Exposure question

[tom.ganc]

Hi
I have Nikon D40 and I have some issues about getting right exposure. My pictures are overexposed for some reason (I know thet's my fault). I'm quite new to DSLR's and to be honest and I'm having difficulty getting right exposure. Most of the time sky on my pictures is just blown away because it is overexposed. If I try to set up camera to get nice sky - my main subject is way to dark. I know that HDR is one of the options but is there anything I could tweak within camera settings?
I thought if I try shooting in auto mode I'll get better results. Unfortunatelly I'm still not happy. Should I set some negative exposure compensation while shooting outside?
Thanks
Tom

 

[Dao]

I do not think it is your problem nor the camera itself. What you experience is true. You cannot have both the well exposed sky and the subject at the same time. And Yes, HDR can help. Or you can use a "Graduated neutral density filter"

See examples from the following links.

http://www.great-landscape-photography.com/graduated-filters.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduated_ND_filter

 

[tom.ganc]

Hi
First of all thanks for reply.
Hmmm. Doing HDR is ok but if you want to take pictures of people it is imposible. Having to take 3 different exposures (without automatic bracketing on D40) could be difficult. It will be ok doing some landscapes with tripod.
Using ND filter - perfect only whet horizon line is straight. Otherwise you will get not the best result I think.
I just thought I could get somewhere in the middle.

Thanks
Tom

 

[Dao]

If you take a photos of a person, flash may help.

Also, you may want to try to take a single picture in RAW format. Under expose it a little. Process the image with 2 exposures and combine them into one.

 

[H.M.]

Like Dao says, Tom:

1) fill-flash in the daytime helps if you're shooting people, and

2) you can make a range of differently exposed images from 1 RAW image that you can use for HDR.

 

[Garbz]

2) you can make a range of differently exposed images from 1 RAW image that you can use for HDR.

No you can not. This gives you no extra dynamic range. Your blacks will still be black, your whites will still be white, and the lovely downside is everything that was dark and you wanted to brighten through the "tonemapping" process now has a lovely noise and a lack of colour definition. This should really be a last desperate grasp as a solution to the dynamic range problem.

Some far superior solutions:
- use a flash
- use a reflector dish

Mind you cant do either of these then yes tonemapping an image or using curves with layer masking to brighten the dark areas is a possibility. Just remember there is a very limited amount of data in dark areas compared to lighter ones.