blown out images

[skally]

i'm not quite sure of the terminology but my images are often 'blown out' or 'hot' or 'over exposed'...the whites are too bright...feel free to correct my description of the problem...if i cut the amount of light i lose detail or the image becomes too dark...i'm not asking for a simple solution but what should i be working on?...i'm using an olympus e510 which i am beginning to like a lot...

[venchka]

Folks have been fighting this problem since the beginning of photography. Sometimes your fighting a loosing battle. The dynamic range, ratio of lightest to darkest areas, is too great for the media to handle. So, you have to expose for the important areas and let the rest fall where it may. You can hedge your bets a little. Example: Really bright areas. You can overexpose them by one or two stops and still have detail left. This may provide detail in the dark areas. While many metering systems will average a scene, I try to do my own averaging based on what I think is important in the scene. Example: A bright area might require f:11 and a shadow area might require f:5.6. I'll set the aperture at f:8 and usually get decent results. That's an easy example. Things get tricky when you're trying to balance a 4-5-6 stop difference in a scene. Bracketing works. Make several exposures 1 or 2 stops apart. One of them will probably be better than the others. Of course Photoshop can sometimes save your bacon if you don't totally blow out the highlights.

Good luck.

[johnastovall]

Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera
by Bryan Peterson is a good place to start learning about it.

[venchka]

A picture's worth a thousand words. Keep the size moderate: 800x600 works fine. Show us what's giving you grief. Somebody here will know how to fix it.

[josphy]

Sometimes the best way to fix it is to concentrate on photographing when the light is right. If you go out in mid-day when it's blazing sun overhead, you're going to end up with a tremendous brightness range. Your eyes can adjust and take in the full range of brightness, but cameras have a limited range they can capture and still have detail between the darkest blacks and the whitest whites. I'd just suggest to start paying attention to conditions and times of day when the light is really nice -- like diffused, soft light through a big window, early morning, late evening, cloudy days, overcast days (perfect for close-ups of flowers and macros), etc.

That's from a just good photography in general standpoint. From a Photoshop standpoint, if you have to sacrifice something one way or the other -- and often you do -- best to expose to preserve your highlights and even if you lose some detail in the darker areas, you can usually bring it up in Photoshop once you get the hang of things. The Shadow/Highlight tool is very easy and a good start.

[venchka]

In the beginning...pretend Photoshop doesn't exist. All of the above comments about light are 100% on target. Get your exposure as close to perfect at the moment you take the picture. All the rest will be easy.

[skally]

this sequence of fstops makes sense...thanks

[skally]

i'll get the book...it's good to have a recommendation on photo books...some i've looked at are terrible...

[skally]

the time of day was not optional but i know what you mean about the direct light around here

[skally]

i really want to get my photos as good as possible without ps for now...i used it a little when i first started and wasted a lot of time screwing around instead of concentrating on the basics...

[skally]

i'm not exactly sure how to post a picture on this site...somebody point me in the right direction...

[Daniel Bates]

You can attach a picture (click on the yellow "insert image" icon second from the right in the Quick Reply menu bar), or get an external site to host it for you and post the link. I've used Imageshack.us and PhotoBucket.com for that purpose.

[skally]

here's an example...too hot

[skally]

when i tried to attach an example it asked for an url...what's up with that?

[LadyShutterBug]

if you have it loaded tot he web somewhere, you need to tell the forum program where to find it.

if you want ot just upload the file to the forum and let the forum host it, then in your "reply" you need to "manage attachemnts" and upload the file to the forum.