bright window in background
 

My canon a530 does good outdoors but indoor with a bright window in the background the printed pictures show dark faces in the foreground. I have tried a number of photo editors but need some advice on how to solve those darkfaces. Anyone got any ideas? TIA

Re: bright window in background
 

On 12/04/2012 23:23, ted medin wrote:
> My canon a530 does good outdoors but indoor with a bright window in the background the printed pictures show dark faces in the foreground. I have tried a number of photo editors but need some advice on how to solve those dark faces. Anyone got any ideas? TIA

Use your flash.

Re: bright window in background
 

On Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:23:13 -0700 (PDT), ted medin
<jtmedin@gmail.com> wrote:

>My canon a530 does good outdoors but indoor with a bright window in the background the printed pictures show dark faces in the foreground. I have tried a number of photo editors but need some advice on how to solve those dark faces. Anyone got any ideas? TIA

Use fill flash, preferably with a bounced light, and set the camera to
spot metering instead of matrix (or whatever Canon calls averaging the
full frame) metering.

If you use Photoshop or Elements, "Shadows/Highlights" with the
midtones set to 15% will help. If it's really bad, you'll have to
make a selection and lighten just the selection.


--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

Re: bright window in background
 

ted medin <jtmedin@gmail.com> writes:

> My canon a530 does good outdoors but indoor with a bright window in
> the background the printed pictures show dark faces in the
> foreground. I have tried a number of photo editors but need some
> advice on how to solve those dark faces. Anyone got any ideas? TIA

Your meter was fooled into underexposing, so increasing exposure is what
you do. In Adobe Camera Raw, I'd move the exposure slider to the
right. If it wasn't a RAW image (I shoot nearly entirely RAW, but lots
of people do things differently), then I'd use the Curves control to
brighten the mid-tones, or else use the shadow/highlight too.

What's available and what it's called varies by product of course.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b@dd-b.net; http://dd-b.net/
Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/
Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/
Dragaera: http://dragaera.info

Re: bright window in background
 

OG <owen@gwynnefamily.org.uk> writes:

> On 12/04/2012 23:23, ted medin wrote:

>> My canon a530 does good outdoors but indoor with a bright window in
>> the background the printed pictures show dark faces in the
>> foreground. I have tried a number of photo editors but need some
>> advice on how to solve those dark faces. Anyone got any ideas? TIA

> Use your flash.

That would give a very different look, and can't be applied after the
fact. If you wanted a flash-type picture it's certainly the way to go,
though.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b@dd-b.net; http://dd-b.net/
Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/
Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/
Dragaera: http://dragaera.info

Re: bright window in background
 

tony cooper <tony.cooper214@gmail.com> writes:

> On Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:23:13 -0700 (PDT), ted medin
> <jtmedin@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>My canon a530 does good outdoors but indoor with a bright window in the background the printed pictures show dark faces in the foreground. I have tried a number of photo editors but need some advice on how to solve those dark faces. Anyone got any ideas? TIA
>
> Use fill flash, preferably with a bounced light, and set the camera to
> spot metering instead of matrix (or whatever Canon calls averaging the
> full frame) metering.

Mind you, this is *exactly* the situation used to advertise "matrix" or
"evaluative" metering when it was new; I'm kind of disappointed at how
badly it actually handles this sort of thing.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b@dd-b.net; http://dd-b.net/
Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/
Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/
Dragaera: http://dragaera.info

Re: bright window in background
 

"ted medin" <jtmedin@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:24898229.660.1334269393293.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@yneo2...
My canon a530 does good outdoors but indoor with a bright window in the
background the printed pictures show dark faces in the foreground. I have
tried a number of photo editors but need some advice on how to solve those
dark faces. Anyone got any ideas? TIA

Not in the correct order ......

1. Use fill in flash.

2. Shoot in RAW when in such circumstances. Always a good idea but solving
the problem with the RAW editor is not as good as getting a decent image in
the first place.

3. Overexpose by a stop or two.

0. Look at your histogram. Take a shot and view the histogram - there will
probably be tall peak over on the highlight side - this will be the window.
This will inform you to engage in action (1) or (2). Experiment with (1) and
(2) using the histogram to inform you.

John

Re: bright window in background
 

On Thursday, April 12, 2012 5:23:13 PM UTC-5, ted wrote:
> My canon a530 does good outdoors but indoor with a bright window in the background the printed pictures show dark faces in the foreground. I have tried a number of photo editors but need some advice on how to solve those dark faces. Anyone got any ideas? TIA

I had to look up the A530. Looks like it is a 6 yr old powershot with 5 megapixels. A cursory look at the specs didn't turn up a mention of RAW capability, and I expect you don't have that option.

The first thing to try, like others said, is to use a photo editing tool like elements or lightroom (or several others) and just boost the "fill". That will lighten dark areas, and is often all that is needed.

If you want to get fancy, you can read up on HDR, and try that, but you areprobably limited by your equipment.

Re: bright window in background
 

On Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:57:10 -0700 (PDT), otter
<bighorn_bill@hotmail.com> wrote:

>On Thursday, April 12, 2012 5:23:13 PM UTC-5, ted wrote:
>> My canon a530 does good outdoors but indoor with a bright window in
>> the background the printed pictures show dark faces in the foreground.
>> I have tried a number of photo editors but need some advice on how to
>> solve those dark faces. Anyone got any ideas? TIA
>
>I had to look up the A530. Looks like it is a 6 yr old powershot with 5
>megapixels. A cursory look at the specs didn't turn up a mention of
>RAW capability, and I expect you don't have that option.

However, that A530 will run CHDK which can give him RAW output, DNG
format. That would help some in post processing.

His only really good solutions to his problem is either fill flash or
HDR. That camera can do exposure compensation of +/- 2EV with the
Canon firmware but way more and auto braketing with CHDK.

RAW DNG output with auto braketing and some HDR software sounds like
the way to go if he doesn't want a fill flash. Although fill flash
sure is a lot simpler.

sTEVE

Re: bright window in background
 

On Saturday, April 14, 2012 9:38:19 AM UTC-5, TheRealSteve wrote:
> On Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:57:10 -0700 (PDT), otter
> <bighorn_bill@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >On Thursday, April 12, 2012 5:23:13 PM UTC-5, ted wrote:
> >> My canon a530 does good outdoors but indoor with a bright window in
> >> the background the printed pictures show dark faces in the foreground.
> >> I have tried a number of photo editors but need some advice on how to
> >> solve those dark faces. Anyone got any ideas? TIA
> >
> >I had to look up the A530. Looks like it is a 6 yr old powershot with 5
> >megapixels. A cursory look at the specs didn't turn up a mention of
> >RAW capability, and I expect you don't have that option.
>
> However, that A530 will run CHDK which can give him RAW output, DNG
> format. That would help some in post processing.
>
> His only really good solutions to his problem is either fill flash or
> HDR. That camera can do exposure compensation of +/- 2EV with the
> Canon firmware but way more and auto braketing with CHDK.
>
> RAW DNG output with auto braketing and some HDR software sounds like
> the way to go if he doesn't want a fill flash. Although fill flash
> sure is a lot simpler.
>
> sTEVE

Oh yeah, didn't think about CHDK. That would help, but its not for the casual user.