Digital Camera World - UK (2020-04)

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com

Image Rescue

How to save a classic overexposed reflection photo

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Dereliction duty

Q

I have access to

a derelict building.

Any tips for

capturing all the detail?

Te d dy M os s

A

First of all, take care: old

buildings can be dangerous.

Take a tripod, as derelict

buildings can be quite

dark, and you may need to use

longer exposures and higher ISOs.

To get all the detail you want, try

an HDR approach. Shoot using your

autobracketing feature, and shoot three

shots at -2, 0 and +2 EVs. This will allow

you to make a detail-packed HDR file

in Lightroom or Camera Raw.

Long memory

Q

How long should a

memory card last?

Jody Weir

A

Most memory cards are

surprisingly robust and can

withstand general wear and

tear – even immersion in water

if you dry them out carefully. I have cards

that have been going for years without any

issues, even if they look a bit weathered

on the outside. SD cards need a bit more

care than more robust formats like

CompactFlash, as they’re lighter in build

and their contacts are exposed, but both

formats should serve you well over a long

period of time. To extend their life, keep

them stored in a suitable container or

wallet while you’re travelling, so they

don’t roll about loose in your bag.

Slow flash

Q

What’s the point

of a technique like

slow-sync flash,

and when would you use it?

Ron Houseman

A

Slow-sync flash allows you to

combine a burst of flash with

a long exposure, so you can

capture low ambient light with

action-freezing flash. It can create quite

a dynamic sense of movement in your

photo. This photo was taken at 1/10 sec

using rear-curtain flash.

A long exposure

helps to blur the

background, while

flash freezes the

foreground action.

This water reflection shot has been

overexposed by a stop or so, but because

it’s a raw file, there’s a good chance I can

get some detail back using Lightroom. To

start, let’s crop the photo a small amount

just to tighten up the composition, paying

close attention to the corners^1. Now

I can work on the reflection^2 by taking

the Highlights slider back to -100, then

nipping the Exposure slider back

to -30. The colours will still look

flat, but I’ll sort that later.

In the HSL Panel, I choose Luminance

and individually darken the Orange, Green

and Blue sliders to balance the overall

exposure and then switch to Saturation

and boost each of those same three colour

channels^3. It will still lack a little bit of

punch across the whole image, but using

the Tone Curve I can improve that,

by choosing Medium Contrast from

the Point Curve dropdown menu^4.