Use a 10-stop ND filter, drag out the shutter speed and use the shaking black card technique. 摇黑卡.
Help needed to for overblown sky
- Thread starter mabmy
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Well apparently, this is the scene that i wish to capture that day. The one i'm posting now is one of my test shots, in order to try my best to see how can i even out the exposure of the foreground and the sky. The filter used is not a gnd for this particular shot but an ND8 instead, placed at the horizon. I really like the details shown in this shot but unfortunately this is not my idea of a nice picture. Please guide me. Thank you.
No editing is done. Shoot in RAW and save as jpeg.
I think i see your problem. The ND effect is too strong for the sky man. Meter for the water. Use a milder ND filter for the sky. Use fill-in flash for the forground bush.
Alternatively, 3 exposures, one metering for each of the three components - sky, water, plant
hmm nightmare ts said he didnt think it was a good shot.
but agree: water blown, means you are metering off and clearly trying to do too much. best is whats been suggested (i.e. nd sky, meter for water and fill flash for bush). though if i were doing the shot id just make it simpler (and neater) and cut out the bush altogether.
LOL, what i meant is that i like the way the sky is visible and i hope to get a perfect exposure with the sky showing the details as this trial and error shot that i posted.
From all the ideas given on how this shot can be a great one is to use layers. I find that ND is not really suitable of course as shown in my sample. My GND seems to help abit but not very well either. LOL, what i meant is that i like the way the sky is visible and i hope to get a perfect exposure with the sky showing the details as this trial and error shot that i posted.
well, if you want variance in gnd filters, then you need at the very least cokin filter sets
cokin is not that expensive, but their filters are not neutral, tend to have yellow cast.
after that, you can only have brands like lee & singh ray, these cost a bomb, singh ray is about usd100 per filter.
my advice is, use something like tianya (about 2 stops), and then learn how to overcome the limitations of a 2 stop gnd filter with post process.
mabmy, you can also get nice blue sky and water (if you are at 90 degrees to the sun) with a circular polarizer.
http://www.great-landscape-photography.com/polarizing-filter.html
http://www.great-landscape-photography.com/polarizing-filter.html
dun need to go up to 8 / 10 stop GND la.
u can try getting a 4 stop GND and see.
polarisers do not help!
I haven come across times where i need to shoot scenes that requires anything above 4 stops GND. ( ... maybe i dun shoot enough yet :embrass: )
ryan
u can try getting a 4 stop GND and see.
polarisers do not help!
I haven come across times where i need to shoot scenes that requires anything above 4 stops GND. ( ... maybe i dun shoot enough yet :embrass: )
ryan
If you want to have the sky and the water and surrounding trees,
- do not shoot when the sun is at late afternoon in the opposite end. It cast too much shadow on the trees.
- Stack a CPL and a gradual ND. When selecting scene, avoid too much dark area subjects.
- Shoot raw where possible as it is very hard to know if the outcome is ok from LCD.
- You cannot expect clear blue water unless you are standing at high level, so reflection is unavoidable.
- Avoid when there is overcast, since the sky will blown easily as it get bright.
Here is an example where the shadow side is very dark, while the sun side is very bright. Preserving all 4 area (LR,top bottom) will require compromise. For this pic, the DR was pushed up by X3 fill, else the right side of the bank will be black.
I avoided selecting the dark area where the sun is behind me thus most is visible without too much tweaking. CPL only.
- do not shoot when the sun is at late afternoon in the opposite end. It cast too much shadow on the trees.
- Stack a CPL and a gradual ND. When selecting scene, avoid too much dark area subjects.
- Shoot raw where possible as it is very hard to know if the outcome is ok from LCD.
- You cannot expect clear blue water unless you are standing at high level, so reflection is unavoidable.
- Avoid when there is overcast, since the sky will blown easily as it get bright.
Here is an example where the shadow side is very dark, while the sun side is very bright. Preserving all 4 area (LR,top bottom) will require compromise. For this pic, the DR was pushed up by X3 fill, else the right side of the bank will be black.
I avoided selecting the dark area where the sun is behind me thus most is visible without too much tweaking. CPL only.
Hi everyone, i need some help from all the landscape shooters who shoots during the day. The problem i have is that i always get over blown skies after setting the correct exposure for the foreground subject but in return, i always get overblown skies. If i were to get the exposure right for the sky then the foreground will be underexposed. I have tried using a GND filter but it doesn't really help that much. Since i have a GND filter, which i believe give 2 stops of light loss, is there any other GND filter that i can use that will at least gives me an 8 to 10 stops of light or should i just stack 3 GND filters and will roughly get about 6 stops? Please help me out on this. Thank you.
Goodness me, u dun require 8 to 10 stops for that~! It boils down to knowing how to use.
Just occurs to me could it be ur method of approach is wrong?
The primary purpose of using a ND GRAD is to control the exposure difference between the sky and the ground, so you'll need to take control of the ur metering to make full use of the effect. Ideally you'll set your camera to manual so that the settings don't change when you start using the filter. Next u need to determine the strength of filter you'll need. Meter the foreground first with the ground filling the whole of the frame without the filter in place. Then repeat this process but this time round with the sky filling the frame. The difference between these two readings will indicate the strength of graduated filter that you need
It's always good to get a GND8 (0.9) and GND4 (0.6) with you at least, and use them sparingly (as and when required) and the proper way...
Like what bro Nightmare has pointed out, think Tianya/Cokins is a gd choice to start.(although Lee/Singray is stil the best as they offer the best quality and neutrality from color cast)
To add on. When you are taking afternoon pictures, be selective about the direction. If the day gets too bright (our tropical sun is very harsh), then there is little you can do and choose a separate theme.
- Look for opportunity. When the sun begins to hide behind the cloud or you have the clear sky but the sun happens to be in the cloudy side.
- Gradual ND cannot help when there is an intense concentrated bright area. In fact will cause discoloration.
1) In this example, the 5pm sun was at the right top corner. The sun was so bright and the sea was so reflective that everything in the bottom will be black. In this case, a ND+GND+CPL will do little help because intense glare was more of the problem. So heavy HDR will be required to get something or simply avoid it.
2) Make the sun at the back. At that same time, while 1st pic was blown off the scale, the other end of the jetty looks ok.
3) This is another bad example where the sun is casting heavy shadow. Sky got thin clouds that bleached the sky.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a110/spheredome/Peirce_reservoir/SDIM8539.jpg
4) Avoided the shadow. Same sun different scene give you good illumination and color.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a110/spheredome/Peirce_reservoir/SDIM8533.jpg
- Look for opportunity. When the sun begins to hide behind the cloud or you have the clear sky but the sun happens to be in the cloudy side.
- Gradual ND cannot help when there is an intense concentrated bright area. In fact will cause discoloration.
1) In this example, the 5pm sun was at the right top corner. The sun was so bright and the sea was so reflective that everything in the bottom will be black. In this case, a ND+GND+CPL will do little help because intense glare was more of the problem. So heavy HDR will be required to get something or simply avoid it.
2) Make the sun at the back. At that same time, while 1st pic was blown off the scale, the other end of the jetty looks ok.
3) This is another bad example where the sun is casting heavy shadow. Sky got thin clouds that bleached the sky.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a110/spheredome/Peirce_reservoir/SDIM8539.jpg
4) Avoided the shadow. Same sun different scene give you good illumination and color.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a110/spheredome/Peirce_reservoir/SDIM8533.jpg
u cant have the best of both world without using HDR in this case of shooting landscape. GND might help to a certain extend, but say you wanna capture the colours of sunset/sunrise and the right colours in other area...u need to do a hdr.
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