Blown Highlights

[Wild-Woman]

I think I need to get a good photography book, with a jolly good glossary so I can understand what you're all talking about. There was me thinking that blown highlights was about hairdressing!!

[Andy Warne]

Originally Posted by DaiTheDragon

Why not use a neutral grey card and set custom white balance.

dai

If anyone wants a grey card these are pretty good,

Douglas Software, Photographer’s Grey Card.

[jezlee]

Originally Posted by carlj

I always shoot with -0.6 exposure compensation and rein in the highlights, so to speak. That way, I rarely if ever, blow too many highlights. A little lost is no hardship though.

I think you're right, Carl .... a slightly under-exposed shot is always preferable to an over-exposed one - it's easier to bring some detail into the shadows in post production than trying to replace something in the highlights that's not there ....

[Alan]

Originally Posted by jezlee

I think you're right, Carl .... a slightly under-exposed shot is always preferable to an over-exposed one - it's easier to bring some detail into the shadows in post production than trying to replace something in the highlights that's not there ....

Yes agreed, but it does depend on the camera. The D70 tends to under-expose too much if you're not careful, so I normally over-expose by +0.3 for normal midtone subjects and use that as a starting point to adjust for other tones. Now of course if you go manual like Dai suggests and either meter off a grey card or a mid tone subject like grass or some tree trunks, that's another way to learn.

I believe the D50 is spot on with metering Jez, so as I say, it often depends on the camera.

[Beryl]

I have a D50 Nikon. I keep it on auto action. I don't fully understand the manual , well lets just say I can't read the thing, but I find with the automatic , my ISO is auto along with everything else. I'm probably guilty of tryingto get photos of things just a little too far away and I like action more so than stills. I don't care for the unsharp mask , usually go for levels.
I am hoping to et a 80-300mm ths month, that should hepl with the long shots but as for blown highlights that as Wild-woman says is the hair department for me too.

[Chalk Downlanders]

A little trick I use when I over or under expose an image is. Save the same RAW file twice as a TIFF. One over exposed and one underexposed. Load the two into Photoshop and using the eraser, I remove the over / under exposed areas on the top image and merge the composite images. If you use a very gentle eraser it blends quite well.

Kev

[Andy Warne]

Originally Posted by Chalk Downlanders

A little trick I use when I over or under expose an image is. Save the same RAW file twice as a TIFF. One over exposed and one underexposed. Load the two into Photoshop and using the eraser, I remove the over / under exposed areas on the top image and merge the composite images. If you use a very gentle eraser it blends quite well.

Kev

To take it a step further you could bracket your exposures and then sandwich them together using some software to create a high dynamic range image.

HDR photo software & plugin - Tone Mapping, Exposure Blending & HDR Imaging for photography

They're got some examples on their website.

[Chalk Downlanders]

That looks quite impressive Andy. I'll have a better look later. Maybe it can be done in Photoshop but I am not aware that it can.

[carlj]

Grey card? Why not open a blank page, new fill layer, fill with 16% grey and print to a4 card?

As for spot metering - know what would count as a midtone or you'll blow the exposure completely. It is the most accurate, but also the most difficult to use correctly.

[Kev Lewis]

Originally Posted by DaiTheDragon

Why not use a neutral grey card and set custom white balance.

dai

The 18% grey card can be used to set an average exposure value and to set colour balance. However for white to be white you need to OVERexpose from the metered reading or the exposure will try to make the whites 18% grey as well. Use the histograms and metering according to the situation.

To maximise the detail in any image you should always try to maximise the exposure as much as possible without blowing the whites i.e push the histogram to the right without clipping.