Digital overexposure

[tsjanik]

I’m fairly new to digital.  I recently purchased a 645D and have discovered that a sensor’s response to over exposure is quite different from that for film. I‘ve attached an image taken with the 645D.  Film would have likely yielded an acceptable image of the overexposed sun, but the digital image is very unappealing with an irregular pattern of pure white.  I tried opening the file in ACR twice and pasting different exposure settings - somewhat helpful, but there’s nothing to be recovered in some areas.  How should I handle a situation like this in the future?   This was handheld and a tripod would not have been very practical, so multiple exposures would have been difficult.   Thanks for any advice.

Tom

[Schewe]

How should I handle a situation like this in the future?   This was handheld and a tripod would not have been very practical, so multiple exposures would have been difficult.

Use a tripod and do multiple exposures for the sky and foreground...either that or live with the limits of sensor dynamic range.

[marcmccalmont]

Use a tripod and do multiple exposures for the sky and foreground...either that or live with the limits of sensor dynamic range.

This is 2 exposures from a P45+ blended in Photoshop
Marc

[tsjanik]

Well fellows, you gave me the anwser I rather expected.  Jeff is to the point, although I hoped for some other solution.  Nice shot Marc, and I'm envious, in mine the water is frozen.

[Steve Weldon]

All answers so far are correct, but it might be helpful for you to know that exposing to the right of your histogram.. but not touching the right side.. will help you from blowing the highlights and losing data.

Also, know that each camera has a slightly different amount of headroom built into this.. so if you do overexpose, you can regain some of that lost data in RAW.. 1/3-a full stop in some cases.  This isn't recommended to set your exposure, but it might help make the best of a mistake.

Just think of digital as transparency film on this one area and you'll do fine..

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Exposure with sun include will always be difficult in digital. It is quite possible to shoot several images handheld and combine to a single image. Autobracket function may be helpful with that.

I can normally do without HDR, just using the dynamic range of the camera, exposing "correctly" to "to the right". I did some work with HDR and some of that can be seen here:

http://echophoto.smugmug.com/Special-methods/HDR/HDR/

Also I have both an HDR and a non HDR version of the same image here:

HDR: http://echophoto.smugmug.com/Special-methods/HDR/HDR/13306153_DcZHj#966794997_wt4h6-A-LB

Non HDR: http://echophoto.smugmug.com/Special-methods/HDR/HDR/13306153_DcZHj#1002864735_dkeci-A-LB

The latter one is used from the -2 eV exposure alone.

Best regards
Erik

I’m fairly new to digital.  I recently purchased a 645D and have discovered that a sensor’s response to over exposure is quite different from that for film. I‘ve attached an image taken with the 645D.  Film would have likely yielded an acceptable image of the overexposed sun, but the digital image is very unappealing with an irregular pattern of pure white.  I tried opening the file in ACR twice and pasting different exposure settings - somewhat helpful, but there’s nothing to be recovered in some areas.  How should I handle a situation like this in the future?   This was handheld and a tripod would not have been very practical, so multiple exposures would have been difficult.   Thanks for any advice.

Tom

[pfigen]

For images like this - sunset in the frame - the harsh transitions are always a problem. Having tried several raw processing options on similar images, Raw Developer is far and away the best software I've seen, producing far smoother transitions from the sun into the sunset than other options. For the images I was working with I used Nikon, Adobe, CaptureOne and RD. The first three were slightly better than the other in the order of the first three listed then a giant leap to the smoothness of the RD gradations. It may take quite a while to understand the myriad of option for highlight rendition in RD, but it's worth the effort for problem images. I'll often process the overall image in C1 and then just the sunset in RD and blend the two.

Obviously it's better to shoot a second or third exposure for blending, but it's not always possible and much more difficult, but not impossible when shooting people.

[stamper]

The sun is blown out completely - imo - and no amount of metering will solve it. However there is a technique in Photoshop that will solve your problem nicely. I use it on all my images that has the problem. A New fill layer set to yellow with the blend mode set to multiply. The whole image now has a strong yellow cast. Set the opacity to about 30%. You will have to experiment. Now it gets tricky. Click on the layer and select blending options and go to Blend if. Move the little triangle on the bottom left to the right to about 200. Press Alt ( on windows, not sure about Mac ) and then the triangle splits and then you move the right hand part all the way to the right. The yellow effect should only be affecting the highlights and splitting the triangles feathers the effect. You should have a feathering effect of at least 30 to look good. Experiment with the settings. The use of Blend if means only the burnout areas are effected and the slight yellow cast covers the burnout area.

[NikoJorj]

How should I handle a situation like this in the future?   This was handheld and a tripod would not have been very practical, so multiple exposures would have been difficult. 

Expose for the highlights, aka expose to the right, and lighten the shadows in post if needed.
That said, I feel that a shot with the sun seen through thin high clouds will always be quite tricky to capture digitally in one shot : the separation between the sun itself and its halo in the clouds is very difficult to register on the sensor due to its very high luminosity, and without it the image takes an unatural look, more often than not.

But the case is not completely lost either, because shooting handheld doesn't completely preclude multiple exposures : most good blenders know how to align the images, as long as nothing moved in the image itself.

[tsjanik]

Thanks to all, I've learned a lesson.   Unfortunately, it will be another year before this shot presents itself again.  I have not yet learned to check the screen after an exposure and 645D is so slow I'm not sure I ever will.
Eric, I  prefer the rendering of the sun in the HDR version, but prefer the non-HDR overall.

Stamper, thanks for the tip, yellow is better than white!

[Bill Carr]

Nice shot!

Not sure, but even hand-held, maybe bracketing would be the answer.  Testing this on a west-facing beach would give you appropriate settings for the spread and midpoint of the bracketing for future use.

Good shooting!

[tsjanik]

Thanks Bill.
Fixed it with an import from another shot.

[David Watson]

Interesting post.

I don't see anyone mentioning the use of ND Grads - the traditional and IMO still the best way of overcoming this problem.  Although the effect can be replicated in LR or PS to a degree nothing can overcome the  problem of completely blown highlights. In these situations I have frequently used 2 x ND9 grads in order to retain some detail in the sun.  Lee Filters are the best again IMO and they work well with MF digital.

[uaiomex]

I find the original better despite you now can distinguish the sun circle, etc. But the sky looks more interesting in the original. Please combine both with the one on top at 50% opacity. Or perhaps it needs a little more masking. Get rid of that "burnt" look all over the sky. (imho)
Eduardo

Thanks Bill.
Fixed it with an import from another shot.

[tsjanik]

Thanks Edurado, I think I see what you mean.  I concentrated on repairing the sun.  The original may not look too bad on the screen, but is terrible in print; the repaired version prints much better, but the sky suffered a bit - I can fix that.
Next time, ND and multiple exposures!! 

[uaiomex]

Multiple exposures concentrated at the highlight areas. I've discovered that you can bracket down 6 f-stops and still some areas in those HL would clip badly. A real digital bitch if I'm allow to say. Don't over do it. Some clipping looks fine and natural.
Eduardo

Thanks Edurado, I think I see what you mean.  I concentrated on repairing the sun.  The original may not look too bad on the screen, but is terrible in print; the repaired version prints much better, but the sky suffered a bit - I can fix that.
Next time, ND and multiple exposures!! 

[jjj]

The sun is blown out completely - imo - and no amount of metering will solve it. However there is a technique in Photoshop that will solve your problem nicely. I use it on all my images that has the problem. A New fill layer set to yellow with the blend mode set to multiply. The whole image now has a strong yellow cast. Set the opacity to about 30%. You will have to experiment. Now it gets tricky. Click on the layer and select blending options and go to Blend if. Move the little triangle on the bottom left to the right to about 200. Press Alt ( on windows, not sure about Mac ) and then the triangle splits and then you move the right hand part all the way to the right. The yellow effect should only be affecting the highlights and splitting the triangles feathers the effect. You should have a feathering effect of at least 30 to look good. Experiment with the settings. The use of Blend if means only the burnout areas are effected and the slight yellow cast covers the burnout area.

Interesting solution. I'll try that out sometime and see how it works for me.

[RFPhotography]

Interesting post.

I don't see anyone mentioning the use of ND Grads - the traditional and IMO still the best way of overcoming this problem.  Although the effect can be replicated in LR or PS to a degree nothing can overcome the  problem of completely blown highlights. In these situations I have frequently used 2 x ND9 grads in order to retain some detail in the sun.  Lee Filters are the best again IMO and they work well with MF digital.

Grads aren't a solution in all cases though.  Would have worked here but they are somewhat limited in their use.