I was out in Columbia SC this past weekend and I was shooting landscape shots. I noticed that one of the things I really need to work on is my over all exposure when you (the photographer) is in the shadow and your subject has shadows (think tree shadows over grassy area).

I know that you should meter to the brightest point in the photo, but when you do that, the shadows are black. If I meter to the shadows well, the whites/highlights blow out. I have tried compensating the exposure with F-Stops and Exposure time, but I haven't found any results for one shot photography (short of bracket shooting).

Any one have a simple solution to this problem?

 

ND filter or maybe grad ND, black card, bulb mode.

 

Hmm.. forget what book it was in, but the best way I've read it described was too spot meter any part of image and ask yourself what brightness of the color itself is. Ex if it's a spot of grass, is it a bright green (exp +1), a dark green (exp -1), or would you describe it as medium? If there is some harsh shadows (you remembered NOT to shoot in the middle of the day right? ) then compensate if it is in the sun (exp +.5) or shadow (exp -.5). This should get your fairly close.

Lastly remember, getting exposures right on the first try is not easy and takes years of experience to be able to do consistently and accurately, although it is much easier then it used to be. Set your camera to show the histogram in the shot review screen, that way you can see if you image is exposed correctly (mountain in middle), over exposed (mountain at the edge of the right of the graph), or underexposed (mountain at the edge of the left of the graph). Compensate and shoot again until you get it right, switching to manual mode may make this easier since it is hard to meter exactly the same point twice without a tripod.

 

It might also depend on what equipment you are shooting from.
I had a Nikon D100 I couldn't get any detail out of shadows. Sun lit or well lit anything was great but anything in contrast was soft or black. I studied and tried many techniques to get details in shadows but mostly failed.
I met someone that shot with an Olympus DSLR and I was confused watching her frame most of her shots into the sun. I'd often tell her "that shot won't work" but she'd prove me wrong with excellent color and detail in shadows. I've stopped and bought an Olympus and it's not prefect but shadows have been taken out of the equation.
I also now have a "shadow detail" adjustment in my cameras menu.
What you shooting with and anything in your user guide?

 

A couple of options

1) Graduated ND filter....so you meter for the shadows, but the sky doesn't blow out.

2) Shoot RAW, and edit highlights and shadows in PP.

3) Depending on the closeness of the subject, meter for the sky, and use fill flash to pull detail out of the shadows.

 

[QUOTE=03_AP1,Jun 19 2009, 10:32 AM] A couple of options

1)

 

Depends on the effect you want to capture. To get full range detail in many such scenes with a single shot you need the split or gradient ND filter mentioned above. Some sensors have greater dynamic range, thinking of the Fuji Super CCD HR.

You can bracket exposures as you already said. HDR is flavor-of-the-month easy-mode but you can mask and combine two or more images without that.

 

Thanks for the advice.

As some of you asked I am shooting with a Canon XSi with at 18-55 lens. I have had the camera almost a year, and have take some good shot, but only a few that makes me gaga over.

Oh, and yes I was shooting towards the middle of the day (around 11am) because I didn't have any other time to shoot.

I'll have to pick up a ND filter soon.