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Best exposure for fog?
Hey,
On a generally foggy day, if I use the "expose to the right" technique, it seems like I have to do a lot of down adjusting to the RAW files to get them to look right...which makes me think exposing to the right might not really be what I want to do in such a situation. So here are the questions... 1. When is it not a good idea to expose to the right? 2. What is too much adjusting in adobe camera raw? (if you have to move the shadows slider to the 70's range, saturation to 50, etc, what should have been done differently in the original exposure?) I don't have anywhere to post examples tonight, but I'll try to post a follow up tomorrow with links. Thanks, Brian |
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Brian wrote:
Hey, On a generally foggy day, if I use the "expose to the right" technique, it seems like I have to do a lot of down adjusting to the RAW files to get them to look right...which makes me think exposing to the right might not really be what I want to do in such a situation. So here are the questions... 1. When is it not a good idea to expose to the right? 2. What is too much adjusting in adobe camera raw? (if you have to move the shadows slider to the 70's range, saturation to 50, etc, what should have been done differently in the original exposure?) I don't have anywhere to post examples tonight, but I'll try to post a follow up tomorrow with links. Good questions, I'm pretty new at this but I'll discuss my thoughts & maybe reveal some of the issues. Comments & corrections are very welcome. I assume when you say 'expose to the right' you mean try to get it as bright as possible without blowing highlights? To me that rule generally has me underexposing though I suppose not in fog. In adobe camera raw hold down the alt key while sliding shadows it shows when clipping occurs. Same for exposure. Supposedly brighness & contrast do not clip though if you watch the histogram you can see that's not true. Supposedly the adjustments should be made from the top down: exposure shadows brightness contrast saturation though I'm not clear why, but if exposure is actually gaining some benefit working with raw like allowing a legitimate bracketing then experimenting in the raw dialogue should be able to answer these questions. It can help to zoom way in & observe noise & posterization problems, also, temporarily blasting the saturation & contrast will emphasize those problems... hmm I'm not sure about that, I know curves can do that. Hmm, here's a question: what purpose does the brightness adjustment serve? Wouldn't it be better to use the exposure first? Well if you follow the order, yes it should go first & shadows before contrast. I guess boost exposure & shadows as much as possible without clipping then the others if you want more. Digital has better shadow detail than film but underexposing still risks putting more noise in the shadows. Shooting a foggy sky it is real easy to lose the subtle gradations in the sky so it makes sense to me to underexpose. Here is a hazy sunrise given extremely more darkness & richness but revealing significant noise (still I liked the color but there isn't really enough info in the initially hazy bland shot for that much richness): http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=California/Bay-Area/San-Francisco/2005-01-25-sunrise Here is a bright foggy sky where the subtle gradations got a nasty posterization and grittiness: http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=California/Bay-Area/San-Francisco/2005-01-24-mission-theaters&PG=2&PIC=11 I worked hard to emphasize the sky tones and probably would have benefited from a darker initial exposure. I think I used curves also to adjust both of these. If the exposure adjustment is the real deal with raw, I might consider making two bracketed images from the raw converter & merging them in PS for sky & ground rather than using curves to correct. Ultimately all that adjusting & contrast increase work creates more noise & posterization & loses information. |
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