Strong backlight

[shyamr]

Another shot where I ran into some trouble... the sun was setting in the background and the bright light was killing everything else in the frame.

Is there anything I could do differently to get the 'green grass' and the ' brown house' come out the way I saw it?

Regards,
Shyam.

EOS 450D
EF 14mm L
f/7.1
1/197s
ISO200

[photog45]

Personally I like a polarizing filter when I shoot outdoors. It really helps with the saturation of the sky and avoids the completely blown out look. At least in theory, some days I get it wrong. lol

[Mogen_david]

Graduated ND Filter?

[dcclark]

A polarizer shouldn't change much in this situation -- it may take a bit of light out of the sky, but it will also darken the rest of the photo.

A graduated neutral density photo is a landscape photographer's best friend, since it can absorb light from half of the image, and leave the rest unchanged.

Finally, you could go for an HDR image, by taking several photos, each exposed for different parts (the sky, the ground, etc.) and combining them.

[D3rk0]

You could also use the gradient filter in ACR 5 and expose the bottom correctly, and just underexpose the top. That is if you have CS4... maybe a similar effect can be achieved in whatever you use for pp.

[shyamr]

Thank you all.
DCClark: I will attempt some stuff with filters and see how it comes out. I don't have any fancy postprocessing software so the multiple shots might have to wait

D3rk0: Could you please (if you have a minute) expand on your idea a little bit. I am a relative beginner and am not sure what ACR5, CS4, or pp mean.

Regards.
Shyam.

[D3rk0]

Sorry... CS4 - Photo Shop CS4. PP - Post Processing. ACR5 - Adobe Camera Raw 5

[denja]

A grad nd filter id the answer to this problem, however, it doesn't help to try and save this shot. I took the liberty of bumping the shadow detail and doing about a 5 - 10 % burn on the sky to get this image. If you would like me to take this down, please let me know.

Jim