Contrasty . . . or not . . .
Discussion
Finally had some time to start playing with my D70 . . .
Is it just me or are the pictures straight from the camera quite contrasty ?
In all honesty I took the camera out of the box, charged the battery and selected Program mode . . . I may have done other things too during playtime . . . I should probably work out what !
Although taken at near sunset in quite difficult light (Macrahanish Beach on the Mull of Kintyre Peninsula - Wee blast in the Elise, Tent overnight, Vino, Wander along the beach, etc
) I can't make my mind up if it's too contrasty . . . perhaps not bearing in mind the light . . .
Also . . . saturating the CCD (RHS of the frame) is obviously a no-no . . . unlike film, sometimes . . .
Off for a long break in Canada in a couple of weeks, hoping I'll be able to FTP photos home . . .
Fd
Is it just me or are the pictures straight from the camera quite contrasty ?
In all honesty I took the camera out of the box, charged the battery and selected Program mode . . . I may have done other things too during playtime . . . I should probably work out what !
Although taken at near sunset in quite difficult light (Macrahanish Beach on the Mull of Kintyre Peninsula - Wee blast in the Elise, Tent overnight, Vino, Wander along the beach, etc
) I can't make my mind up if it's too contrasty . . . perhaps not bearing in mind the light . . . Also . . . saturating the CCD (RHS of the frame) is obviously a no-no . . . unlike film, sometimes . . .
Off for a long break in Canada in a couple of weeks, hoping I'll be able to FTP photos home . . .
Fd
Yep, mine will bleach the sky if it's too bright - even digital can't expose for light and dark at once.
I guess the trick is to anticipate when it's likely to happen and try to avoid it - in this case I think using fill-in flash (just press the flash release button) would have helped even out the exposure balance between left and right.
I guess the trick is to anticipate when it's likely to happen and try to avoid it - in this case I think using fill-in flash (just press the flash release button) would have helped even out the exposure balance between left and right.
I'm finding this with my D100 - expose for foreground and the sky does tend to wash out somewhat, expose for background and foreground is too dark. I think the solution is to either (a) bracket and sew the images together using PS or (b) use a grad filter to darken the sky. Cue another trip to Jessops.... 
fatsteve said:
I bought a cheap circular polarising filter to help with this. Works very well provided your lense has a fixed end element (my 17-55 doesn't and it's a pain in the arse, have to adjust it everytime you focus 
I've often toyed with the idea of that. Circular must be the one that doesn't mess up AF systems, yes?
However, if it reduces contrast in shots like the above... what I mean is, is it beneficial in every situation?
(NB my 18-70 is my first ever IF lens, hurrah!)
simpo two said:
I bought a cheap circular polarising filter to help with this. Works very well provided your lense has a fixed end element (my 17-55 doesn't and it's a pain in the arse, have to adjust it everytime you focus
I've often toyed with the idea of that. Circular must be the one that doesn't mess up AF systems, yes?
However, if it reduces contrast in shots like the above... what I mean is, is it beneficial in every situation?
(NB my 18-70 is my first ever IF lens, hurrah!)
Nice Man in MK Jessops said said:
You need to use a circular polarizer with an AF lens (rather than a linear polarizer)
As I say providing you've got a fixed front element then it's a great filter. I'm going grab 62mm one for my 28-300 and go and play, the results from my other lens were quite impressive. CP's are great for picking out detail in sky's (ie v. light blue sky with clouds)
Steve
Polarisers are great in some instances, but won't help in the picture above. There are a few options that can help, which have been mentioned already - e.g., use an ND grad filter (which has a section which darkens the image), expose for the bit that you're interested in, or even take two exposures and merge in Photoshop.
Polarisers reduce reflections and make colours more saturated - blue skies look great! They do cost you a couple of stops in light though, so you may well need to use either a faster film/higher iso setting or a tripod. They also work best when you shoot at right-angles to the direction of the light. Certainly worth getting though - one of those "must-have" filters I think!
Polarisers reduce reflections and make colours more saturated - blue skies look great! They do cost you a couple of stops in light though, so you may well need to use either a faster film/higher iso setting or a tripod. They also work best when you shoot at right-angles to the direction of the light. Certainly worth getting though - one of those "must-have" filters I think!
simpo two said:Certainly is!
e.g., use an ND grad filter
Is it possible to emulate this in PS? I can make colour gradients, but can you make a 'brightness gradient'?
I knocked this example up in literally less than 60 seconds, so excuse the poor quality, but it gives you an idea.
The only problem is if you've not got the detail there to begin with, but you can normally retrieve a lot more information that you'd think.
In this example, I used the lasso tool to select the sky, and used the curves tool to darken it, then inverted the selection and brightened up the bottom half using curves again.
Original image is on the top, 60 seconds of Photoshop image is underneath.
ehasler said:
In this example, I used the lasso tool to select the sky, and used the curves tool to darken it, then inverted the selection and brightened up the bottom half using curves again.
Certainly impressive Ed (as ever!). Although you weren't using a gradient as I understand it, I'm sure the curves way is technically better. Being a PS numpty I use brightness and contrast sliders - what do curves do that's different/better?
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