Another woods question

I'm still experimenting with taking photos in the woods (D70S, 28-105 kit lens), and this time I tried the A mode, letting the camera choose the shutter speed--ISO on auto, matrix metering, fine jpeg, all with a tripod. I shot the same scene at 5.6, 7.1 or 8, 11, and sometimes 16--all with pretty much the same bad results. When I shoot out in the open light, I do fine, but all the dark shadows seems to throw everything out of whack. I also tried the M mode, adjusting the EV indicator to zero, and those came out ultra dark.

Any thoughts?

sl60 said:

I'm still experimenting with taking photos in the woods (D70S, 28-105 kit lens), and this time I tried the A mode, letting the camera choose the shutter speed--ISO on auto, matrix metering, fine jpeg, all with a tripod. I shot the same scene at 5.6, 7.1 or 8, 11, and sometimes 16--all with pretty much the same bad results. When I shoot out in the open light, I do fine, but all the dark shadows seems to throw everything out of whack. I also tried the M mode, adjusting the EV indicator to zero, and those came out ultra dark.

Any thoughts?View attachment 230831

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Well the very first thing I notice is that the Exposure Compensation is set to -1/3 of a stop. That setting needs to be put back to "0".

As for your posted shot, I'd say it needs a little post processing but I'm not seeing anything hugely wrong with it. What is it you're not happy with, specifically?

I will re-set that--thanks!

I can fix things in post, but I'm trying to learn to deal with dark shadows and contrast--to me, the shadows are too dark and the lights too washed out. Also, the image doesn't appear very crisp and clear, but that could be the lens.

sl60 said:

I will re-set that--thanks!

I can fix things in post, but I'm trying to learn to deal with dark shadows and contrast--to me, the shadows are too dark and the lights too washed out. Also, the image doesn't appear very crisp and clear, but that could be the lens.

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I agree the shot is a little contrast-y. The big question is, are you shooting in JPG or raw?

That scene does have a pretty significant dynamic range... So, if it were me, I would use ETTR (Expose To The Right) and then tweak things to perfection during post-processing. This is where shooting in raw really comes to the fore and sometimes fixing things in post is the best you can do. If I could have any one, single improvement in DSLR photography I'd want more dynamic range and this is why.

Anyway, some suggested reading: Expose to the Right Explained

Another option would be bracketing several shots and using HDR to merge those frames into a single image.

If you're shooting in JPG there are a couple in-camera settings you can try experimenting with. Try some of the different Picture Controls (Landscape, Vivid, etc.) as well as Active D-Lighting (I personally don't care much for Active D, but that's me. Try it for yourself and see what you think).

What you have here is a dynamic range issue. The human eye can perceive a much wider dynamic range than a camera sensor. The human brain can also interpret and "display" a wide variety of light levels so that you can "see" across that huge range. The camera, on the other hand, must display a single interpretation of the light in the frame and generally does so in a way that allows the brightest light to be visible in a way that's not blown out with the rest falling in line. So while both eye and the camera saw all the shadow detail the camera is forced to interpret it based on the brightest light in the photo. On a sunny day, like the one you have here, your brights are brighter and your shadows darker when compared to the median exposure value, which is why shots like this are more easily captured on an overcast day.

That said, are you stuck with that? It depends. The sensor has access to all that light information and, in general, will be able to capture light information across a 7 to 10 stop dynamic range (your eye is generally around 13 stops). What it displays is based on the brightest light, but the rest of the information is captured. If you're shooting JPEG all you get is the single interpretation, but if you shoot RAW then you still have access to all the light information. So in post processing you can usually/hopefully access that shadow (dark areas) and highlight (light areas) that don't look right in the default interpretation. The farther that light information is from the median exposure value the more you have to rely on sensor quality to get "good light" in those areas. This is where High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography can help by combining bracketed exposures that each center on a different exposure value giving you more "good light" information. Most cameras can do this internally, but only in JPEG mode. Better results are almost always obtained using post processing program and the good news is that Lightroom and Photoshop both do HDR merging for you, and Google's Nik Collection (free!!) has a great program called HDR Efex that does it as well.

Here's a good explanation of what Dynamic Range is if you're unfamiliar with it.

Not knowing the specs of a D70s, I just did some digging and, unfortunately, your camera lacks the ability to shoot raw, do HDR in-camera, or use things like Auto D-Lighting. And your automatic bracketing capability is capped at +/- 1/2EV which is useless for HDR photography.

That said, if you do some digging you'll learn how to do the bracketing manually and can combine the JPEG shots using an HDR program. You'll have to use a tripod and it won't be quite as easy as combining raw files, but you can still get to where you want to go. And I suspect what you'll learn using this camera will greatly benefit you once you decide to upgrade.

BackdoorHippie said:

Not knowing the specs of a D70s, I just did some digging and, unfortunately, your camera lacks the ability to shoot raw...

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I think you need to double-check your sources, Jake... The D70s is totally capable of shooting in raw:
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BackdoorHippie said:

And your automatic bracketing capability is capped at +/- 1/2EV...

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And maybe I'm not reading the manual correctly bit it appears to me Exposure bracketing is limited to a total of three images, but with a range of +/- 5EV:
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My bad. I was on the Nikon site looking through the specs and swear I did a search on both "raw" and "nef" when I couldn't find it.