HELP Needed with processing this sunrise pic

[bonochic]

Hi There,
I am hoping that someone will be able to give me some advice on how to correct the over exposed area and how to stop this from happening....It has happened with a few of my sunrises....any info will be greatly appreciated as Im sooo frustrated..Many thanks.

[Donald]

In another thread, here, just a few minutes ago, I wrote, "My answer to your question would be 'Graduated Neutral Density Filters'." This is exactly the same answer I would give to the question above.

In that same thread you will see the suggestion that an alternative is to take multiple images and blend them.

I cannot see any EXIF information attached to your image, so do not know what equipment you shot this with nor what your exposure settings were.

If you are unfamiliar with GND filters and how they work please do read the tutorial on the subject here on CiC

[bonochic]

Hello Donald,
Thanks for your reply, sorry my first post
Canon 60D
ISO 100
14mm
f5
3.2 sec
GND8 filter

Thanks again

[Donald]

Aahh, GND already used!

By the way, my apologies for not welcoming you to CiC. Thanks for joining. So that you don't continue to get people asking you what your proper name is, because most us use that on here, you can go to Edit Profile and enter your proper name under 'Real Name'. Then it will appear underneath your Username in all your posts.

If you had a 3-stop GND already on there, then that is one very big dynamic range that you were trying to capture. Maybe the only way you can get something like that is to, as Colin suggested in that other thread I referred to, adopt HDR techniques and bracket shots that you then blend later in post-processing.

[bonochic]

Ok many thanks Donald will do.

[inkista]

Have you tried the Lightroom/ACR digital GND filter? Agree, though, that HDR/exposure fusing might be the way to go.

[Geoff F]

Shooting action shots into the light will always carry some risk of over exposure.

Often, the only option is to expose for the highlights then try to recover some details from the shadows during editing. Shooting Raw is preferable; particularly as this may enable you to create two conversions with different settings then combine them.

But it is a common problem that all of us have encountered at some time.

[krispix]

It looks to me as if the exposure has been calculated for the dark, foreground which has allowed the setting sun to go off the scale. The dynamic range between the sun and the shaded foreground will always be enormous and you're going to lose one if not both of them. I would suggest exposing for the sky then check out the histogram and the shadow detail, making adjustments to the exposure as necessary. Shoot RAW.
We all expect to see the ball of the sun as blown out, but as long as its circular we can live with it. In this case it's taken the whole surrounding sky with it. The simple rule is that you can often drag lost detail out of shadows, but once highlights are blown there's nothing to recover.
BTW, welcome to the forum.

[bonochic]

Hi Chris,
Thanks for your advise...what you have said makes perfect sense & I will try that...I do shoot in RAW & I also had a filter on, I think I also need to reduce my dynamic range as well....thanks again.

[Colin Southern]

My Suggestion would be to use the GND filter (as you are), but to also ensure that your highlight alert warning ("blinkies") is turned on, and then be sure to dial-in enough Exposure Compensation to ensure you don't get those blinkies on the brightest portion of the image.

(So in essence you're exposing for the hightlights, but ensuring that you do a good job). After that, reveal shadow detail using the fill light & brightness controls.

If shadow noise is excessive, try taking a number of shots (say 16) and stack them in Photoshop to average the noise (it'll also give you a psudo-longer exposure which might give an even better water appearance).