Great baseball shot ruined by sun

[terrtwins]

Anyway to combat this? The overexposed background really takes away from the photo(s).

[boostedsilvafox]

Great catch!

[d2creative]

Expose for the background (the majority of the scene) and bring the shadows up in post?
Nice catch.

[Tom]

Dodge and burn. You didn't lose all the data in the background. Try to selectively darken it.

[ClintDMc]

Well, after the fact, I would go with Thomas, but during shooting Dennis is right. If you expose for the brightest portion, everything but the fence will be right. And the fence could be brightened a bit in post.

[mdurisseau]

+1 on exposing for the highlights...forgive me, but that's elementary photography.

[Sonny]

Here's another option for fixing parts of an image that are over exposed. This is a quick and dirty technique.

1. Import your photo into Photoshop.

2. Make a duplicate (copy) of your background layer. On the duplicated layer (we'll call this Layer 1), which should be above the background layer, set the blend mode to 'Multiply'.

3. Still on Layer 1, create a Layer Mask. With your foreground color set to black mask out the baseball player.

4. If the background is still too bright then make a copy of Layer 1.



This is a quick 2 minute edit. You can take more time and create a cleaner mask. I just wanted to give you a visual example. For this image I did copy Layer 1 to further darken the field.

[brad]

Originally Posted by mdurisseau

forgive me, but that's elementary photography.

Forgive me, but that comment was unnecessary and unwelcome.

[flashtrax]

Real simple ran twice in Photo shop shadows and highlights

[LSCSN.com]

Forgive me, but that comment was unnecessary and unwelcome.

That's kind of what I was thinking. I'm not sure what it accomplished. We have a lot of different level shooters in here and the op was asked in all honesty to grow as a photographer.

[ClintDMc]

Well some people are just rude, and feel the need to belittle someone to try and build themselves up.

[terrtwins]

Exposing for the highlights almost assures not seeing a face in daytime baseball. Without face and ball, why even shoot? Perhaps I slept through that lesson?

Thanks everyone for the help.

[mdurisseau]

Not necessarily...while you should expose for the highlights, as has been suggested, there is something that can be done in Photoshop. With a properly exposed image, try using the Levels and boosting the midrange (the second set of numbers). It may sort of wash out those highlights, but you will be able to see the darker (shadow, midrange) parts of the image better.

The only other thing is to use a fill flash, but that's not practical! I know this is hard, too, but try to avoid shooting backlit (light coming from behind your subject) scenes. Your eyes can adjust, but cameras can't! Part of the issue is that, with digital, you can't have everything...

Keep working at it!

Originally Posted by terrtwins

Exposing for the highlights almost assures not seeing a face in daytime baseball. Without face and ball, why even shoot? Perhaps I slept through that lesson?

Thanks everyone for the help.

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by terrtwins

Exposing for the highlights almost assures not seeing a face in daytime baseball. Without face and ball, why even shoot? Perhaps I slept through that lesson?

Thanks everyone for the help.

I agree Dave.

I was taught to capture three things:

1. face
2. ball
3. action

[mdurisseau]

I agree, Sonny...faces are always good! It's what I look for, at least in part. There are so many other things that make a good sports action photo.

Originally Posted by Sonny

I agree Dave.

I was taught to capture three things:

1. face
2. ball
3. action