One of my primary objectives in going to Antarctica was to photograph ice. The abstract forms are captivating and beautiful, and it seems like I can't shoot enough pictures of them.
The way I am handling the exposure is that I underexpose the images by 2/3 f/stop. I do this with the exposure compensation feature on my Canon 5D Mark II. The reason I do this is to protect the highlights from blowing out, i.e. becoming overexposed with no texture or detail. This is the worst thing you can do to a photo besides making it out of focus. When I process the RAW files in Adobe Camera Raw, I can adjust the exposure slightly to my taste. As I do that, I watch carefully that the vulnerable highlights retain their detail. It is crucial that I shoot in RAW and not jpeg mode. Jpegs don't hold detail in highlights (or shadows) very well at all.
While many pros disagree with my underexposure approach, it works for me. In the 5 years I've been shooting digital images, I never get any overexposures because I use this method of exposure.
4 comments:
wow - they're simply gorgeous! thanks for sharing! enjoy the trip! DDK
O.M.G. you were very close up to theses giants of ice! Great shots and great technics.
Thank you for commenting on my blog.
Susanne
Is the blue natural light or have you enhanced it?
Hi Jim,
Thanks for the wonderful photos. I have a question about exposure. You said you underexposed by 2/3 stop. How is it the snow/ ice doesn't look gray? Don't you normally recommend that we overexpose by a stop or so?
Thanks,
Vidya
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