I believe this shot was 200 (probably should have went with 100).
Thanks guys, looks like I just need to figure out how to exposure when skies are involved. I'd be curious to hear how to maximize the info from RAW as clanthar was describing. If he or anyone could point me to a good document for that I'll stop wasting your time and read it on my own.
200 ISO is fine. I often shoot higher to avoid dragging out the tripod (lazy).
Here's an example of extracting maximum info from a RAW capture. The top image is the RAW file in ACR unprocessed in any way. It appears seriously underexposed -- fair to say it is.
The process begins behind the camera. I saw it coming. The scene is backlit. HDR using multiple exposures was not an option as the boat was moving. If I had a film camera I wouldn't have taken it out of the bag -- same with a point and shoot. I did have a camera however that captures extended bit depth RAW files. The critical step behind the camera was to control the exposure to not blow the sky. A camera with a reflective reading meter would have blown the sky without intervention -- I intervened.
The next step is software processing. There's no magic buttons to push -- this is work that requires skill. As you can see from the top image Adobe ACR doesn't know what I want and it's already begun to normalize the photo into a badly underexposed disaster.
In the end most of the recorded RAW data has to be discarded -- the final target is a print or a computer display neither of which can handle the range of what was recorded. Manipulating that data from it's recorded state to an output condition is a manual task for an editor. Correcting the exposure, holding the sky, opening the shadows and maintaining good contrast requires multiple layers and masks. The data is there in the RAW file and it can be manipulated.
Not every photographer wants to be a Photoshop technician. But every photographer will at some point stand in front of a scene like the one the OP shot or the tow above. There are four choices:
1. Recognize the lighting condition and fix it there with supplemental lights or as suggested a graduated filter.
2. Recognize the condition and expose (and capture -- RAW) in preparation for a follow-up editing session.
3. Recognize the condition, enjoy the scene and leave the camera in the bag.
4. Don't recognize the condition and get a bad photo.
Take Care,
Joe
