the "correct" exposure, 1 photo that is underexposed (too dark), and 1 photo that is overexposed (too bright). Bring these three photos into the computer, and have the computer (i.e. Photoshop or similar program) merge the 3 photos so that it takes the best parts of each photo to create a separate combination photo, where the dark areas are not too dark, and the bright areas are not too bright. This usually works well with landscape or architecture, but not so much with people because it requires your subject stand completely still for all three photos. Optimally, you also need a tripod to take all 3 photos so that there is little or no movement or camera shake among the three photos.

Again, these are intermediate topics in photography, that you will probably encounter in the next several months or in the next year or two. Because you just purchased your first dSLR camera, I would enjoy the experience of taking photos for now. Your first step is to learn the basics of photography: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, and how these 3 elements combine to form the "exposure triangle". After that, learn some basic rules about composition. There are literally dozens and dozens of excellent intro to photography books out there that you can find at your local library or your local bookstore. There are also TONS of websites, discussion forums, and YouTube videos that will teach you the basics of photography. Also, consider taking a class in photography, put on by your local community college, local photographer, or local photo store.

Again, without seeing your photo, I am just guessing at what the problem might have been with your "blown out highlights".

Congratulations again on your brand new dSLR camera. I know you're gonna have a great time taking photos.

 

[Butterfly123]

Wow! I appreciate such a helpful answer. I really need to learn how to post pictures. The picture was of my husband standing in front of some dark trees, and a dark fence. He was also wearing dark clothes. His face (the only really light thing in the picture) was what was glowing white, losing any shading on it. It was really awful! But I'm not worried...I know it's the photographer, not the camera. I bought a dslr knowing I have a lot to learn, and am looking forward to learning it. Thanks for your words of encouragement.

 

[Raenstoirm]

Wow! I appreciate such a helpful answer. I really need to learn how to post pictures. The picture was of my husband standing in front of some dark trees, and a dark fence. He was also wearing dark clothes. His face (the only really light thing in the picture) was what was glowing white, losing any shading on it. It was really awful! But I'm not worried...I know it's the photographer, not the camera. I bought a dslr knowing I have a lot to learn, and am looking forward to learning it. Thanks for your words of encouragement.

I am pretty new myself. A pic would be very helpful. I use photobucket to post on here. I upload to there and then you get an "IMG" code from photobucket or click the mountain icon near the font stuff in this box and post the webpage in that box. It is really easy.

 

[Butterfly123]

I'll give it a try tonight...thanks!

 

[disneyboy2003]

Wow! I appreciate such a helpful answer. I really need to learn how to post pictures. The picture was of my husband standing in front of some dark trees, and a dark fence. He was also wearing dark clothes. His face (the only really light thing in the picture) was what was glowing white, losing any shading on it. It was really awful! But I'm not worried...I know it's the photographer, not the camera. I bought a dslr knowing I have a lot to learn, and am looking forward to learning it. Thanks for your words of encouragement.

Okay, I have a better idea of what your photograph kind of looks like. If most of the entire photograph is black or dark, but your husband's face is the only thing that is bright, there is actually a reason why his face is being over exposed by the camera.

When the camera looks at a scene, it doesn't know if the dark area is supposed to be dark or whether it's supposed to brighten the dark area. Most of the time, the camera will choose to brighten an overall dark scene to make it brighter. Because it brightened the mostly-black scene, it made your husband's face even brighter than it should be, thus overexposing his face.

This is the same thing that happens if you try to take a picture at an indoor concert (that is, if you're lucky to sneak in your camera to an indoor concert). Most of the scene is black except for the singer who often has a bright spotlight. The camera sees the mostly black scene and automatically tries to brighten the entire scene. This inadvertently overexposes the spot lit singer.

Incidentally, the same thing happens on the other extreme, when the camera sees a mostly white scene, such as if you're taking a picture in snow or a mostly white background. The camera doesn't know that this white scene is supposed to stay white, and it chooses to darken the mostly white scene. So when you take pictures in snow on Auto, they will be darker than expected.

Once you learn more about the different functions of your camera, you can actually compensate for this. Specifically, this is a topic called "exposure compensation". The camera guesses at what the "correct" exposure should be, but it is up to you, the photographer, to add or subtract exposure compensation (EC or EV). When you add +1 EV, you are brightening the photo by 1 stop. On the other hand, if you adjust the photo by -1 EV, you are darkening the photo by 1 stop. I believe your camera allows you to adjust exposure compensation from -5 EV to +5 EV. You can adjust the exposure compensation in Program mode (P), Aperture priority (A), or Shutter priority (S). However, in Manual mode (M), there is no need for exposure compensation, since you are controlling both the aperture and shutter speed. You'll have to refer to your camera's manual on how to adjust exposure compensation for your camera.

So back to your photo, when you encounter a mostly dark scene such as with the photo of your husband, you would subtract about -1 to -2 EV so that the camera doesn't try to brighten the mostly-dark scene.

On the other hand, if you're taking a picture in snow or in a mostly white scene, this is where you would add +1 EV (or more).

Hope that wasn't too confusing of an explanation, especially for your first several days with the camera.

 

[Butterfly123]

Again, thanks so much! I think that is exactly the issue, and I will try this out tomorrow. I am putting the pictures in so you can clearly see the problem. I really appreciate your thorough answer.

Here are the images:

and this one.. not as bad, but has the same problem:

 

[wbeem]

It looks like your exposure isn't based upon your subject. That's the problem with automatic modes - they don't know which part of the scene is important, so they tend to average things out, except for extremes in highlights or shadows.

As has been mentioned here, you need to understand the exposure triangle so you can take control of your camera. You're smarter than it is, and it's not hard to do.

Start by changing the camera to Manual mode. Once you do that, you have to control the ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed. It's not hard, though, because your camera has a built-in light meter that works very well.

Since you're taking this photo outside in bright lighting conditions, start with your ISO at its native setting. For many Nikons, that would be ISO 200.

Next, change the metering mode to Spot Metering. You may not always use this mode, but it'll help you with this example. Spot Metering will only evaluate a very small part of your overall scene - less than 5% - in order to give you a reading that will help you choose your Aperture & Shutter Speed.

Once you have your camera in Spot Metering mode, aim the center of it at the face of your subject. Inside the camera, you'll see the meter as a line with little marks. There's a "+" on one end and a "-" on the other. You want to change your settings so the line moves to the center.

I suggest starting at an Aperture of f/5.6 and Shutter Speed of 1/125th. Those aren't magical settings, but it's a place to start. Now, look through your viewfinder and look at the light meter. Is it measuring closer to the Positive or Negative side?

First, change the Aperture. Try it in both directions and see what it does to the light meter. Once you have it in the center, take a picture. Now, change it back to f/5.6.

Do the same thing with the Shutter Speed. Move it around until you find a shutter speed that gives you a correct exposure based upon the meter and take a picture.

Both Aperture and Shutter Speed can affect how much light comes into the camera sensor to create your exposure. However, you can also use them to creative effect. For example, suppose your subject is moving and you want to freeze that motion. You'd need a faster shutter speed. You can set a faster shutter speed, but then you need to compensate for the meter reading by either opening your Aperture, or raising your ISO.

These three settings - ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed - work in balance with each other, based upon your meter reading. Once you're comfortable with changing the settings to get a correct exposure, then you can start thinking about your creative exposure (shallow depth of field, motion blur, etc.).

It's not hard to do and you'll ultimately enjoy it more than using the Automatic modes. However, it does take a little practice just to get the feel of it. Take some shots and analyze the results to see what you like and dislike.

 

[GrumpyGoat]

You may need to consciously underexpose the shot by a third of a stop to control the highlights. When a highlight is blown there is no way you can get it back in post-processing. If you underexpose slightly, it's possible to recover shadow detail in post. As a matter of course, I keep my cameras set to underexpose by a third of a stop, thereby ensuring my highlights aren't blown out.

 

[Butterfly123]

Thanks so much everyone. I'm going to go forth and take my camera off of auto! I really wasn't sure where to start fixing my problem, and now thanks to you all I do. You guys rock!

 

[disneyboy2003]

Thanks so much everyone. I'm going to go forth and take my camera off of auto! I really wasn't sure where to start fixing my problem, and now thanks to you all I do. You guys rock!

That's great! I'd probably start by moving to Program mode (P). Program mode is an advanced auto mode. It works similar to auto mode, however you have more control over different camera functions, such as whether the flash automatically pops up or not, change the ISO, adding or subtracting exposure compensation, etc. The camera still chooses the shutter speed and aperture for you, but you have a say in what combination of shutter speed and aperture the camera picks. The important thing, with regard to the above photos, is that you are able to adjust the exposure compensation to get a better photo.

Later on, you can try either Aperture priority (A) or Shutter priority (S) or both. You may even consider venturing out to Manual mode (M) once you have a feel of how aperture and shutter speed (and ISO) interact with each other.

 

[Butterfly123]

Thanks again for everyones help. I put the camera on Program Mode (P) and adjusted the exposure -2EV, and the picture came out great! Woohoo!

I'm noticing that some of the pictures I took on Auto have a really high ISO (like over 1000) which suprised me. My Panasonic Lumix point and shoot takes better pictures in certain light than my D3100! Of course, I didn't buy it to shoot in Auto. I just found that interesting.