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Washed out pastels


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12 replies to this topic

#1
4breezes

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I have a problem shooting early morning sunrises.  I don't know whether it's me, the camera (D3500), or something I haven't even considered yet.  It's illustrated in the attached photo. 

 

This was taken at 6am, looking east.  The sun was just breaking the horizon off to the left of what you see.  The pinkish/red of the sunrise was much more pronounced looking at it than what appears in the photo.  The camera was set to make all decisions.  My only job was to push the button.

 

What can I do to rectify this, to make the pastels and the softer colors appear more true?

 

 

Attached Thumbnails

  • Yorn Island dawn 20190921 1.JPG


#2
Merco_61

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Start by taking control. The meter will always try to center the dynamic range on neutral grey. In this case, this has resulted in a slightly overexposed, dull photo. If you shoot in manual, you will soon get the experience that lets you see how much you need to reduce exposure for a scene like this. The same goes for aperture priority, except that you need to use the exposure compensation when you let the camera control any of the exposure parameters.

 

Lowering exposure gives the advantage of protecting the highlights as well, you are perilously close to blowing the white parts in the upper right corner, at least in this web-friendly version.

 

Learning to use raw files will let you do much more in post to bring out what you saw when you pressed the button.



#3
Snorky

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shoot in manual

 

Lowering exposure

 

Learning to use raw files

 

All the above, plus post editing. :D

 

Whether it's Lightroom, PhotoShop or something else, learn how to edit your photographs.

 

It's well worth the time invested.



#4
Nikon Shooter

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All the above plus have a good time!



#5
4breezes

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Start by taking control. The meter will always try to center the dynamic range on neutral grey. In this case, this has resulted in a slightly overexposed, dull photo. If you shoot in manual, you will soon get the experience that lets you see how much you need to reduce exposure for a scene like this. The same goes for aperture priority, except that you need to use the exposure compensation when you let the camera control any of the exposure parameters.

 

Lowering exposure gives the advantage of protecting the highlights as well, you are perilously close to blowing the white parts in the upper right corner, at least in this web-friendly version.

 

Learning to use raw files will let you do much more in post to bring out what you saw when you pressed the button.

 

 

 

Thank you, sir.  It's time to read some more in the manual.



#6
Nikon Shooter

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 It's time to read some more in the manual.

Right, the RFM strategy always works best! .P



#7
sunshine

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Thank you, sir.  It's time to read some more in the manual.

 

The manual will tell you what all the controls do and how to operate them. The book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson will tell you why to work the controls, when, and provides illustrations of what to expect when you do. There are many similar books by other authors, as well. I'd recommend choosing one to read alongside your manual.

https://www.amazon.c...a/dp/1607748509



#8
4breezes

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I think this is a bit better.  It's a slow process for me to learn and understand the relationships among all the settings.  It will take time and experimentation.  I'm so thankful for the digital camera rather than an older film camera.  In addition  I'm shooting the sunrise, and not every day has a good sunrise.

 

The name Bryan Peterson seems to ring a bell.  I have an older book ,"A Guide to Photography" (or something like that) by xxx Peterson.  I would have bought it about 1972 I believe.  It would be a stretch thinking it might be the same Peterson.

 

 

This isn't working for me.  I don't seem able to add the photo to this post.

 



#9
4breezes

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This is to continue my post of 16 Oct 2019.   I'm once again unable to upload a photo of 3.65 Mb.  I've tried three times, and each time I get a message "Upload Skipped (Error 404").  I'll try next using my laptop.



#10
Merco_61

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Shoot Adam a PM and ask of he has a solution for your sure problems.

#11
4breezes

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I'll try once again, dropping the apostrophe from "Rich's", as per Adams suggestion.  If the image will post I'm hoping it will show some improvement over the one in post #1.  I went more manual, as Nikonian suggested.

 

Richs Cove Sunrise 20191006 1.JPG



#12
Snorky

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Looks nice. Deep, rich colors... I'd increase the brightness a bit though.



#13
Nikon Shooter

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Agreed… and quite a bit!