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- Thread starter GAD
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Elly May
New member
I'd like to know how I can take a better picture of Kala and Murphy together. The trouble I'm having is either Kala looks like a black blob or Murphy, the big, white Pyr, looks all washed out. This applies to both my digital and my 35mm and usually happens in bright sunlight or especially, indoors. It also hard to take a picture of Kala in our kitchen since we have cream colored floor tiles and appliances.
mulenag
New member
Great topic! I never realized the skill it must take to get nice shots of Landseers or, like mentioned, a black Newf and a Pyr, until I puppysat this last weekend. Most of my pics had Ebony as an undetailed black figure while the pup was blinding white.....
Will these tips help those of us who don't have fancy cameras? I have a simple point and shoot HP photosmart.
Will these tips help those of us who don't have fancy cameras? I have a simple point and shoot HP photosmart.
I have virtually the same problem shooting my black dogs in the snow.
There a more than a few ways to tackle this. Here are some suggestions. Non point and shoot.
Shoot manually and expose for Murphy. Point your lens at a bright spot on his white coat (only him nothing else around him), and adjust your apeture or shutter until your exposure shows +2. Then take your pic of both of them. You may need to do a little post process adjusting but this should give you decent exposure for the both of them.
You can also spot meter or incident light meter, but you may not want to get into all of that.
And of course you can use your histogram. You don't want it to be too far to the right (over exposure) or left (under exposure). And no flashing highlight warning.
You can also exposure bracket.
There a more than a few ways to tackle this. Here are some suggestions. Non point and shoot.
Shoot manually and expose for Murphy. Point your lens at a bright spot on his white coat (only him nothing else around him), and adjust your apeture or shutter until your exposure shows +2. Then take your pic of both of them. You may need to do a little post process adjusting but this should give you decent exposure for the both of them.
You can also spot meter or incident light meter, but you may not want to get into all of that.
And of course you can use your histogram. You don't want it to be too far to the right (over exposure) or left (under exposure). And no flashing highlight warning.
You can also exposure bracket.
Indeed all good suggestions. I don't know that this is resolvable with a P&S camera.
The problem is one of exposure as stated above. How do you expose for both a dark shadow (with detail) and a bright highlight (with detail)?
First - if you can - use flash, though this is not without its own exposure problems. If you can expose for the white, then use flash as "fill", you could get detail out of the shadows, but of course the risk is then over-exposing the white. The trick is to keep the flash very low power if you can, which most P&S cameras can't do.
What I do is use my in-camera multi-spot metering system, which again, a P&S or even 20D won't do.
Without fancy tricks, you want to expose somewhere between the light and dark areas. If you can average the exposure between the extremes, you'll get a good shot. That's easier said than done, but Largo, as usual, is spot on (excuse the pun)...
The key is in how cameras expose light. Cameras think that a "perfect" exposure is one where the entire scene can be averaged to what is called "18% grey".
Imagine a simple picture - 1/2 is white, 1/2 is black. The average of these colors is grey (close enough for this paragraph). Let's call that 50% grey.
Now let's imagine a scene where 3/4 of the image is white and 1/4 is black. The average "greyness" of the image has changed. It's now "brighter" so the camera will adjust itslf thinking that there's too much light to make everything even.
Now the reverse - 3/4 black and 1/4 white. The camera things the average is now 75% grey because there's more dark than light.
The camera, will try to expose all three so that they would appear to be the same shade of grey if they were averaged into one color (grey for those who haven't had their coffee yet).
Largo's suggestion basically tells the camera "I know you think this is mostly black, but let's kick it up a notch or two because I'm smarter than you", and that's exactly what happens.
If you have the ability to shoot RAW, a lot of these things can be resolved by altering the exposure after the shot.
GAD
The problem is one of exposure as stated above. How do you expose for both a dark shadow (with detail) and a bright highlight (with detail)?
First - if you can - use flash, though this is not without its own exposure problems. If you can expose for the white, then use flash as "fill", you could get detail out of the shadows, but of course the risk is then over-exposing the white. The trick is to keep the flash very low power if you can, which most P&S cameras can't do.
What I do is use my in-camera multi-spot metering system, which again, a P&S or even 20D won't do.
Without fancy tricks, you want to expose somewhere between the light and dark areas. If you can average the exposure between the extremes, you'll get a good shot. That's easier said than done, but Largo, as usual, is spot on (excuse the pun)...
The key is in how cameras expose light. Cameras think that a "perfect" exposure is one where the entire scene can be averaged to what is called "18% grey".
Imagine a simple picture - 1/2 is white, 1/2 is black. The average of these colors is grey (close enough for this paragraph). Let's call that 50% grey.
Now let's imagine a scene where 3/4 of the image is white and 1/4 is black. The average "greyness" of the image has changed. It's now "brighter" so the camera will adjust itslf thinking that there's too much light to make everything even.
Now the reverse - 3/4 black and 1/4 white. The camera things the average is now 75% grey because there's more dark than light.
The camera, will try to expose all three so that they would appear to be the same shade of grey if they were averaged into one color (grey for those who haven't had their coffee yet).
Largo's suggestion basically tells the camera "I know you think this is mostly black, but let's kick it up a notch or two because I'm smarter than you", and that's exactly what happens.
If you have the ability to shoot RAW, a lot of these things can be resolved by altering the exposure after the shot.
GAD
Blacknewfs
New member
Huh?
I'm almost afraid to ask what GAD was talking about when he referred to an "in-camera multi-spot metering system"...
I really am totally inept at using my camera--any good picture I take is a fluke, I just happen to take a lot of pictures, so now and then I get lucky. I still use the "idiot modes" and every time I try to use the manual modes the picture turns out lousy. I get so ticked I missed a good shot that I flip back to auto. I've promised myself I will learn how to make the most of my camera....so lets start with this...what is spot metering, why and how does one do it?
