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There are other issues with this shot, but what I'm interested in mainly is how to avoid burned out areas in long exposure shots such as these:




Here's the EXIF data

Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D80
Aperture Value: f/24
Color Space: sRGB
Exposure Bias Value: 0 EV
Exposure Program: Shutter Priority
Flash: No Flash
Focal Length: 34 mm
ISO: 1000
Metering Mode: Multi-Segment
Shutter Speed Value: 40/10 sec
Date/Time: Wed Mar 7 20:02:27 2007

Very very cool I really like this shot.

Don't shoot those sorts of scenes?

There's a couple of ways that you deal with this sort of thing, the most common - in this digital age - being to shoot two images and merge them in PS.

For one image, shoot it as you have.

For the second, get the burned out area right exposure wise.

Then merge the two images, using overlapped masked layers from each to get the desired image

Could you use a smaller aperture to try to get the corner right and then bring out the rest in PP? Or would that be too difficult?

Thanks for the suggestions. ATJ, your suggestion sounds feasible, though f24 was about as small as this lens went. I'm also not sure about how dark I could afford the rest of the shot to be. There's a section in the bottom left corner, on the train track, which starts at about the '2000' and extends up to level with the middle of the road, which was already completely black due to the small aperture, and I had to restore it using the clone brush.

gstark, I think you're idea is the way to go. I'll try that next time. Thanks for the advice guys, and Alpha_7 thanks for the compliment.

Maybe you could combine the two suggestions... shoot RAW with a small aperture (or shorter exposure) and then use the image twice - once where you push the exposure up and once as shot - combining the images as suggested by Gary.

By the way, I like the shot as is.

Looking good, you should be able to fix the blow out by using gstark's suggestion.

Have a look around the web for HDR (High Dynamic Range). I know Photoshop CS2 has tools to generate these kind of images.

Thanks guys, that's very useful (I'll certainly look at HDR, but I think I have to get better at taking original shots before I mess about with them). I like the shot as it is, but I can see how it would be distracting to other people.

When the conrast range of the scene exceeds the capabilities of the film/sensor then you have a number of options...
1. Go back when the lighting is more balanced
2. Expose for the highlights and lose the shadows
3. Expose for the shadows and blow the highlights
4. expose half way and compromise the entire exposure
5. expose for the highlights and use flash to expose the shadows
6. Shoot a number of braketed shots and combine in PhotoShop
7. Go somewhere else.
8. Take up golf

Or you could hold a black card over the area in question for about half the exposure time.....

Fortigurn wrote:There are other issues with this shot, but what I'm interested in mainly is how to avoid burned out areas in long exposure shots such as these:

As suggested above you can shot several images in the range of -1EV --- +1EV. Merge them later in PS or other applications.

You can fix it in PS. There's a plug-in for PS called Photokit Colour 2 which offers interesting adjustments and colour enhancing features


I have a couple of screen shots of this plug-in. Maybe others will be interested too.

http://www.pixelgenius.com/color2/

I've done quick adjustments using photo kit colour 2

I burnt upper 1/3 several times, dodged left 1/2 a couple of time. I forgot about the bottom right corner. Dodging bottom 1/3 will enhance the appearance of the right bottom corner.