[HellwratH]

Originally Posted by shajufx

Clever, I just want to add 2 points for a Nikonian (if that helps!!). Spot metering is explained as a tool when the subject is in a 'brightly lit background' and even 'background darker than the subject'. Then we have a tool called 'Active D-lighting' which is exclusively meant for subjects that are in a brighly lit or higher contrast scenes. I believe 'fill-flash' also serves the same purpose, but not with a tusker for sure !!!

I am not sure if spot metering will work here as it will completely blow out the background. The problem will be that the subject is dark and hence the camera will expose for the subject and due to which the sky will be blown.

There's a debate on usage of flash with wild animals. One group says it is harmful, the other says it is ok to use flash because the animals consider it equivalent to lightning (just the light part of it) and is natural to these animals. I have no idea as I haven't given it a shot yet .

Janitha,
I am not sure how a hood will help here? Hood helps in cutting down the flare, right?

If I was in such a situation, I probably would shoot RAW and underexpose by atleast a stop. And especially in cases with sky as the background, I would increase the f-stop and try and expose for the sky and later recover the details from the subject in PP.

[clevermax]

@Hw, @shaju
I think spot metering will only help you to take two shots one metered for subject and another for sky and later blend 'em.

Hw, your idea of shooting raw and underexposing it is probably the way to go. Otherwise just take two shots at two exposures for PP later. remember Rudra taken several exposures for his outdoor shots of cars etc.

My camera has a feature called Dynamic Range Optimizer (DRO) which has three options Off, Standard and Advanced. If I shoot in Jpeg, setting it to Advanced would help me to get a good dynamic range from the actual image data. But it won't be like an HDR though. While shooting in RAW, obviously this setting doesn't matter.

[Unknownsatan]

Just a try,with a normal cam.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by HellwratH

I am not sure if spot metering will work here as it will completely blow out the background. The problem will be that the subject is dark and hence the camera will expose for the subject and due to which the sky will be blown.

It will work, but you need to work the zone system.

Originally Posted by clevermax

@Hw, @shaju
I think spot metering will only help you to take two shots one metered for subject and another for sky and later blend 'em.

Hard to use the multiple-exposure technique on an animal, it will move unless it is a crocodile. Plus you need the tripod, which may not be safe to use in front of an elephant.

I have hardly seen anybody using spot-metering here. The guy who pushed me into serious photography few years back, told me one thing. If you understand spot metering, you'll understand exposure. And he told me not to buy any dSLR that doesn't support spot-metering. So I did nothing but spot metering for the next 2-3 months. That forced me to understand and exploit the zone system (white,light grey,grey,dark grey & black).

How to spot meter:

1) Switch to spot metering on the camera.
2) Switch the camera to manual. (any other mode will mess up your exposure unless you AE lock it)
3) Look at the target object through the viewfinder and compose your frame.
4) Now is the decision time. Among the area that you want correctly exposed, pick a spot whose zone is very clear to you. Don't pick white or black, but pick among LG,G or DG. Say you picked an area that is light grey.
5) Ignore the original frame. Just point the center dot of the lens on the spot you picked. Now the camera will assume it to be mid tone or grey. But you know it is light grey. So, manipulate the speed and aperture to your taste/style to get a EV value of +1. If the spotted area was grey, pick EV as 0, if the spotted area was dark grey, pick the EV as -1. You get the idea.
6) Now get back to the original frame, and click.
7) Change your metering back to the original setting, don't leave it in spot and forget about it.

The above technique will work well even if you shoot JPEG.

[Torqueguru]

@Proxima
Continue to blow out the background in back lit images, it looks good to have a blown about background with the right exposure for your object. I like the aesthetics that it lends. In case you want to avoid it, use multiple exposures and do it in post, thats the best solution as far as I know.
Here is an eg of a shot where I deliberately over exposed the background so that I expose the car well, since it is on the shadow side, and also took another shot which was exposed just right for the background and then pped them by masking off the sky.


Regards,
TG.

[sj_koova]

One from me after many months
Scene from the apartment balcony at Whitefield

[yzfrj]

Originally Posted by sj_koova

One from me after many months
Scene from the apartment balcony at Whitefield
Attachment 294897

I kinda like it.
Is it me of does the sun looks not that "round" ?

[sj_koova]

Originally Posted by yzfrj

I kinda like it.
Is it me of does the sun looks not that "round" ?

I guess it is because the bottom portion is masked under horizon.
In my next click, I got pretty much perfect round, but I did not get the color gradient in that one.

[sj_koova]

Here is the one I was talking about.

[clevermax]

From the DJ's desk

ISO800, 1/40

[Torqueguru]

@Sjkoova
Brilliant shots.

Pyramid Lake, Nevada - Processed by duplicating the layer of the original photograph, changing the blend mode of the top layer to overlay. To the second layer, a high pass filter was applied and to the last layer, nothing was done, it was left un-touched.
Processed:


Original blend of 3 exposures:


Regards,
TG.

[TSEA]

Posting some old ones.

Come Near!



What's your problem mate!



Will do anything for lunch!

[harmon_bro]

A croc at the Chennai zoo.

[sushrutha]

@TSEA, lovely shots there.
Loved the one "Will do anything for lunch"
Fantastic.

[praful]

Moon setting behind a hill in the Nubra Valley, Ladakh!