Improving Exposure Compensation

Classic example of over-exposing. Take a look at the subjects, the field and everything looks fine. But looking over the horses shoulders into the bright clouds on the horizon and you'll be blinded by the light. The trouble is it draws your eyes into it and makes a great photo a near total loss. Let's try cropping it.

Not much help, because though the horses are better viewed and with even better detail, you are not able to overcome the too high an exposure in the background. Maybe if we crop even more to focus our eyes on only the subjects within the frame. Let's see.

One could make an argument for a nearly acceptable shot, but when nothing is done to better prepare for exposing, the result is pretty much the same. How did this happen?

When looking into your viewfinder, and here I'm assuming your camera is a dslr (digital single lens reflex) you will see an exposure meter. The meter I saw was dead center, and I took the shot assuming the outcome would be perfect. What I didn't do was expose for the brightest area within my composition, the sky. If I had I might have had an under-exposed shot, but it would then have been easy to increase the exposure with a simple adjustment.

Your dslr will have a settings adjustment wheel or button to increase or decrease exposure compensation. If you are not already familiar with this setting, you will find that it should become on of your first tools when exposing for that first, half-depression of the shutter button.

Now let's take a look at a slight move of the meter to the right after exposing for the brighter background. What the camera did was to underexpose to counter that far too bright skyline, then I was able to within less than a second scroll the wheel for adding back exposure compensation.

Not only is there slightly better detail in the shadows, but the background while still being brighter than the immediate foreground is less blown out, making it easier to keep focused on the main subject of the photo, the draft horses and their gear. Location of you and your camera may not always be optimal, as the public needed to remain behind a wooden fence for safety, so lowering of your lens to help eliminate the bright background and exposing for the bright area, as well as slight increases in exposure can lead to much better shoots.

Call for Colors Competition

Enter Iron Creek



http://www.lightspacetime.com/current-competition-2/

Current Competition

The theme for October 2010, our current competition is "Colors". The submission process for artists ends October 29, 2010. All winners will be selected, announced and be featured on the Light Space & Time website on November 1, 2010 and remain online in the gallery through November 30, 2010. Thereafter, the artworks will remain online in the Light Space & Time Archives with links to the artist's websites.

At the bottom of this page is a link to enter this competition, along with the procedure to enter this exhibition. The sizing and labeling of your images is very important. Please size your images, not to exceed 534 x 356 pixels with a resolution of 100. Label your image files in the following manner; last name, image number, competition name, image name. Following is an Example: Smith_1_Surfaces_Wave.jpg. Please fill the entire form and load all three (3) images before sending the upload. Also, you may upload additional images if required, along with the additional entry fees.

After the upload, go to the PayPal Payment Center and make your payment of $9.00. Additional images may be uploaded for $2.00 each. The PayPal Account Name is submissions@lightspacetime.com. After the successful upload of your images and the successful payment through PayPal, you will receive a confirmation of each procedure. If there are any problems with any of these procedures email us at info@lightspacetime.com

A group exhibition of the top five finalists will be held online at the Light Space & Time – Online Art Gallery during the month of November 2010. Awards will be for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. In addition, 2 artists will recognized with Honorable Mention awards.

SUBMIT HERE

Color Separation

 

Color Separation is a process which takes more than a few steps to accomplish. The rewards of accomplishment are gratifying. The work or fun, as you wish, are satisfying, if arduous. See a few more by visiting my Gallery titled Black and White Color at my website.

Why DNG? Why not just RAW?

 Why DNG? Why not just RAW?


Photographers like to save their photos in a format which will work for many years to come. So what format is that? TIFF? JPG? RAW? What do you save yours in? Most of us save in the standard JPG, but some of us have decided to move to RAW. Is that the answer?

Formats ought to be a simple approach for saving image files. But we choose different formats. Or our cameras choose them for us. Every camera manufacturer ought to make it simple for us to convert an image file no matter their particular format to a standard format, but they don't. It's called proprietary use. What is the format for saving image files that is universal? It's called DNG, by Adobe. Why is that important?

What happens when we save to our preferred format? Nothing so long as we don't change cameras or computers. We could conceivably save them and open them forever, well for a long time. But, if we shoot and save in RAW, then as soon as we change camera models, or we upgrade our Macs or PC's we run the risk of not being able to open them. Seems compatibility is the issue.



Adobe has issued the DNG format to help solve this issue. Once we have shot in JPG or TIFF or RAW, we can then convert to DNG, a universal, format, and know that in the future our new PC or Mac will reliably open and then re-convert to any format we choose. This is important for those of us who care about being able to create another use for our images, according to the format of choice at the time. I sell my images both locally and online and though many of the websites and buyers prefer one format over another. some are particular about the use of another format. In these cases DNG is especially useful because in the years ahead, a website's preferences may change. They may have a need for a buyer's preferences which the DNG format would be able to solve.

The DNG format is becoming a widely accepted norm among not only among software but hardware manufacturers such as Apple, Leica and Samsung. Here's a read from Adobe about the benefits:

Key benefits for photographers:

• DNG format helps promote archival confidence, since digital-imaging software solutions will be able to open raw files more easily in the future.
• A single raw processing solution enables a more efficient workflow when handling raw files from multiple camera models and manufacturers.
• A publicly documented and readily available specification can be easily adopted by camera manufacturers and updated to accommodate technology changes.

http://www.adobe.com/products/dng/index.html




We might ask, what are your preferences?