What am I doing wrong here?

[Ian Stedman]

I have been out and about today taking a few photos but I've hit a problem with light/dark areas I can't seem to correct for. I'd like some advice.


This was taken with the exposure level locked to the centre of the image but the columns had blown highlights, I managed to recover some detail from the raw file.


This was inside, the true colours.

I played with the aperture and the metering but I can't seem to get a shot that matches what I saw, am I missing some trick?

I won't be at the next two meetings as I'm a bit far away :)

Changing topic, I have a few more from this series:

[Richard W]

Ian
It looks to me that you are metering in the wrong place. On an image such as this I would meter on the pillars, ie the highlights. This should ensure no blown highlights, you can then recover the darker areas. As it is such a 50:50  shot in terms of light you could always double expose, one for lights, one for darks then combine in Lightroom or Photoshop.
I copied the image from the screen and played in Lightroom, it looks as if the image is recoverable

[Ian Stedman]

Richard,

Thanks for the advice on how I should meter/set the exposure limit, there are somethings you can't do in post processing, that being one of them (I think).
I played with the image a bit more and using the fill light/clarity tool in Paintshop Pro (my preferred tool) I managed to bring the details back.
Ian

[Richard W]

Ian, keep taking as many shots as you can on your hols. When you get back I will have a chat with you about post processing etc. cheers aye!

[Ian Stedman]

Hello Richard,

I'll take you up on the offer about post processing when I get back. Took over 200 photos today, some might be usable for competitions!

Would it be worth me bringing a few candidate images along with me for your considered opinion on how to edit?

Regards,

Ian

[Richard W]

Yes definitely bring some along. When are you back? We can arrange a session outside of club hours which will not restrict us with time etc.
I assume you are shooting in RAW?
Use my email to arrange a meeting [e-mail]
cheers