What could have been..Reflection

[Canyon Hiker]

This shot here is one of my favorites. The problem is it looks nothing like when I took the picture. The landscape is close but the sky was light blue. More like the reflection you see in the water. Could this be because I didn't set my white balance and just used the auto mode?

Thanks again guys...



Darin

[herg]

that is a nice shot. very peaceful.

i don't think the white balance had much of an effect on the sky colour (the reflection is still blue). the exposure is probably what made you lose the blue in the sky. reflections are usually a bit darker than what they are reflecting. so the reflection of the sky turned out nicely, but the actual sky was a bit blown out. if you dropped the exposure to get the sky to keep it's blue colour the reflection in the water probably would have been quite a bit darker.

[Canyon Hiker]

Thanks for the quick reply herg. I know a problem I am having is using live mode with my 450. When I set it to evaluating metering and move the box around the picture on the LCD changes and the histogram doesn't. I can't seem to find a video or clear explanation on this. I'm sure its simple but nobody has given me the clear and simple explanation. Exposure Lock maybe?

Darin

[caleb]

What specific metering and shooting mode are you using/did you use?

[Greg McCary]

I think your problems could be solved with an ND grad filter. I also think you should just crop it just below the tree line.

[readingr]

Did you use RAW to save the file - if so then try and get the sky right during RAw conversion and combine the images.

Roger R.

[Canyon Hiker]

Thanks for the replys.
caleb: This shot I was shooting live mode. In live mode the 450 only allows evaluative metering. I was shooting in AE.

Greg: Thats a great idea. I now have one on order.

readinger: I shot this in Raw. I'm going to try that.

Thanks again

Darin

[byjamesderuvoDHQ]

This is where a good photo processing utility like Adobe Lightroom can come in handy. Gorgeous shot though.

[Coastal Flyer]

Canyon,

What you are experiencing is what we all go through under similar conditions. Getting an exposure to equal throughout the image. My suggestion: the ND filter plus bracketing with the camera on manual. You will not achieve an image that comes close to what you see with the camera on any form of automatic. You might come close, but unless you can manipulate the camera settings as finely as the camera will allow, no automatic sensoring of the lighting extremes of this setting will allow for an equalized image. You have a very compelling shot, but will require software tinkering to restore. Best bet, capture the image as finely as possible so as to require less software changes. If you can revisit the spot, I would try again, but take as many shots as possible with as many settings as required to move through the extremes of the lighting. Good Luck. It is a really nice shot.

David