Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/12/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Richard, I suspect that you have an initial exposure issue. When I looked at your histogram it was very even with a bulge in the middle. By definition, if the sycamores were glowing, then you should have a lot of information above middle gray and also a lot of information way below middle gray. In Adobe, your blown out highlights are only running 230 or so, you could run them up to 245 or so and still retain some detail. To make something glow then you need two things, something very bright, and something to contrast it with, usually something much darker. For example, if you were taking a picture of a back lit balloon, you would meter the balloon and open up one or two stops to make it glow against the sky. Using Velvia or a polarizer also helps a lot. In the case of your Sycamores, I would move to a position that the leaves are trans illuminated by the sun and either meter the sky twenty to thirty degrees off the sun or meter a leaf and open up one or two stops. Good luck Don dorysrus@mindspring.com -----Original Message----- From: lug-bounces+dorysrus=mindspring.com@leica-users.org [mailto:lug-bounces+dorysrus=mindspring.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Richard S. Taylor Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 7:50 PM To: lug@leica-users.org Subject: [Leica] Bad Exposure or Something Else? As I turned onto Memorial Drive in Cambridge last week the sycamores along the drive were glowing white-gold in the mid-afternoon sunlight. I quickly parked and took pictures. The results were disappointing to say the least. I've posted one example here: <http://gallery.leica-users.org/PICKS/21_0021> Photographic qualities of the picture aside, I wonder if any of you might have any thoughts on what I might have done to improve the rendition of the glowing trees that I saw with my eyes. There seems to be an exposure issue here since the highlights look blown out but would it have been better on a slower film, or is there a scanning problem, or something else? This photo isn't even close to the image I had in my head. Manipulation in Photoshop to darken the image overall helps but isn't really the solution. The posted picture is unmanipulated and uncropped. M7, 50mm 2.8 Elmarit (Current), Portra 400NC, f11.0 at the shutter speed set by the camera. Many thanks. -- Regards, Dick Boston MA _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information