I am a complete beginner to both taking and editing photos. This photo was taken in the Grand Canyon, at South Canyon Camp, approximately 32 miles downstream of the Lee’s Ferry boat ramp.
I used the exposure bracketing feature of my camera (Lumix GH3) to take 5 photos at 0, +/- 1/3 and +/- 2/3 EV. In hindsight I should have shot more steps or bigger steps as even the darkest photo is overexposed in the sunlight.
The attached jpeg is my attempt at editing the darkest (-2/3 EV) photo. I originally thought I would combine all 5 RAWs when I got home… But I don’t know how to do that and I don’t even know if it’s necessary/beneficial with this photo.
I use bracketing all the time. On my older cameras I set bracketing to +/- 1.0 EV. Anything less is a waste of time in my view. On my newer Canon R7 which has more dynamic range I set +/- 1.67 EV. So your steps are too small to be much help. I only shoot three exposures. When I first tried bracketing I was guilty of nine exposures. Experience taught me that was folly.
My edit was DT 5.3 with AGX using both tone equalizer and shadow and highlights module to try and recover some of the dynamic range. P1060781.RW2.xmp (11.3 KB)
For a beginner to photography, I think this is a nice attempt. It does create an impression of the place, even with some technical challenges.
As you noted, even the lowest exposure has blown highlights, and I don’t think the highlights are recoverable (as far as I can tell). But this is a very common challenge with very high dynamic range, and those of us who shoot in desert regions face this all the time.
As @Terry suggested, you might need to go very wide with exposure bracketing to protect the highlights. Maybe even +/-3 EV. This is what I typically do when I’m in a hurry (I typically shoot in aperture priority).
If you have a mirrorless camera, you could try shooting such scenes in manual mode using “zebras” to show overexposed regions in the photo. This is what I do when I’m being more careful with my exposure in such cases. Or, you could use spot metering. So you have options…
Darktable also supports merging a few exposures to make an HDR composite of bracketed photos. It is in the lighttable under “actions on selection” on the right panel. I have only tried using this once or twice. My recollection is that images need to be aligned (i.e. use a tripod with exposure bracketing).
Newer cameras, though, may have very high dynamic range and not need HDR. And, if you “over-do it,” you may end up with an artificial-looking photo that looks like it came from a cell phone.
I typically now shoot in manual exposure mode on my Canon R7 when travelling. I first select an shutter speed suitable to freeze the motion such as 1/250th. I then select an aperture that is sharp with the lens I am using or gives suitable depth of field such as f11. But I use auto ISO because I don’t get scared off by ISO numbers above 100. The beauty of modern digital cameras is high ISO with little noise. I edit in DT and it handles noise very well but it can’t fix blurry images from a slow shutter speed or poor aperture choice.
Not all digital cameras allow auto ISO in manual mode. My Canon R7 does but my Nikon D7100 wants to change the shutter speed to bracket exposures in manual exposure mode even when I set auto ISO.
You are both definitely correct. I had some battery anxiety (24 days far from civilisation) at the beginning of the trip and made a point of keeping the lcd off/not reviewing anything until I got home. But a learning moment for the future. I’ve adjusted the auto bracket setting on my camera.
I like your colours at the bottom of the canyon better than mine. I’m on 5.2.1 so I don’t have that module… Usually I’m not too shy with beta/unfinished software but when it’s something that’s already way over my head I was a little more hesitant.
I have a GH3… So mirrorless but from 2013. I wasn’t sure I would take to photography so I set myself a frugal budget for a used camera and that’s what I ended up with. I am going to keep an eye out for a cheap/used G85 because my shaky hands would really benefit from IBIS/Dual IS.
Would that high dynamic range/HDR/artificial look apply to RAW or just jpg?
I didn’t have a tripod. I tried to rest it on a rock as best I could, but you can still tell it isn’t perfectly aligned.
Oh wow. I did not think those blown out sections could be saved.
I will have to find a tutorial on Retouch because I have no idea how you did that… Or jump onto the 5.3 nightlies so I can open your xmp and see what you did.
HDR effects in camera only apply to JPG and in my limited experience I haven’t been too impressed with my camera’s attempts. I find HDR less important if working with a RAW. Develop the brightest image WITHOUT clipped highlights.
The reason you may like my color more is one of two reasons. If you use filmic it tends to produce dull colors that need improving in the color balance rgb module. Sigmoid gives more pleasing colors out of the box.
But I have used an instance of shadow and highlights and that has the ability to optionally add chroma to the shadows. That might be what you are picking up on. Tone equalizer brightens the shadows, but doesn’t lift the color. I did use tone equalizer as well as shadow and highlights.
Recently I travelled in Africa on a camping safari and took a USB-C powered battery charger for my Canon R7 batteries. It was a godsend since I could charge as we drove along during the day. I also had three batteries. Only one was a genuine Canon.
I love my R7’s inbuilt body stabilisation that combines with the lens stabilisation to give sharper shots. So IBIS gets a thumbs up from me, but lens stabilisation is adequate on its own.
I find @Terry’s take to be the most natural thus far (besides the absence of detail in the extreme highlights). The colours are not like cotton candy. Indeed, when brightening shadows, it is important to bring out the colour.
This is often the case and why I like the shadows and highlights module so much. Tone equalizer doesn’t replace the shadows and highlights module for this reason. However, I am editing some images of elephants lately where I find moving the shadows color adjustment to zero is beneficial. I love that DT gives me this option which most programs don’t.
I am also lazy (efficient) hence the exposure bracketing always being on. This gives you an exposure to the right result as well as an expose to the left result.
Also it has the BS factor when your travelling companions hear your camera going off like a machine gun. They know you must be good.
Retouch is available in your version of dt. It’s not brand-new. My comments above were related to importing sidecars created from a newer version of dt.
Understand that dt is a technical editor, and there are some features that may require some effort to fully comprehend. I learned about Retouch from a Bruce Williams video:
I’m new to dt and not an expert like Terry and Todd, but here is a quick rundown.
Very simple retouch involves copying one section of the photo (a mask) to another section of the photo. Maybe useful for a plain sky with a blemish that needs to be covered.
More advanced retouch requires dividing the image into several wavelet scales - lower sections of the scale have little detail, and higher sections have greater detail. For each scale, you can create different masks to copy from and different destinations to copy to. If you are clever, this way you can avoid obvious artifacts.
The more scales you define, the more effort involved to do the editing, and the better the potential result.
I don’t have Todd’s skill level, and I could not coach you to make his edit. But if you study the video, you may develop an understanding of this wonderful module in dt.
