Lake Windermere.

[Mick J S]

This is one of my favourite Lakeland images, taken from a boat on Lake Windermere Cumbria UK, I have applied some PP from tips aquired on this site although I am not too happy with the slightly over exposed hulls of the boats.

[Geoff F]

Did you shoot Raw, Mick? That is always easier to correct this sort of problem.

In this case I would probably use a layer and mask.

Create a duplicate layer and edit until the white hulls are correct, ignore everything else. Add a Hide All Mask then gradually paint over the overexposed areas with a soft low opacity 'white' brush until the subdued colours layer starts to appear.

You won't recover any of the lost details but it should tone down the overexposure a little. But don't overdo it, just a little less will be sufficient.

When possible, with this sort of scene, I like to take several shots with varying amounts of exposure compensation then adjust brightness levels as required during editing. I would sooner risk a bit of noise from underexposure than blow the highlights.

But this type of photo is always difficult so you have done well here. I suspect that it can still become an excellent image.

What often throws out my calculations is stainless steel boat fittings which seem to produce a different type of exposure problem.

[Mick J S]

Thanks Geoff, I will give it a try and see what happens.

[ilovelucydog]

You have a good image to start with, that's for sure. I like how still the water is, but you can see ripples from the wind or a bit of wake from a passing boat. Then you have the rainbow, the sky, the colors from the sail covers. I like it.

[Mick J S]

Thanks Mary, the wake is from the boat I was on and the rainbow only lasted for about ninty seconds.

[Shadowman]

Very nice, were you exposing to capture the rainbow?

[ilovelucydog]

Thanks Mary, the wake is from the boat I was on and the rainbow only lasted for about ninty seconds.

That's makes it even better.

[Mick J S]

Create a duplicate layer and edit until the white hulls are correct, ignore everything else. Add a Hide All Mask then gradually paint over the overexposed areas with a soft low opacity 'white' brush until the subdued colours layer starts to appear.

I`v tried this Geoff, but without any success.



Very nice, were you exposing to capture the rainbow?

I used pattern metering mode John,

[Geoff F]

This is my very quick edit. Overexposed areas can't recover lost details but this method will tone down the problem; similar to using a Burn Tool but a bit more controllable. This can be made a bit darker if you wish; I just took the edge off the brightness.



Were you placing the mask on the adjustment layer (some software will do this automatically) and were you using the correct sort of brush? When the mask is selected you should be offered the choice of a 'black' or 'white' brush.

[Mick J S]

Thanks for your help Geoff, it would appear to me, that once a white part of an image has been blown it stays blown, this image was taken as a jpeg, not so easy to pp as a RAW.