Sky-blew

[Surprised]

Forgive the laboured pun in the subject-line, but I hope it got your attention!

Presumably what's happened here is that my camera set the exposure to deal with the darker foreground (ie my two sons) and as a result the brighter background (ie the sky) (it was a very sunny day) got completely blown out. Put bluntly, the camera simply couldn't cope with the contrast.

I think I could have got round this with a filter; but I don't own any... Could I have prevented the fact that the sky blew any other way? That's the first question; and the second it this: does it matter? Because maybe, this picture has turned out OK anyway. Wouldn't I have had to have worked quite hard setting up a white background, or using post-production techniques, to get the same result intentionally?

Most of my life seems to have been contented serendipity, and maybe this snap is another happy example. There's probably an Ansel Adams quote somewhere to suit the occasion...



EXIF data:
Camera: Panasonic DMC FZ-28
Exposure: 0.0025 sec (1/400th)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 14.9 mm
ISO Speed: 160
Taken at 2:30pm BST (early October)

[sk66]

A filter wouldn't have helped much..abut the only way to save the sky would be to add fill light from the front (flash/bounce card). The "other" solution would be to be aware of the strong backlight and reposition the boys before taking the shot.

Yes, getting a pure white background generally takes a bit of lighting equipment (in "studio") and technique..not sure I'd say it is "hard" to do though....It would be hard to do with a basic setup though.

On my monitor they are still slightly underexposed, but it's a precious shot.

[Photologyst]

If it bothers you that much, you could drop in a sky via PS.

The boy on the left looks like a young Mikhail Baryshnikov. mikhail baryshnikov pictures - Google Search

Does he dance?

Cute shot.

[Surprised]

sk66: Thanks for your thoughts. I thought about repositioning the kids, but I figured it might well have introduced other problems, such as squinting or harsh shadows. "A basic setup" is all I have really -- a reasonable camera but nothing else. Perhaps when I've mastered everything my camera can currently do, or when I get sufficiently frustrated with its limitations (or when I win the lottery!), I'll invest in some other gear...

Photologyst: Thank you for your comments too. I'm not too bothered about the lack of a sky -- the kids are more important than the background! Sorry to disappoint you but the 5-year-old shows no particular gifts as far as dance are concerned; he seems to be more of a philosopher ("What if you get to heaven and you don't like it?" he asked the other day). If he grows up to look like Baryshnikov he'll be a lot better looking than his Dad ever was!