
Originally Posted by
rob marshall
Krisztina
The subject here is the grass stem with the dew. As Jiro says, it should fill more of the frame.
I think most of the stem is burnt out (over-exposed). I put the JPEG into my RAW editor (CS5) and it showed about 50% red (blown) on the stem and dew-drop. As a result, you have lost some detail on the subject. I do a lot of shots like this and I often find the best way to deal with bright-spots is to find the brightest spot using spot-meter mode, then set the readings in manual mode but give it a little bit more exposure compensation. That will make the background darker, but that often helps, as it gives more prominence to the subject - and you needed to do that with this shot.
It was probably the flash that caused the problem. Was it a pop-up you used?
(yes)
Pop-up flash can be very harsh due to it's small light source area. I often use an off-camera flash gun, which I diffuse using either a clip on diffuser (reasonable success) or shoot through a translucent diffuser screen that you get with a cheap fold-out reflector.
( I still have a lot to learn before I can even think about any type of upgrades, or additions, like the flash gun which you mention. As it is, I am very fortunate to be able to use the camera/ lens that I have ( a good friend of mine let me use her 'old camera indefinately, knowing I can't afford one yet, and would like to learn the Dslr )