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Old July 31st 07, 06:55 PM posted to rec.photo.digital
Steve B[_3_]
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Posts: 65
Default How should I have shot this picture so it isn't so washed out?


"SHAKY HANDS" wrote in message
oups.com...
PICTURE HERE
http://www.intergate.com/~tobeornot2b/me/P7290011.JPG

This picture was shot on my Olympus SP-350 using SHQ (Super High
Quality) + an Automatic setting + Landscape Scene. The shot is just
so washed out, I really feel I need some guidance on how to shoot it.

I'd like to bring the shade of the background trees into focus, and
(if you'll look closely) you'll see my orange power cord lying there
-- I should be able to see that much more vividly. It's not sharp
enough. In short . . . this shot is pretty bad lol.

I'm not a photographer but I am darn proud I cut down this gigantic
tree by myself and I'd like to have photos of it (I also want help
with a PANORAMA shot from the inside of my house to get the full
length of this beast . . . but that's another thread).

Thanks for every piece of advice you can give me. I am clueless about
what I'm doing here!

SHAKY HANDS

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It's a high dynamic range shot, and the DR is wider than the camera can cope
with. Mainly, it's overexposed and the fix for that would be perhaps -1EV
(experiment) of exposure compensation, but then the shaded trees will
disappear into blackness. It may have been made worse by your camera being
aimed at the shaded trees, the camera may give some priority to the middle
of the picture in its matrix metering. Turning the contrast down in-camera
might help a bit.

I'm not familiar with your SP-350 apart from knowing it's quite good, but
has it got RAW? RAW would give you more scope, you take one shot and
develop it at 2 different exposures, one to get the highlights right, and
one to get the shadows right, then combine the best bits of each in a
program like PhotoMatix which can do it automatically. Alternatively, you
take several shots at different exposures and blend them, again PhotoMatix
can do this but subject movement can be a problem with this method but
otherwise it can produce the best results. Even a DSLR with a wider DR can
need help with shots like this.