Please Help Me on Exposure

wayne1523 · Sep 18, 2011

field of dreams - 9-6-2011 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I'm entirely new to the world of photography, and I've been reading on some E-books but know I have ways to go. The photo I took of this field is one of my firsts (Nikon D5100, 1/4000 sec, f/9, ISO 200, Exposure Compensation -1). This photo is the result of Lightroom edits but even after that, I know it's far from perfect since I'm new to image editing software too and how to optimally make the most out of my photos.

I've found the it very difficult to photograph scenes with the sun involved, with either the sky being overexposed (when the subject is properly exposed) or the ground/subject underexposed (when the sky is properly exposed). I've read enough to know that this dilemma is a very basic common problem in photography. I also read that the camera needs to be metered properly in order to get proper exposure on both things. But I still don't get the metering part. Which metering mode do I select in this scenario and where do I focus it at? I really don't know when I turn on my different metering modes with my Nikon D5100 whether it's being done properly. It seems like nothing's really going on.

Or am I wrong about all this? Maybe it's normal for this to happen and it's not possible to take a balanced/properly exposed photo with just the camera alone and I MUST use Photoshop to merge 2 pictures together?

(Lastly, if you were to edit this photo properly, what would you have done better?)

PLEASE HELP! =) Thank you very much.

Kerbouchard · Sep 18, 2011

What you meter on depends on what you want to be properly exposed. Your meter looks to expose everything as 18% grey. That's how the engineers at Nikon designed it. If you have a scene that is brighter than average, your camera will attempt to underexpose it to get to that 18% grey. If you have a scene that is darker than average, your camera will attempt to overexpose it to bring it up to 18%.

What you set your focus point on can also make a difference based on what settings you chose to use for your metering. If you are using spot metering, it makes a big difference, center weighted not so much, and with matrix, almost none at all since it takes the entire scene into account.

I know most people don't like this answer, but there are a ton of features that go with your new camera. Until you know what they do, you won't be able to identify where problems are. You need to read your camera manual or buy a manual specific to your camera that explains everything in a way you can understand it.

As far as your basic question, your camera doesn't have the range to be able to properly expose a shot with shade and a bright sun in it. Sometimes, a bright sky will be too much. In those cases, you only have a few options,
you can use flash or a reflector to bring the level of your subject up to the background to help balance out the exposure
you can take multiple shots and merge them via HDR
or you can just pick what you want to expose properly, ignore the rest, and either live with it or work on it in post processing. Shooting in RAW gives you the most leeway in post processing when dealing with exposure issues.

As far as your image, I would say it was a bit oversaturated for my tastes, but I don't really see any exposure issues. That's about what I would expect to see of any image that includes the sun.

Majeed Badizadegan · Sep 18, 2011

Actually, it's not a horrible image. The scene appears to be a good subject for HDR. Camera sensors have limitations, and one exposure cannot always collect all the light information at a given scene.

I actually started a thread on HDR that I initially posted here in the beginners forum but it got moved to the HDR sub-forum.

There's a lot of good info in there if you're new to the subject.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...does-canon-hate-auto-exposure-bracketing.html

FlyingScot · Sep 18, 2011

wayne1523 said:
field of dreams - 9-6-2011 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I'm entirely new to the world of photography, and I've been reading on some E-books but know I have ways to go. The photo I took of this field is one of my firsts (Nikon D5100, 1/4000 sec, f/9, ISO 200, Exposure Compensation -1). This photo is the result of Lightroom edits but even after that, I know it's far from perfect since I'm new to image editing software too and how to optimally make the most out of my photos.

I've found the it very difficult to photograph scenes with the sun involved, with either the sky being overexposed (when the subject is properly exposed) or the ground/subject underexposed (when the sky is properly exposed). I've read enough to know that this dilemma is a very basic common problem in photography. I also read that the camera needs to be metered properly in order to get proper exposure on both things. But I still don't get the metering part. Which metering mode do I select in this scenario and where do I focus it at? I really don't know when I turn on my different metering modes with my Nikon D5100 whether it's being done properly. It seems like nothing's really going on.

Or am I wrong about all this? Maybe it's normal for this to happen and it's not possible to take a balanced/properly exposed photo with just the camera alone and I MUST use Photoshop to merge 2 pictures together?

(Lastly, if you were to edit this photo properly, what would you have done better?)

PLEASE HELP! =) Thank you very much.

First your camera's sensor does not have the range to capture what you seem to be looking for in one shot - neither did good old film but you could cheat like mad in the enlarger - so you will need to use Photoshop to cheat to get what 'you' are looking for - what i would want to see is the out of camera image - so i can evaluate what changes you have made - and know what lens you were using - that is info you forgot to provide - the horizon looks like it is suffering from quite a bit of lens distortion.

wayne1523 · Sep 19, 2011

Thank you for the help.

Alot of the photos for that shoot turned out to be similar to this one: field of dreams neg | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I was using the Nikkor 16-85mm 3.5-5.6G. So I'm guessing it has nothing to do with how I meter my scene in sunlight and in a scenario like this? From these responses, I'm thinking that it's just my camera that doesn't have the range to do it? I guess I either turn on the HDR mode or use Photoshop?

If you guys were to shoot a scene like this, how would you do it? What would the settings in your cameras be turned to? (shutter speed, aperture, ISO, metering)

WesternGuy · Sep 19, 2011

I am going to stick my comment it here, but it is also a question for the more experienced folks (wayne1523 maybe you and I can both learn something here)...it would seem to me that an ND grad would be useful here, not sure how many stops, but my guess would be at least a 2 stops and most likely a hard-edge, with the edge set just above the horizon. Any other thoughts on this approach, as compared to the suggestion of HDR, which would also work as well.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

StringThing · Sep 19, 2011

Some good advice in this thread. I just wanted to add that your D5100 has a feature called Active-D lighting which may have helped with this scene. Other than that, I would have used an ND gradient filter, as mentioned above.

BTW, I like the photo.

wayne1523 · Sep 21, 2011

What exactly goes on in the metering process (in terms of the actions on my part)? So I select the metering mode, then focus in on the subject with the dots in my viewfinder, and press the shutter button halfway and the camera does the metering?

And for HDR, does it simply mean turning on the HDR mode in my camera and shooting away?

For bracketing, is it pretty much almost mandatory to use a tripod, since multiple pictures are taken?

WesternGuy · Sep 21, 2011

wayne1523 said:
What exactly goes on in the metering process (in terms of the actions on my part)? So I select the metering mode, then focus in on the subject with the dots in my viewfinder, and press the shutter button halfway and the camera does the metering?

And for HDR, does it simply mean turning on the HDR mode in my camera and shooting away?

For bracketing, is it pretty much almost mandatory to use a tripod, since multiple pictures are taken?

For your exposure, a lot depends on which mode you are in - Manual, Automatic, Programmed, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, etc. each one of these can have a slightly different affect, depending on your camera, but what you have asked is very similar to what happens, it just depends on the mode as to who sets what, you or your camera. I won't go into details, because this should all be covered in your Owner's manual.

On HDR - you have an HDR setting? Usually HDR is done by setting the cameras "automatic exposure bracketing", assuming your camera has the ability to do this - I am not going to go into the details of how HDR is done, as there are plenty of websites that can explain this to you, e.g., Setting Up Your Digital Camera For HDR Shooting . This site is the first in a three part series on HDR, and while it is not definitve, it will give you and idea of how HDR happens...

For bracketing, you definitely need a tripod and depending on the shutter speed you may want to use a remote control shutter release and use mirror lockup on your camera. A remote control and mirror lockup help prevent camera shake when the exposure is made. The other aspect of using a tripod when bracketing is to ensure that the area of interest is same for each shot.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

DiskoJoe · Sep 21, 2011

HDR is easy to begin with. Just take three to 5 shots at varying exposure levels from -2 to +2 and then merge in photomatix or photoshop. Only things that is really important is to leave the aperture at the same level for each shot.