GoingManual.com It's time to take control!    Home    Tutorials    Photography Forum  Photography Tutorial Introduction Part I – Gear The Camera  -  Focus  -  Resolution  -  MegaPixels Vs Print Size  -  Sharpening Semi auto settings  -  Aperture Priority (Av)  -  Shutter priority (Tv) Zoom and Focal Length  -  A Note About Sensor Size Other Camera Features  -  Viewfinders  -  Lens Hood  -  LCD screen  -  White Balance Extra Equipment  -  Tripod  -  Cable Release  -  Filter systems  -  Polarizer and ND filter  -  External Flash  -  Studio Lighting  -  Reflectors Part II – Capturing The Scene Your First Manual Photo  -  It's All About Exposure  -  The Light Meter  -  Exposure Explained  -  Controlling Exposure Creative Effects  -  Aperture and Depth Of Field  -  DOF Preview  -  Shutter speed Putting it all Together  -  ISO  -  Ap. & Shutter Relationship  -  Stop for a minute  -  So What?  -  The Bulb Setting Metering the Scene  -  18% of Everything Metering modes  -  Matrix  -  Average  -  Center weighted  -  Spot or semi-spot Taking Meter Readings  -  Expose for your subject  -  Sunsets and sunrises  -  Reflecting sun  -  Night Exposures  -  Moon  -  Green Foliage  -  Bright or White Scenes  -  Dark or Black Scenes Understanding Your Histogram  -  Flash Metering Composition Lead in The Viewer Eye  -  Point of Focus  -  Fill the frame  -  The Rule of Thirds  -  Moving Subjects  -  Print and frame Sizes Different Styles Learn by doing  -  Giving and Getting Critique  -  Portraits  -  Groups  -  Children  -  Shooting Outdoors  -  Silhouettes  -  Macro  -  Products  -  Landscapes  -  Sports and Action  -  Panning  -  Rear Sync Flash  -  Abstract  -  Long Exposures  -  Black and White A few Other Useful Things  -  Blown Out Skies  -  Neutral Density Filters  -  Polarizing Filters  -  Electronic noise You're Half Way There! Part III The Digital darkroom  -  Computer hardware  -  Card Reader  -  Printers  -  Mouse Post Processing  -  The Ethics of Altering  -  Choosing Your Program  -  Tutorials   Photoshop Tutorials   Photoshop Primer   Saving Your Image   Adding a Border   Using Levels   Using Curves   The S-Curve   Correcting White Balance   Improving Saturation   The Clone Tool   Correcting Lens Distortion   Blending Multiple Images   Black and White Conversion   Sepia Conversion   Reducing Noise   Cropping for Different Print Sizes   Sharpening   Working With RAW Files   The Gimp Tutorials   The Gimp Primer   Saving Your Image   Adding a Border   Using Levels   Using Curves   The S-Curve   Correcting White Balance   Improving Saturation   The Clone Tool   Correcting Lens Distortion   Blending Multiple Images   Black and White Conversion   Sepia Conversion   Reducing Noise   Cropping for Different Print Sizes   Sharpening   Working With RAW Files   << Black and White Neutral Density Filters >> A Few Other Useful Things A Few Other Useful Things Blown Out Skies You'll come across lots of situations where it's really difficult to get the kind of shot you want. One solution is bracketing, the process of intentionally underexposing and overexposing by a small amount in the hope any slight errors are covered by at least one of your photos. Often when shooting landscapes you'll frame your scene and end up with a white sky or a dark underexposed foreground. That kind of shot is always going to be tricky. The meter is taking an average of the scene and putting an emphasis on the bright sky or the dark trees in the foreground. Sometimes the difference in the amount of light is just too big to record it the entire tonal range. You've got a few options. If you're hand holding, turn the dial to Tv, (shutter priority) and set the shutter speed to 1/60s. The camera will auto select the best aperture. Read in your manual how to adjust the exposure compensation. If the sky is blowing out then turn the exposure compensation down; it will underexpose slightly and find a happier medium than fully auto. In Manual, point the camera so the foreground fills the frame and adjust the camera to show a correct exposure. The do the same for the sky and note how many stops different the two areas in your scene are. For example let's say there is a 3 stop difference. You can use a filter called a Graduated Neutral Density (ND grad) filter. You're supposed to buy a flashy holder and kit for it but for short exposure times you can get away with just buying the glass and holding it in front of the lens. A graduated ND filter will block some of the light without tinting the shot. Its strength changes across the filter so it blocks more light on one half of the filter than the other. You can put the half that blocks a lot of light over the bright area in your scene and the half that blocks very little light over the other half. The filter will help to reduce the difference in amount of light. The difference is measured in stops so a 3 stop graduated ND filter has one half with no light reduction and the other side reduces light by 3 stops. The line between the two halves can be abrupt or very graduated. In our example we can use a 3 stop graduated ND filter to balance the difference in camera settings. Reducing the bright sky and leaving the foreground unchanged so using the settings for the foreground we can take our picture without blowing out the skies. You'll see this kind of image used to great effect with sunsets too. See, if you hadn't spent the time to learn about stops, you'd have no idea what I'm talking about. The final option is multiple exposures and some computer time post processing. Ideally, for this method, you should be shooting in manual using the same aperture setting and using a tripod. If you're not going fully manual, you'll need to find the exposure lock on the camera. Frame the sky through the viewfinder and hit the exposure lock or set your aperture and shutter speed. Re-compose your scene and take picture one. Now take another shot straight at your scene with out any compensation or lock. In manual adjust your shutter speed. Third, frame the foreground in the viewfinder and in semi auto, hit the exposure lock. In manual mode decrease the shutter speed until you have a correct exposure for the foreground. Don't adjust the aperture as that will change the DOF. Recompose and shoot. You should end up with 3 versions of the same scene. In the first the sky will look good, in the second you'll have a little of both and not enough of either. In the third your foreground will look good. The advantage to going manual here is you can take your meter reading compose your shot then adjust the shutter with out moving the camera. Using the exposure lock method, it's difficult to frame the exact same scene every time. Using your favorite graphics editor open all 3 pictures. You'll need a program that uses layers. Adobe Photoshop or The Gimp are both suitable for this. Have a look at the tutorial 'Blending Multiple Images' in the post processing section to learn how to proceed. This technique can be used for any scene where it's difficult to << Black and White Neutral Density Filters >>

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