One of the most frustrating issues with photography comes with attempting to capture images with large dynamic range of light. When one looks at such a scene, like a person in front of a sunset, our eyes can pick up both the individual and the colors in the sky. When we photograph the scene, though, either the person is illuminated and the sky is washed out or the person is in the dark with the colors of the sunset are readily visible. Our eyes can effectively pick up about 10-12 stops of light while photography at its best picks up about 6.
Gradient of Roughly 5 Stops (Not to Exact Scientific Scale, for Illustration Purposes Only)
Gradient of Roughly 10 Stops (Not to Exact Scientific Scale, for Illustration Purposes Only)
Over the years various methods have been employed to alleviate this problem: Neutral Density Filters, Blending, HDR Software, Fill Flash. Curiously, even though our eyes can see these levels of light, when applied to photographs these images sometimes appear what many consider to be “unnatural”. As a result, this is one of the areas that viewers complain that a photograph could not have been how the artist actually witnessed the scene.
So, why does the viewing audience believe these images to be manipulated? Partly due to years of conditioning, people take photos and without these techniques their results fall short. Partly due to an overuse of some of these technologies. Lastly, partly due to using these technologies in situations or images that do not warrant them. I have seen many photographers pull out their Neutral Grad filters in situations when they are not needed, simply because they are so used to using them to hold back the sky. It is not always necessary! Meter first!
Of course, the end result is to capture the scene as one sees it, the side effect is creating an image that the viewing public believes is unrealistic, even though it may be more realistic!
Mass Believability? - 5 I shouldn’t be able to see those tree trunks!
Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm, f/18, .4 sec., 3-Stop Hard Neutral Grad
Black Hills, South Dakota
