effing blown highlights

Luke

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Location
Milwaukee, WI USA
Name
Luke
I flipping hate them. I wish there were an exposure mode that was just "no blown highlights" where the single brightest pixel was one tic below blown out. Then I could just lift the shadows in post.

I'm going to share the blame with my little white dog. So many photos of him go straight to the trash.

Here's the latest. It's no great loss, I know. The world has not lost some priceless photo that can never be recreated. But I don't think the scene is particularly challenging. It's not a super wide range of light and shadow. I wish the Fuji had some of those obnoxious blinkies. At least then I'd know. And don't a single one of you tell me to just learn to read a histogram.

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DSCF5172
by Luke, on Flickr
 
lol! while i was dog hunting, i TOTALLY kept mentioning that i couldnt get an all black or all white dog, because they wont photograph well... LOL! :D Bentley actually takes a lot of work to look decent in b&w, tho!!! lol :)
 
:thiagree: It seems so obvious to me that this function could easily be implemented.

If I had £1 (or $1.553 ;)) for each time that this thought had gone through my mind, I'd probably have enough money to buy myself whichever camera actually had that feature...!:rolleyes-74:
 
Spot meter on the dog - that ought to bring him all the way back to middle-gray. Or just dial in 2/3 or a stop of negative exposure comp whenever you're shooting him.

This IS doable and you're just the man to do it!

-Ray
 
Nikon's D810 has a similar metering mode that prevents the highlights from clipping, called Highlight Weighted Metering. It doesn't do ETTR though, for those that are interested in it (the difference is that, when the dynamic range is lower than what the sensor can capture, the Highlight Weighted Metering doesn't do anything else than regular evaluative metering; only when the scene DR exceeds the sensor DR it makes sure nothing is blown out).

Agree with Ray that spot metering would be the way to go here. Blinkies / zebras are awesome though, wish all cameras had them...
 
Spot meter on the dog - that ought to bring him all the way back to middle-gray. Or just dial in 2/3 or a stop of negative exposure comp whenever you're shooting him.

This IS doable and you're just the man to do it!

-Ray

The spot metering would have worked on this shot....probably not the -2/3.....the top of his head is REALLY blown. But I've used spot metering on him before in more dynamic scenes and the results are just cartoonish. It becomes a middle gray dog in a night scene (even when shut in full sun!)
 
Nikon's D810 has a similar metering mode that prevents the highlights from clipping, called Highlight Weighted Metering. It doesn't do ETTR though, for those that are interested in it (the difference is that, when the dynamic range is lower than what the sensor can capture, the Highlight Weighted Metering doesn't do anything else than regular evaluative metering; only when the scene DR exceeds the sensor DR it makes sure nothing is blown out).

This is a step in the right direction. But I really think the priority should be toward blown highlights. It's more like real life. How often in real life is something so bright that can't see any detail? Outside of staring into the sun, I can't think of too many instances. The inability to make out detail in the shadows is normal. Save the highlights! It's my new crusade.
 
Over on the dark side, this is another horror. My black and white dog in snow. The eyes are so hard without PP.

I feel your pain Steve. But at least you've got an excuse. My shot was of a white dog on a light beige bed....not exactly a dynamically charge situation. Makes me feel like a loser, but I know I'm not. So I'm blaming the camera makers for not giving me the right tool. And I blame that dog, too.
 
I note jpeg is better than raw on my X10
I'd agree it shouldn't be so prevelant & more advice should be made available
 
maybe I need to admit to just being terrible at a proper exposure. At mid-day, I KNOW this scene at a waterfall was a difficult exposure, but I figured underexposing by 1 stop should be good. And then I shot a bracket just to be safe...... so I have -2, -1 and 0. Here is my -2...... with the center of the waterfall blown out.I don't know if the camera is off by 1 stop or what, but this doesn't seem right.

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DSCF5201
by Luke, on Flickr
 
White on white is one of the more difficult things to shoot Luke and it doesn't matter that it's 'just another pet photo' because you wanted it, right?

After what Ray said, metering on the dog, I'd probably then under expose a touch, and tweak in post processing. It's a lot easier to recover from underexposure than overexposure which is my general rule of thumb when I know the light is difficult, can't suss it out on the first go, but really want the shot.

I have a black cat who even at 22 will not sit still for the camera yet will sleep all day until I decide to take a shot. Double whammy. Not a good photo of her I guess because I am too lazy to sit around waiting for the right moment, that's me though, not the camera.
 
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