Blown Bird Test, Harry, etc.

[ginger_55]

I know this is in the wrong thread, but Harry, I wanted you to see it. Explain it to me. This is straight from RAW, nada done to it. I did the test for blown suggested by you and MHJS, they both came out the same. The whole thing was black except for the birds and the shadows, they were mostly red with some yellow. What does that tell me, what is red and yellow, what color is blown? I have deleted much from that shoot last week, but still had this one untouched, so this is from the "blown" shoot. (I was kidding when I asked the question re telling if something is blown, I got valuable stuff back, I just have to interpret it.) Thanks, ginger



http://gingerSnap.smugmug.com/photos/16927186-L.jpg

[Andy]

I know this is in the wrong thread, but Harry, I wanted you to see it. Explain it to me. This is straight from RAW, nada done to it. I did the test for blown suggested by you and MHJS, they both came out the same. The whole thing was black except for the birds and the shadows, they were mostly red with some yellow. What does that tell me, what is red and yellow, what color is blown? I have deleted much from that shoot last week, but still had this one untouched, so this is from the "blown" shoot. (I was kidding when I asked the question re telling if something is blown, I got valuable stuff back, I just have to interpret it.) Thanks, ginger





ginger, in the acr converter, you can mouse over the white areas, then look at the pixel color values (255,255,255 is totally blown)...

[Harryb]

I know this is in the wrong thread, but Harry, I wanted you to see it. Explain it to me. This is straight from RAW, nada done to it. I did the test for blown suggested by you and MHJS, they both came out the same. The whole thing was black except for the birds and the shadows, they were mostly red with some yellow. What does that tell me, what is red and yellow, what color is blown? I have deleted much from that shoot last week, but still had this one untouched, so this is from the "blown" shoot. (I was kidding when I asked the question re telling if something is blown, I got valuable stuff back, I just have to interpret it.) Thanks, ginger


Hey Ginger,

The black area was the area of the pic that had no blown highlights. The red and the yellow show you the color channels that were blown out. As you can see all of the birds had some blown highlights. If you saw that on your camera's histogram while shooting you would adjust the EV to a higher - setting

[ginger_55]

If you see that some is blown can you try saving it? I have in the past and been successful, that was before I knew about 255 and colors. I knew about 255 last week, as Andy had said something and I put 2+2 together and thought about it. I was correct. I thought I had saved the other ones I put up. What I do.

1) try to get the white out of levels

2) go to separate selection of colors and raise the white a bit in the black thing at the bottom.

Do any of you do that, or do you trash?

I am kind of clueless as to the fine points of a histogram in the field, or anywhere, but I am looking into it as soon as I finish typing this. If I can't find it, I will post on it appropriately.

Thank you,
ginger

[Harryb]

If you see that some is blown can you try saving it? I have in the past and been successful, that was before I knew about 255 and colors. I knew about 255 last week, as Andy had said something and I put 2+2 together and thought about it. I was correct. I thought I had saved the other ones I put up. What I do.

1) try to get the white out of levels

2) go to separate selection of colors and raise the white a bit in the black thing at the bottom.

Do any of you do that, or do you trash?

I am kind of clueless as to the fine points of a histogram in the field, or anywhere, but I am looking into it as soon as I finish typing this. If I can't find it, I will post on it appropriately.

Thank you,
ginger
Hi Ginger,

There are various ways of getting the brightness down in the blown areas but there is no way in post to recover the details lost in the blown area. In the bird shot you can lower the brightness but you can't bring back the feather details. What you want to do is to learn not to blow out the important highlights in a shot when you are taking it.