Clouds Over Pyramid Lake , Ca (Referencing White Balance Post)

[Tri Danimal]

In a different thread I posted talking about adjusting white balance I mentioned pre-adjustment my photos were very heavy on the blue, well I found the photos and decided to post them to see what you guys and gals thought of them. These are "raw" jpegs and have not had any pp on them at all. I know a few of them need to be cropped to look better but I just got some software and I dont know how to use it just yet. any C and C will be awesome. Thanks again for the help.

BEFORE ADJUSTMENT









AFTER ADJUSTMENT

[binsurf]

Your adjustments improved the realism of the photos. I wonder if the white balance was originally incorrectly set to something like custom or something as they turned out unusually blueish. Evening shots are difficult to take, so I'm not going to critique the photos based on any other criteria than requested (white balance adjustment). I assume the only adjustment made was the white balance. I'm also assuming the shutter speed was relatively slow. Looks like 1/125 at maybe 3.6? But, I'm no expert.

[pnodrog]

They all appear to be underexposed and dark. Make sure your monitor's brightness setting is suitable for photo editing. Look at the levels histogram and make sure the bulk of your image spreads across it. At a guess I think it is sitting to far to the left (the dark side - sounds a bit like star wars).

The white balance adjustment was an improvement but I am surprised it appears to be so far out in the original.

Are you using a filter on the lens? If so what?

[pnodrog]

The colour balance worried me so I downloaded the file and looked at the levels. The blue channel spreads across the histogram but the green and red channels only reach about 2/3rds of the way across and appear to be underexposed.

What time of day did you take the photographs? It is obviously very early or late in the day. The recorded exposure data gives 1sec at f22 which seems a bit unusual. Was the camera set on a colour balance for tungsten lighting?

Being a bit nosy but it all has me puzzled.

[Mark von Kanel]

White balance set to tungsten in natural daylight will give a blue cast.

[Polar01]

I think in this case it is the time of day, if you shoot about an hour to 45 minutes before the sun rises or after is sets this is know as the blue hour and your images will be bluish in nature. You can see this in my posted image sunset was at approx 7:30 and this was shot at approx 8:30 natural light, the moon was also lighting the scene exposure was about 1 minute.

Cheers:

Allan

[Tri Danimal]

They all appear to be underexposed and dark. Make sure your monitor's brightness setting is suitable for photo editing. Look at the levels histogram and make sure the bulk of your image spreads across it. At a guess I think it is sitting to far to the left (the dark side - sounds a bit like star wars).

The white balance adjustment was an improvement but I am surprised it appears to be so far out in the original.

Are you using a filter on the lens? If so what?

I had an ND4 and a UV filter on the photos for all the shoots. This was the first time I used the ND4 filter, I am pretty sure I did not use it properly, I was trying to highlight the dramatic colors of the sky, referencing photo #6.

The colour balance worried me so I downloaded the file and looked at the levels. The blue channel spreads across the histogram but the green and red channels only reach about 2/3rds of the way across and appear to be underexposed.

What time of day did you take the photographs? It is obviously very early or late in the day. The recorded exposure data gives 1sec at f22 which seems a bit unusual. Was the camera set on a colour balance for tungsten lighting?

Being a bit nosy but it all has me puzzled.

For under exposed portion on this, would I try to keep the shutter open longer to allow more light into the sensor, via exposure compensation?

I am not too sure how to use the histogram just yet.

I took the photos VERY late in the day, the camera is and was set to auto WB.

[pnodrog]

Thanks Daniel for satisfying my curiosity. Obviously there is no particular mystery - just very blue and low lighting at the time that you latter corrected with your white balance adjustment.

The exposure was about right for the lighting conditions you had. If you had increased the exposure the bright area of the sky may have become overexposed. In the days of film I would have been using a graduated tobacco filter (a warm brown coloured filter progressing to clear) which helps compensating the blue or enhances warm lighting and reduces the exposure for the sky. I still own one but never use it now. If I take several different exposures (bracket) I can do all the adjustments I want in PP.

Checking the histogram after you have taken the shot is a great tool for checking your exposure. It will not take you long to understand it and you should find it very useful in unusual/difficult lighting conditions.

[Polar01]

Daniel: you use a gradulated DN filter to hold the sky back, yet allow the forground to now balsnce the sky. A ND filter will hold all the image back, at most a 2 stop as a 4 stop I would use during the day.

Cheers:

Allan