Landscapes with bright sun

mikehiow

mikehiow

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How do people generally get around insufficient dynamic range when you have landscapes with bright sun.

It's not something I'd thought too much about until this morning when I stopped to take a picture of a view, only to find that straight out of the camera, I couldn't find anything that worked. I took a few pictures, gradually lowering exposure as I went.

This was the most salvageable pic, but around the sun is still very blown out.


I understand I could have taken a few exposures and blended it, but a tripod isn't always practical, so what are the options?
 
Mainly 2 options... the NDgrads as Mark has described (my preferred method too) or taking a series of shots at different exposure settings (bracketing) and combining them in software (HDR)

Simon
 
My method is to use the auto bracketing feature on the camera to take a series of shots and combine in HDR software. Photomatix does a very good job of aligning shots which have been taken handheld, so a tripod isn't necessary. It's worth downloading some of the free demo versions of various HDR software and playing around with the effects. I've got one of the camera's custom modes set for bracketing 5 shots from -2 to +2, but might use a wider range if needed.
 
markmullen said:
ND grads are my preferred solution, with that scene a hard edged grad would have worked a treat, probably a 3 stop. Actually with the sun that low I'd have used a 3 stop reverse ND grad.

Have a look at my blog on grads, http://www.markmullenphotography.co.uk/blog/2013/3/filters-for-landscape-photography (although it is down till 1pm for maintenance).
Click to expand...

Totally agree with Mark. Reverse ND (3 stop) for any time the sun is near the horizon (sunset/sunrise) other than that. Standard hard or soft grads are the way to go with 2-3 stops being the better options. HDR is also a good method but without a tripod can give some inconsistent results from my experience. Especially is low light with slow shutter speeds
 
I don't use grads, I tend to take bracketed shots and blend them manually in Photoshop (not hdr), although I do think about getting grads from time to time.
 
I got some cheap grads - it looks like I will need to stack all three when shooting into the sun, but a quick test through the viewfinder has the sky looking awesome - a lovely deep blue.
 
mikehiow said:


I understand I could have taken a few exposures and blended it, but a tripod isn't always practical, so what are the options?
Click to expand...

Why not wait 10 minutes for the sun to get lower? The sun loses a great deal of light over the last few degrees of it's travel.. light warms up, and looks pleasant, and the overall contrast of the scene would be lower. Of course, in the shot above, it would have gone behind those clouds.. so that day wasn't your day for that. That's Landscape photography for you though.... it can't be rushed. If you want a great shot of that scene.. keep going back.

You should experiment with bracketing shots and combining them in layers n Photoshop though.. or/and using ND grads.
 
Your shot is taken at F3.5 I wouldn't recommend this as it makes the flare unatractive, shoot at F16 this will give the sun a nice starburst effect. Bracket and blend the shots as mentioned. Of course you can use the sun to great effect in images.

 
The only sure fire way I've found to not blow the sky out when shooting landscapes, is just not to shoot towards the sun at all. I used to get really hung up on trying to prevent all the highlights from blowing (even streetlight bulbs etc) but then someone explained to me that you're not trying to prevent the highlights from blowing, you're just trying to stop the important hightlights from blowing.

Generally I prefer to use ND grads over computer wizardry, but having said that I'm happy to expose as far to the right as I can and then bring the shadows and highltights into line in Lightroom/PS later, in the case of difficult skylines (where I want to avoid having the tops of trees or cliffs look really dark if they're above the horizon). I've always tried to avoid using multiple ND grads too, if I need to combine a three and a two stop filter to properly expose the scene, then I get a gut feeling that it's going to turn out pants and usually abandon the shot anyway
 
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