sunset cloche

[jconti3]

I'm not sure why the sun looks so shopped? All I have done is contrast and WB. I took three seperate exposures of this shot and the sun looks "fake" in them all.

[sleist]

Hi John,

Did you shoot in RAW or is this an out of camera JPEG?

[skyteam47]

molto interessante la foto

[jconti3]

Raw.

[jconti3]

here is the camera's jpeg. It actually looks the same. Maybe it was just the heavy mist in the air distorting the light from the sun? looks cool still.

[sleist]

Well, it doesn't look the same to me. There's quite a bit more banding around the sun in the first image. I was going to suggest that if was not a RAW, that the camera's conversion to JPG was not kind. A ND filter might have allowed you to get the sunset right without having to under expose the snow. I see you are set at -5.0 EV so the banding may be due in part to incorrect exposure and subsequent WB and exposure correction in post. Not sure what to suggest for correction, but I'm sure others will chime in.

Steve

[jiro]

The WB adjustment on the post-processing caused the banding on the yellow-red spectrum. The image looks fine with me. I'm thinking of converting it to b&w but maybe it might need some adjustments still to correct that banding issue. Maybe, just maybe, you could introduce some noise reduction on the image to reduce the banding. BTW, I am adjusting on the jpeg image and not on the 1st one.

[jconti3]

well, dang. I just in the last couple of days started to pay attention to the EV settings and camera light metering. Now, I forget to set it back to zero or adjust from the previous location. So much to remember! Jiro, if the wb adjustment caused the banding then is the same true for the jpeg due to the cameras processing? It shows banding also. I like the image alot. I stepped in a 4' deep snow drift getting in position for this one so, I was hoping it would be worth it.

[jiro]

well, dang. I just in the last couple of days started to pay attention to the EV settings and camera light metering. Now, I forget to set it back to zero or adjust from the previous location. So much to remember! Jiro, if the wb adjustment caused the banding then is the same true for the jpeg due to the cameras processing? It shows banding also. I like the image alot. I stepped in a 4' deep snow drift getting in position for this one so, I was hoping it would be worth it.

John, I only worked with your jpeg image so I am not so sure about your RAW file. I can't see any EXIF info on your jpeg file. I would suggest you always try to shoot with the lowest ISO setting on your camera so you can recover more light detail without much noise in it. Some noise reduction software has a 'debanding' feature to lessen it. I use Topaz Labs DeNoise5 and this little software is nice. If you have a way of sending me the RAW file I could play around with it and see what I can come up with. I agree with you, the image has a lot of potential in it.

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Willie,

The EXIF data on the jpeg shows WB set to Sunny and the EV set to -5 (as stated above). I suggest a combination of sever underexposure in camera and incorrect WB are contributors to the issue.

[jiro]

Thanks, Peter. I saved the first image and yes, I can see the exif data now. I think what messed up the shot was the -5 EV setting. That's a lot of underexposure in there. When you bring that up you are definitely going to have banding issues due to sensor noise data. The white balance was set to sunny. Maybe, that also affected the banding issue.

Normally, I shoot using auto white balance and then do the correction on the post-processing. I also shoot in Manual Mode all the time. I only have 3 main exposure guide with me when I shoot in manual mode. If the scene is averaged lit (no extreme bright light source or not totally dark), I use matrix metering all the time, 95% of the time. But when handling difficult situations like some dark scenes I look for the most important part of the scene where I want to preserve the texture detail in it and use the spot meter option. Based on the spot meter reading I subtract 2 stops of exposure value adjustments usually on the shutter speed since I always want to have control on the depth of field from the aperture values. Lastly, If the scene is too bright, I always look for the bright area where I want to preserve some detail (without over-blowing the highlights) and spot meter that area. Based on the spot meter reading I add a +2 exposure value from that reading (again adjusting the shutter speed). The idea is "if it is dark, apply -2 EV. If it is bright apply +2 EV. If in doubt... use a gray card".