Exposure help needed

[DzRbenson]

Hello All,

I am in need of some tips, I have been photographing planes lately and am having difficulties, When I take a photo the photo is to dark or on the other end the sky is white.

I am guessing this is to do with exposure, but just after some tips. Cheers

[kiwi]

Have you got an example ?

But, it's going to be very difficult to expose for the underbelly of a plane without blowing the sky.

If you shoot RAW and try to get a middle ground then you might be able to adjust in post processing

I'd be shooting manual exposure I think.

[DzRbenson]

Most of my shots for the day came out like this, even though the sky was blue.

They were taken on a Sony 70-300G lens, So the lens should handle the sky well.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3340/3246030117_8a25288901_o.jpg

[kiwi]

Yes, well that is significantly underexposed across the frame, are you using matrix, or spot or some other method of metering, manual ?

[DzRbenson]

Lets just say im pretty new to photography, and just starting to get out of portraits.

All I did was put it in Aperture priority, I was using auto focus on spot and wide.

[kiwi]

Ok, don't use spot imho, use matrix and see what the result look like.

[DzRbenson]

On my A350 I have Spot, Local, Wide. Which one would that be.

What else should I look at changing.

Thanks for the help

[trigger]

This is a tough environment to shoot something that is white. Overcast days cause "flat" pictures. The tonal curve is flat and not much contrast.

With regards to your photo i think the WB is a bit off. and auto metering modes in spot is very hard unless you manage to keep the 3-4% of the middle spot on the plane going at 300kmh :)


Try manual instead by setting the exposure and app and anticipate the subject.
also a bit of PP helps too. Here is the best i could do with the jpg

[DzRbenson]

That looks better Tim, plus ive edited some in CS3 and posted to Flickr, but just stumped... really not one good shot.

So im guessing the camera settings should be something along.

Manual
Local or Wide Focus
Shutter to suit moving object

[MarkW]

I'm thinking you dont quite grasp what your camera can do and being that your not using a Canon or a Nikon it makes it difficult as I don't know what your camera features include. Personally I use a Nikon D200 and below is how I find it:-

First up - read the manual - this is important even if you dont understand it - at least you can work out what features are available and eventually learn to use them.

What you need to look for in your manual is how your camera works out the exposure and how this is applied across your image. In a Nikon or a Canon the area that the camera measures the exposure can be adjusted from a centre spot metering, to a small circle in the centre, to the whole of the image telling the camera what is the highest and lowest light areas - this is called "matrix metering". Matrix metering quite often has the disadvantage of lowering the entire image exposure to the brightest point within the image. Spot metering usually, in cases like yours will blow large ares of the image out but keep the subject at the correct exposure. Using the circle metering is more likely to give a better result in your situation but I cant guarrantee this.

You really need to read the book then ask some questions from an "informed" point of view.

From the link below scroll down half a page and look at the data screen image and look for item number 20 - the metering mode. Its item 16 on the first picture set and 20 on the 2nd.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/AA350/AA350A3.HTM

[DzRbenson]

Thanks for the help so far, and thanks for the link

So the A350 has Multi-segment, Center-Weighted, and Spot metering, At the moment I have been using Mulit-segment im guessing this is not the best?

[jev]

Actually, in this case multi-segment would be fine since the whole image is kind'a flat (it doesn't cover much dynamic range). What you need to learn is to decide when and how much to compensate for metering errors due to the reflective nature of the metering system.

Now, without going too much into detail, your camera is not able to directly measure available light. Instead, it measures how much light is reflected by the subjects in the image - assuming they reflect about 18% of the light (a feature often referred to as "mid gray" or "18% reflective gray"). That amount of light registers as mid gray. That obviously doesn't work if your image contains a lot of light colors (imagine a bride on the beach or a white rabbit in the snow) or just the opposite, if your image contains dark colors only (the groom in a dark bar for example).

Now, your image contains a lot of sky and a plane that is almost as light as the sky. When measuring, the camera's light sensor will catch a lot of light. The system will be fooled, thinking there is much more light than actually available - and thus it will underexpose. You will have to compensate for this using the exposure compensation possibilities provided by your camera.

Spot metering just takes a very little part of the image to base the measurement on. In your case, if you had spotmeasured on the plane, you would have gotten the same result because the plane itself is quite light too. Something similar goes for center-weighted.

Hope this helps...

[Nicholas N]

DzRbenson have a look at this and tell me if this is the type of image your aiming for...

http://nicknavarro.smugmug.com/gallery/6958676_8jnTG#462687738_DBFt3

[Nicholas N]

Here are some good ones from the spot you were at....

http://nicknavarro.smugmug.com/photos/445904206_qREW3-L.jpg

http://nicknavarro.smugmug.com/photos/445904386_8yqXJ-L.jpg

http://nicknavarro.smugmug.com/photos/445904311_bi3Zn-L.jpg

http://nicknavarro.smugmug.com/photos/445352283_taMV2-L.jpg

http://nicknavarro.smugmug.com/photos/445352212_yNqfu-L.jpg

The quality is affected as they are hosted images but they are acceptable enough.

[Nicholas N]

...and some more...

http://nicknavarro.smugmug.com/photos/462683177_jp7Wx-L.jpg

http://nicknavarro.smugmug.com/photos/462683017_X3wj2-L.jpg

http://nicknavarro.smugmug.com/photos/461904044_aNu3f-L.jpg

[kiwi]

ahhh, a plain spotter in our midst, nice shots Nicholas.

[Nicholas N]

Thanks Kiwi!, planespotting is my life, I live and breathe aviation!

Dz here is my attempt on my work PC with your image with the correct tonal and color corrections. Unfortunately triggers copy was murdered by the blown highlight and saturation gun.

YOUR ORIGINAL
http://nicknavarro.smugmug.com/photos/468273520_82mmD-L.jpg

MY EDIT
http://nicknavarro.smugmug.com/photos/468271366_P6MWS-L.jpg

Keep in mind I was working from a low quality image to begin with, if you wanna send me the original I'll see what more I can do with a higher res copy.

[Nicholas N]

p.s. I flew on VYC from Brisbane to Sydney..... nice plane!

[DzRbenson]

Some great shots Nicholas and my edited image looks heaps better.

Im thinking about going to the Airport, Who else will be going on Sunday

[Nicholas N]

We are expecting 40-60 on both saturday and sunday, we'll have susage sizzle there for lunch and live aircraft tracking with SBS radar equipment and VHF scanners for listening to the pilots and tower. Plus drinks and dinner after.

[bigdazzler]

So the A350 has Multi-segment, Center-Weighted, and Spot metering, At the moment I have been using Mulit-segment im guessing this is not the best?

Mulit segment is exactly the same thing as matrix that Darren was talking about .. multi segment is just Sony speak ..