managing light and shade

[imported_julie]

hi everyone

I have recently been on a holiday in Morocco which was wonderful, but challenging at times
I had a lot of trouble managing the marked differences between shaded and unshaded areas in photos
The urban environment is constructed to provide as much shade as possible at different times of the day so it was hard to avoid
Even quite late in the day it was difficult as the light was so strong
Although I live in Australia I am in the most southerly part and low light is my biggest problem (apart from a few days in summer)

At times I just went with it and will live with the blown out areas and tell myself it creates atmosphere
Other times I exposed for the highlights and now I will try to lighten the shadows

I would be really interested in how people manage this in their images

Julie

[imported_ganna]

Tripod and HDR works best for me

[imported_julie]

thanks for answering so quickly

a tripod was not really an option in the crowded places I was in a lot of the time
Also Moroccans seem to really hate their photo being taken even when the camera was not pointed at them directly
I really tried to be respectful of this by staying as low key as possible and not pointing my camera at anyone but it was difficult in crowds
Unfortunately this made metering difficult, as images needed to be framed and taken quickly
I got faster but sometimes I just went for the auto function if I was in a really crowded environment
I am still mourning the images I refrained from taking. 

julie

[imported_ganna]

Even with hand support, when holding you camera as still as you can, perhaps resting against something. I use Photomatix Pro and its pretty good at aligning images

[ggroess]

Julie,
You could try processing the images in Camera Raw.
If you only shot 1 image becasue you might not have been thinking HDR at the camera and the exposure is too extreme you can try to recover it somewhat by splitting the exposure into two images in ACR.

Process the image in ACR and adjust the exposure setting to get the shadow details you want.  Open the image in Photoshop and then save it as a new file.  Then open the same image again and set the exposure in ACR to hold the highlights you want; again save as a new file.  Then take the original image with normal settings and blend it together with the other two either in an HDR process or using masks. 

The goal would be to recover the highlights and shadows.  Post a sample image and we can give you a test flight.  Some of this might be possible in CM as well

Greg

[imported_julie]

thankyou

I will try all the suggestions

I have not even attempted the HDR process so I guess I have some learning to do

I have included an image for you to see what you can do
I have to admit I have not had a go at this yet - waiting to see what you do

thanks
Julie

[ggroess]

Julie,
Can you tell me more about the image...

I am finding that it's not to hard to get shadow details back into the carved stone and still keep the persons feet looking ok.  Is there a specific item in the frame you want better control over??

Greg

[imported_julie]

sorry sorry sorry

this is one where I have tried to expose for the shadows and blown out the highlights

Julie

[ggroess]

Julie,

Try This:
1) Mask using a L channel and curve it to only allow the highlights to be effected.
2) then apply the Multiply 4 .ACV from the "overexposed" Library folder using the Load command.
3) Fade to your taste using the fade slider.

Apply the change and then come back and redo the corrections and colors.

Greg