| |
Excessive contrast
If you've shot on days with harsh sunlight, you've probably
noticed that many of your digital
images exhibit extremely high contrast. Such pictures include
dark shadow areas and ultra bright highlight areas. Excessive
brightness is the most serious problem, with "burned-out" or
"blown-out" highlights that obscure detail in, for example, a
bride's white gown or a snow covered hillside. With
sophisticated image-editing software such as Microsoft Digital
Image it's easy to solve certain technical problems. However,
it's almost impossible to fully correct blown-out
highlights. While these can be darkened, you cannot add detail
or texture that was not
recorded by the image sensor.
The Fix
In order to minimize this problem, remember the following
tips:
If your camera offers a contrast level adjustment control, do
not select the high option.
Even in the soft light of a cloudy day, the standard setting
should produce snappy
contrast. If your camera does not have a contrast control
feature, try to take pictures
when a cloud drifts over the sun. The contrast will be lower
under those conditions.
- In extremely harsh, contrast light—as on a sunny
day—select a slightly lower contrast
setting. This will minimize excessively bright highlights
and extremely dark shadow areas. After downloading images to
a computer, use image-editing software to increase contrast
if the pictures seem a bit "flat." (The software is more
effective in increasing rather than reducing contrast.) When
taking pictures of people, ask them to move to a shady area
and use flash to maintain a bright effect.
- In direct sunshine, use the camera's "Flash Always On"
option for nearby subjects to even out the lighting. The
burst of extra light can moderate contrast by brightening
shadows. If your camera's flash unit produces ultra-bright
highlight areas, don't use it with white subjects.
- Overexposure compounds the problem of contrast by making
highlighted areas excessively bright. After taking the first
picture of any subject, check the exposure in the camera's
monitor. If the image seems too bright, set a negative
exposure compensation factor such as -0.5. Re-shoot the
picture and check it again. A slightly dark image can be
corrected later with image-editing software, using the
fill-flash or lighten tools.
|