Osaka street scene

[jonjon]

Hi all,

Just wondering why the big shop signs turned out white and what i can do to correct it? Taken using E-PL1. Any other feedback welcome.

[Guest]

Re: Osaka street scene

Well night scenes are difficult, particularly with bright signs/lights.

The quick answer is that the signs have gone all white because they overloaded the sensor which thought it was taking a picture of the dark scene. There is probably not much you can do to recover that in this shot as all 3 channels (Red/Green/Blue) seem to be well maxed out.

There are tricks that can be used for night scenes

1) Don't actually shoot them at night, shoot instead as the light begins to go but before full dark - that way the range of contrast between the light and the dark is easier

2) Use HDR techniques and take 3-5 shots at different exposures (this will need a tripod at night)

3) Spot or centre weighted metering on the second shop along (rather than matrix on the whole scene) might well have helped some. The E-PL1 is rather handy as it will show the histogram in the view finder before you take the shot.

Slight oddity as the exif shows you shot at +0.7 ev, that would have helped lighten the street, but pushed the highlights even further over the top. Might also suggest pushing the iso up a bit higher than 400, the E-PL1 will take it.

Nick

[benvendetta]

Re: Osaka street scene

I would certainly concur with Nick about the time that these sorts of images should be taken.
Your sensor just can't cope with the extremes of lighting in your image and an HDR approach is probably the best way to record detail throughout.

[Ulfric M Douglas]

Re: Osaka street scene

Yeah, sorry but you've really got to take the picture again ... bracketing exposure to get both the dark street and the bright signs correctly exposed : each in their own photograph. So you probably need to use a tripod...
(It isn't the camera's fault : just a difficult scene)
I'm just repeating the good advise above but in a different way.

[jonjon]

Re: Osaka street scene

Thanks for the replies guys!

I'll read up on HDR. Yeah i think i left it on +0.7 ev accidently, whoops.

I'm back in the UK now, so won't be taking the picture again. I'm not too bothered though as it was just a quick snap and i just wanted to learn more about whats going on here.