ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Photographing Extremes in Tones

Updated on April 15, 2016
LuisEGonzalez profile image

I enjoy photography and have been doing so professionally and independently for over 30 years.

Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0 | Source
CC BY-SA 2.0
CC BY-SA 2.0 | Source

Tonal extremes

Photographing tonal extremes, often presents difficulties when photographing scenes of bold colors and with extremes shifts in color renditions. However, with some practice and a keen eye these difficulties can easily be dealt with.

First you must understand that your camera will see images differently from how you see them.The human eye has a much broader capacity for "seeing" tones even the sightless of changes and shades and with all of today's technological advances in camera manufacturing, technology and film, neither comes close to fully capturing what your eye is capable of.

The camera will look at tones in any scene as mid-gray and will set exposure for that purpose. So what you see as a white bunny will be seen as a light gray bunny in the photograph unless you take steps to correct it.

If your scene is mostly composed of a light color, such as white walls, snowy scenes, light colored subjects posing against a similarly light colored background or dark subjects posed against a similarly dark background or very dark animals such as a gorilla or a white dove, the camera will still render them as a mid tone gray. With film you can push the film one or more f-stops, with slide film the latitude is less.

The solution is simple yet sounds awkward. To render light or white subjects as they are allow more light to fall on the subject by increasing the aperture size or decreasing the shutter speed, similar to overexposing. The reverse is true for dark or black subjects such as gorillas. Allow less time for the shutter or decrease the aperture size, similar to underexposing. This is also referred to as bracketing the film.

There are also situations in which you are presented with extremes in tonal ranges, such as a subject in a darkened room which is illuminated through a sunlit window that also presents some interesting subjects outside of that window. If you take the shot at the camera's reading, the light from the window will overpower the scene and your subject will be rendered as underexposed.

To remedy this you must make a decision, as to what is more important, the subject or the scene outside the window. If you decide that the rendition of your subject is more important for the shot, then take a reading from the subject at close proximity, then set the camera's settings for that reading. Reverse the method if the action outside is more important.

Think of a photograph of a sunset in which a couple is embraced while admiring it. If you take the shot at your camera's determined reading, the sunset will show in all of its glory, but the couple will be shown as silhouettes. Same effect that you will obtain when shooting any subject that is back lit since the camera will take a reading from the brightest source

To overcome these situations, again overexpose or underexpose. A good starting point is to shoot the scene at the camera's recommended reading, one shot underexposed and one overexposed, both by one or half an f-stop under or above.

Source

© 2011 Luis E Gonzalez

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)