A very green lake

[twentyfour01]

I took a lot of photos on a stunning fall day at a local state park that has two lakes which are blue green in color. The camera is a Nikon D40. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was either incompetent at my settings, or the wild colors in the scenes were more than my sensor could handle (lots of red/orange/blue/green contrast)









The rest of the set is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/upstate...7607964384099/

I can also never figure out what's the right ISO/metering mode combo for bright backgrounds. Unfortunately I don't get out with this camera much.

[wulf]

Do some post processing.

The camera struggles to cope with a wide range of colour and light - you eye has the advantage because the brain is constantly receiving, processing and interpreting the signals received to produce what you "see" whereas the camera freezes a short slice of time, constrained by the settings you used.

Post processing allows you to develop the colours and contrast to capture the character of what you perceived while at the location. You can push it too far and create an unnatural scene but, if the images above don't match your memories, you can probably also make them more accurate.

Wulf

[twentyfour01]

Thanks for the advice! I sometimes have to tone down shadows that are too blue, and that was done here.

The third picture was particularly a problem. The lower half of the photo accurately represents what I saw. Unfortunately the trees in the background look more russet than they actually were (the day wasn't THAT hazy) -- some green was lost -- and when I don't feel comfortable when I have to do really intrusive post-processing that involves anything other than simple allover color balancing.

[wulf]

Try a graduated colour filter. Shooting live, photographers will sometimes use, for example, a filter that starts out quite orange at the top and fades down to transparent to enhance a sunset. However, it is very easy to apply this after the event (saving buying and transporting lots of filters and giving you more choices after).

Here is a shot that has had some relatively subtle work, including both "clear to orange" and "clear to black" applied to bring out the colour of the fallen leaves at the bottom (and mute those tones a bit):



For both of my filters, I set the layer to overlay mode and made them fairly translucent - the colour was there already and I just wanted to make it a bit stronger.

Wulf

[FocalFrenzy]

The use of a Circular Polarizing filter (CP), will greatly reduce the haze in your backgrounds. It also seems to help reproduce the original colors. It's kind of like viewing the same scene with and without good sunglasses. It will reduce the amount of light entering your camera, but I'm not sure by how much. I always increase my exposure compensation by +.3 to +.7 to allow for this. If you don't have a CP, I have heard people say that shooting through a pair of sunglasses will work. I just haven't found a pair big enough to cover my lens. Good luck, and let us know what methods you used to improve your shots.

[Ryan O Hill]

Originally Posted by twentyfour01

I took a lot of photos on a stunning fall day at a local state park that has two lakes which are blue green in color. The camera is a Nikon D40. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was either incompetent at my settings, or the wild colors in the scenes were more than my sensor could handle (lots of red/orange/blue/green contrast)









The rest of the set is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/upstate...7607964384099/

I can also never figure out what's the right ISO/metering mode combo for bright backgrounds. Unfortunately I don't get out with this camera much.

those pix are deadly! wow ,, have a gander at mine maybe give me some tips , i live beside a lake ,half block away... and im just starting ,, i have cam a canon powershot a540... anyways i like the pix!