Exposure Question

foshan

foshan

Messages
131
Name
Vic
Edit My Images
Yes
Whats the best exposure setting when photographing black and white birds ie to stop blown highlights on the whites and to give detail on the blacks. I know you have to underexpose to correct blown highlights on the whites and overexpose to give detail to the blacks. But both together how do i do that :shrug:
 
Shoot raw first and foremost - that'll give you the option to get as much as you can from the file in post-processing.

If it were me (and this applies to anthing where there's a big contrast in tones) I'd watch my blinkies (the overexposure warning on the histogram) to see at what point they kick in as you increase the exposure time/open the aperture. If it's awash with blinkies then you know it's overcooked. Likewise, if your histogram is bunched right up to the left, then you know the shadows will be denser. I watch to get just a small amount of blinkies, knowing that they'll recover in Lightroom and that the shadows have been given as much chance of holding detail as they can get. The it's dow to good processing to bring out the best of the file....
 
Also try to enable Highlight Tone Priority function in the body, sometimes it helps to prevent blown highlights
 
specialman said:
Shoot raw first and foremost - that'll give you the option to get as much as you can from the file in post-processing.

If it were me (and this applies to anthing where there's a big contrast in tones) I'd watch my blinkies (the overexposure warning on the histogram) to see at what point they kick in as you increase the exposure time/open the aperture. If it's awash with blinkies then you know it's overcooked. Likewise, if your histogram is bunched right up to the left, then you know the shadows will be denser. I watch to get just a small amount of blinkies, knowing that they'll recover in Lightroom and that the shadows have been given as much chance of holding detail as they can get. The it's dow to good processing to bring out the best of the file....
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply i'll try this technique next time and see how it goes.
 
Black and white birds are just about the most difficult to deal with. I go along with just about all that Pat has said in post #2, shoot RAW and expose so the the whites are just starting to clip. When you get to processing you can easily pull the highlights (whites) back a bit and you will need to lift the blacks (shadows) to give some detail. You need to watch just how much you push the blacks though because you will be increasing the noise.
In short I would expose for the whites and deal with the blacks in processing.
 
Roy C said:
Black and white birds are just about the most difficult to deal with. I go along with just about all that Pat has said in post #2, shoot RAW and expose so the the whites are just starting to clip. When you get to processing you can easily pull the highlights (whites) back a bit and you will need to lift the blacks (shadows) to give some detail. You need to watch just how much you push the blacks though because you will be increasing the noise.
In short I would expose for the whites and deal with the blacks in processing.
Click to expand...

Thanks Roy very helpful :thumbs:
 
IMHO even if shooting in raw and doing your best on exposure, strong sunlight on the subject can often make it virtually impossible to avoid blown out whites.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top