Keeping both the sun and the subject properly exposed

[Thomse]

Hello

I saw this photo:
Skier with sun and mountains | Stock Photo | iStockphoto.com

And wondered how the photographer had kept the sun that defined without underexposing the rest of the image?

When I try to get the sun to be more than a washed out white area, the rest of my image gets way underexposed.

Any ideas?

[dlambert]

A graduated ND filter can help in settings like that -- this could account for the darker sky higher in the photo, but I also wouldn't rule out some photoshopping - either to lighten the skier, or maybe even something more drastic, like pasting in the sun & the shadow of the skier. Something about the alignment of the sun, skier's shadow, and the other shadows in the shot seems a bit dubious to me.

[OsmosisStudios]

Combination graduated neutral density and fill lighting of some kind.

[Thomse]

Thanks. So this is not possible with the normal dynamic range of the camera?

[Krusty79]

I think in this case the dynamic range may not be as great as a typical landscape shot. This shot has the bright white snow in the foreground, whereas most landscape shots have a relatively dark foreground. This does not look like HDR to me. The gradient in the sky does look unusual.

After re-reading dlambert's comment, the sun and shadow do not look like they are aligned correctly to me, so this could have been heavily PP'd.

[BexJarratt]

I'm a novice and would have no HOPE of ever capturing a shot like this, but my untrained and possibly mistaken eye makes the following observations - please correct me if I'm talking poop...

The skier going down that slope, you'd expect to be travelling fairly fast yet the skier is perfectly frozen, making you think a very fast shutter speed, however doesn't the sky colouring and the star shape of the sun make you think that this is a long shutter speed with a polariser and ND filter to get the star shape without total blowout and the gradient in the sky tone.

I think it's a cut'n'shut. Probably the shadow is right, but I reckon the sky and sun's been subbed in.

[Thomse]

yeah I see what you mean. I guess that's the way to work around it then.

[OsmosisStudios]

bex: The shape of the sun has nothing to do with long exposure and everything to do with the aperture selected. Small apertures give pointed sunstars to bright light sources. Some lenses do it better than others and the number of points is dependent on the number of blades in that aperture.

The image, as I said, is a single shot. There's some additional lighting (either a reflector or flash) on the skier to illuminate from the right and behind and there's a graduated neutral density filter over the sky which gives that very dark sky look (and helps the sun no be blown to bits)

[BexJarratt]

Ah, small aperture rather than long exposure, yeah now you say that it makes perfect sense. That's what I love about this site when you get the wrong end of the stick someone's there to turn you round. Thanks.