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Thread: exposure

  1. #1
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    exposure

    I have been trying to get shots of clouds and holding an extremely long exposure to get a cool effect. But everytime I take a shot it looks horrible. I have been trying to do it at sunset where the sky is very red. When i take the shot with the long exposure all that turns out is a extremely bright picture. But by the time I wait till it is darker, the redness of the sky is gone. I am using a Nikon d-40

    Please help


    Heres an example of the redness being lost.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Anbesol's Avatar
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    Re: exposure

    First off - I wouldn't reccomend a long exposure for this landscape shot, even with a tripod and shutter release, the longest I would go is 1/2 sec. The clouds move, the wind blows the grass, it will be very soft. Also - bracket the shots, set them at least 1.4 exposures apart (3 shot burst at -/+ 0.7 comp), then stitch the two together. That way you keep all the color detail of the sky without crushing shadow detail of the land. Skies are very workable in photoshop, even slight saturation adjustments make a big difference, you can very easily preserve the redness you wanted to. If you had stopped this shot down a bit as well, you'd have kept a bit more of the redness, then - white balance will also play into this, you may need to custom set the balance.

    Also - it looks like you totally blew out the right side of the sky, their is a significant tonal range in horizon shots - either expose for the horizon and bring out the shadow detail off the ground, or center weight your metering and do the bracketing. It also looks like you've got some dust on your sensor, you'd better get that clean before the dust decides to take up permanent residence on your sensor.

  3. #3
    Senior Member Anbesol's Avatar
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    Re: exposure

    here is an example of what I am talking about, I exposed for the sky, as to not blow anything out, and pushed what would be mid-tones to very dark low tones to keep all detail. Then I shopped them back out. Your Histogram on your D40 will tell you what tonal range youve captured, and if there was any crushed shadow detail or blown highlights. Bracketing should even work a lot better than this, though more difficult. Sorry the color sucks on the second one, didn't feel like hassling with that right now ;)
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails exposure-1_x.jpg   exposure-2_x.jpg  

  4. #4
    drg
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    la recherche de trolls drg's Avatar
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    Re: exposure

    How red do you want? See the photo in this blog entry of mine
    http://forums.photographyreview.com/...nts&j=19&e=496

    This image was made at 400ISO, f/9 @ 1/160th. I was spot metering off the brightest part of the sky in aperture prioriy mode and kept kicking the ISO up a notch until I got a series of 'good' ones. The light changes so quickly at sunset (or sunrise) you need to work fast and a long shutter speed isn't the best.
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  5. #5
    Nature/Wildlife Forum Co-Moderator Loupey's Avatar
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    Re: exposure

    Two things: 1) exposure, and 2) color balance

    Quote Originally Posted by phish123
    ...When i take the shot with the long exposure all that turns out is a extremely bright picture...
    How are you doing this? If in manual mode, a "long(er) exposure" must be compensated by stopping down the lens. It looks to me that you are forgetting to adjust the aperture - thereby resulting in an overexposed image.

    How are you setting your color balance? I assume by AUTO white balance since it appears that the camera is trying (and quite successfully I might add) to force this scene to a more "balanced" image.

    Learn to use manual settings to override what the camera thinks you want.
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  6. #6
    Panarus biarmicus Moderator (Sports) SmartWombat's Avatar
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    Re: exposure

    I get best evening/sunset results with the white balance manually set to "daylight" on the G9.
    What was it Susaan said? Liquid gold sprinkled with pixie dust or something.
    The more control you take over making the image, the more I think you'll like the result.
    PAul

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  7. #7
    The Polariser fx101's Avatar
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    Re: exposure

    You're shooting a D40. Why not bracket your shots and merge them to an HDR? This way you can get a deep coloured sky and still preserve a ton of shadow detail.
    --The camera's role is not to interfere with the photographer's work--

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  8. #8
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    Re: exposure

    Quote Originally Posted by fx101
    You're shooting a D40. Why not bracket your shots and merge them to an HDR? This way you can get a deep coloured sky and still preserve a ton of shadow detail.

    Sorry im very new to photography and have no idea what that means

  9. #9
    project forum co-moderator Frog's Avatar
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    Re: exposure

    hdr = high dynamic range. Achieved by taking 3 or more shots of same subject at different exposures. From 2 or 3 stops under to 2 or 3 stops over.
    The images are then combined. Can be done in photoshop but I use the photomatix software. You can get a free trial at http://www.hdrsoft.com/
    There are several posts of hdr photos in the critique forum including the present featured photo.
    Keep Shooting!

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  10. #10
    Senior Member Anbesol's Avatar
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    Re: exposure

    Phish - exposure compensation - the +/- button on your camera will allow you to shoot at a brighter or darker exposure. In this shot, for example, had you set the compensation to -1.5 or -2, you would have kept all the detail in the sky and pressed all of the ground into a darker exposure. Then you could have brought out the shadows in a photo shop program.

    The difference it makes is in the metering though - the more accurate way to do this is to set your camera to either spot metering, or center weighted average. Upon doing that, aim the camera towards the mid tone area and shot at that metering, in this exposure for example, meter off of a darker part of the sky, that would keep the detail best for both low and high tones.

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