What’s Your Preference?

Jillybean_tx · #1 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 09:15 PM

I shot this late Sunday afternoon. The sun was low in the sky and it came out a little darker than I like. The cows are normally skittish and don't let you get too close but for some reason on Sunday they didn't mind me too much. I didn't want to use the flash though as that would have spooked them for sure. Any tips on what I could've done differently to lighten it up? Thanks.

Canon EOS XSi
Exposure: 1/30
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 43 mm
ISO: 100
Exposure Program: Program AE

fstopMike · #2 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 09:54 PM

Jillybean, sometimes there's not a whole lot you can do, except ask them to pose in better light! One thing that you might have done is to bracket your exposure. You could take the one you have and let the camera set the exposure, then override the exposure and overexpose a little bit. I don't know about the Canon, but on my Nikon, there's a button just for that, that will overexpose or underexpose about 1/3 stop for several settings. You could have taken the first one, then overexposed 1/3 stop, then 2/3 and so forth. At some point, you'd have blowouts on the lighter areas, but digital exposures are certainly cheap (as in nothing) and it doesn't hurt to try. I sometimes will do this in manual. Set the first exposure from the meter reading and then either increase or decrease either the shutter speed or the aperature. It's a common technique often used in difficult exposure circumstances like you had, figuring out of three or four different exposures, you'll find a winner, or at least something better than the camera would have chosen.

The other option is to try to correct in Post Processing.