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Innsbruck, Switzerland
Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 40
Aperture 5
Shutter 1/500
ISO 100
This is a picture that I shot mid-day in Switzerland, which has been retouched. Mainly in the sky to compensate for the difference in the brightness of the scene. I used the polygonal lasso tool in adobe photoshop to isolate the sky and selectively darken it with the brightness/contrast slider. You can see my original below. Not a huge difference. Any further darkening would run the risk of giving the photo an artificial or unrealistic look. Above is a good example of how the picture would have turned out had I been using a graduated neutral density filter. For this case a 2 stop filter would likely be necessary.
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In my original the sky was correctly exposed leaving the foreground darker than I would have liked. If I had exposed for the lighting in the foreground the sky would have been overexposed. You can't win. Unless you are using a graduated neutral density filter. These filters have little to no shading on one side and a darker tint/shade on the other. The purpose of this is to make the foreground (for this example) the same brightness as the sky. So in this instance you would use the unshaded/untinted side of the filter for the foreground, and the shaded/tinted side of the filter. Think of it like this. If the top side of the filter (the shaded side) is facing the sky it will allow less light in during the same time period (depending on the opacity of the filter). So here, you would want to expose the shot for the foreground using the transparent side of the filter, and depending on the level of light present in the sky, use the proper strength of shading.
There are also different types of graduated neutral density filters - hard and soft edged. These are just like they sound. A hard edged filter will have a rather distinct line where there is a much shorter transition from the shaded part of the filter, where the soft will have a very gradual transition form the darkest part at one side to the opposite side where there is no shading/tinting at all.
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ReplyDeleteGuten tag Edelstahlrohr,
DeleteI figure that many of the people who come across my blog are strangers, but they are welcomed, and any input is refreshing. Unfortunately I'm unable to update it as often as I would like, but I'll surely update it at least once a week until I have more time available.
Let me know if there are any particular aspects of photography, Canons, or editing software that you would like me to touch on or explain. It's exciting to see others sharing an interest in the subject.
Auf Wiedersehen!