Northwoods Evening

[Teewinot]

Hey everyone,

I took this shot over the weekend from a pontoon boat on Spirit Lake in northern Wisconsin. Needless to say, I had little time to set up my shot cuz I wasn't driving the boat and we were moving at a good pace. The evening light was sublime and the water almost totally calm. I had my polarizer on too (I was using it for most of my other shots that included sky). I was pretty excited about this shot when I looked at it on my LCD, but upon viewing it on my computer I was a little disappointed in the slightly blown-out tree trunks. So, any thoughts on what I can do to fix this (1) in camera (for next time!) and/or (2) in post processing?



I already did a little post processing to this shot: slight crop, increased contrast, unsharp mask.

Exif info:
Camera - Olympus C8080 **(not an SLR)
Focal length - 25mm
Aperture - f/3.2
Shutter - 1/160 sec.
ISO - 50
WB - Auto

Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions!

[Farkled]

The only thing I can suggest for next time is to set up an auto bracket and just do it for everything. That's short of learning to instantly recognize and HDR situation, figure what your highlight or shadow has to be, set exposure for that, and then get the shot.

[jiminyClickit]

Teewinot,

Was original really light in the trunk area? Or is this contrasted up to that point?

[Nicole]

I don't think that all is lost on this photo at all.

What you could do is play with the shadows and highlights (try darkening the highlights) and then use the "Burn" tool on the shadows and midtones to further darken the trunks. If you just try using the burn tool at say 25-30% it should darken the trunks a little without making them look fake.

For next time, just use a faster shutter speed if you can. That should save you from getting such light tree trunks.

[Teewinot]

Farkled, yes, bracketing would be a good technique. Thanks for the reminder...I always overlook this when I'm shooting on the fly!

jiminyClickit, here's the original:



Not a huge amount of change I guess.

Nicole, thanks for the encouragement! I did actually try the 'Burn' tool a little on my first post processing attempt, but I felt the trees did look fake. However, that could be because I was using it with the wrong settings and I did not darken the highlights first. I will try again. Thanks for the tip on shutter speed...unfortunately I still use my 'training wheels' (program mode) too much! I need to get more comfortable with manual mode, especially in these quick picture situations.

I made the original photo (the one in this post) public on Flickr if anyone wants to try to fix the trees themselves. I always appreciate learning more about post processing!