# Rescuing image taken directly into the low sun



## PhilC (Sep 6, 2017)

While photographing grizzly bears in Canada recently, one evening there was a low sun reflecting off a river surface directly between me and a bear as it approached me. I stopped the lens down to f.20. Attached is the resulting image. I have tried a variety of sequences of adjustments but fail to get an acceptable image. Any ideas?


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## Roelof Moorlag (Sep 6, 2017)

The subject (bear) is underexposed because of the reflections. These reflections did your camera think the image was very light so it compensated with stopping down. You had to manuel correct this at the time (+2 stops minimum i think). Now you not done that you have to do it in postproduction... When you shot in RAW there is more room than when shot in JPG.

When you don't want the background to get overexposed you have to lighten only the bear with local adjusments.


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## davidedric (Sep 6, 2017)

What have you done so far?  The obvious first step would be the pull the Shadows up to maximum - that should show what kind of detail you have to work with.


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## PhilC (Sep 6, 2017)

Roelof, thanks for replying. I was aware at the time that I probably had my exposure wrong but in the haste of the moment I didn't have time to work out the best thing to do - it was certainly not a lighting condition I had encountered before. I had hoped that what I did would give me an image that I could reasonably 'correct' in Lightroom, but I wrote when I found I could not achieve this despite several attempts.

Davidedric, I hope the above explains why I am where I am. To answer your question, pulling up the Shadows to the maximum is no better than 50%. I think there is a lot of detail there, but everything I have tried subsequently hardly improves it further. Hence asking.


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## Jimmsp (Sep 7, 2017)

Do you have a raw file you could share ? via something like Dropbox?


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## prbimages (Sep 7, 2017)

You haven't described what you have tried so far, so it's hard to suggest alternatives.

Bring up shadows as a global adjustment, bring up exposure as a global adjustment, then use the local adjustment tools (adjustment brush, radial filter) to bring up the shadows even more. Does that help?


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## Roelof Moorlag (Sep 7, 2017)

If you share the RAW file, some of us could give it a try (of course with letting you know how to accomplish the results  )


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## PhilC (Sep 9, 2017)

Very sorry not to reply, but it is my daughter's birthday weekend so it will be Monday before I am back to image editing matters. Hope you understand. My concern about sharing the raw image would only be that it's size will be way beyond that I can upload in this forum. Am I right?


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## prbimages (Sep 9, 2017)

PhilC said:


> ... it's size will be way beyond that I can upload in this forum. Am I right?



Probably; that's why Jimmsp said:



Jimmsp said:


> ... via something like Dropbox?


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## PhilC (Sep 13, 2017)

prbimages said:


> Probably; that's why Jimmsp said:


 Hi, sorry for the delay in replying. I've now duplicated one of the 'difficult' images (RAW format) and moved it to Dropbox.It is 25.5 MB in size and when I try to upload it here I am told it is too large for this forum.
Is there a trick I am missing?


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## prbimages (Sep 13, 2017)

Don't upload the file here. Share it from Dropbox, and then just post the link here.


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## Roelof Moorlag (Sep 13, 2017)

PhilC said:


> Hi, sorry for the delay in replying. I've now duplicated one of the 'difficult' images (RAW format) and moved it to Dropbox.It is 25.5 MB in size and when I try to upload it here I am told it is too large for this forum.
> Is there a trick I am missing?


Go to the image in your dropbox folder and rightclick on it. Choose 'copy url' (or copy link) and past that here.


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## PhilC (Sep 17, 2017)

Hi All
Sorry for the delay -life is busy at the moment. The links as follows:
Dropbox - Grizzly Camp 2017-2 (8 of 1261) copy.arw
You willingness to have a go is much appreciated


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## Roelof Moorlag (Sep 17, 2017)

There are some details that can be retreived. I think the overall exposure can be some lighter. Than, with local adjesments lighten up the bear some more. The softness because of the back-light can be compensated (some) with dehaze.
I'm sure better Lightroom users than me can achieve better results but here is what i achieved in about 5 minutes:


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## Jimmsp (Sep 17, 2017)

I played in LR quite a bit, and got something similar to what Roelof did. I probably used more contrast. I then took that and played in PS a bit, using some Topaz Clarity and Restyle, and blending that with a Photomatix pseudo HDR.


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## PhilC (Sep 18, 2017)

Thanks Jimmsp for your reply and for the efforts you put in. I only use PS a little and am certainly not an expert user and I don't use TopazClarity or Photomatix at all. I can imagine that the latter two could be very beneficial, since lack of clarity is probably the worst feature of all the processing I have done. From others the best piece of advice has been the use of the radial filter, not to improve the bear itself significantly but to lower the strong brightness of the surrounding water without affecting the bear at all.


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## Gnits (Sep 18, 2017)

Here is another version.

Optimised the usual exposure settings in Lr.
Edit in PS.
Explored 3 different curved layers, with masks for highlights, shadows and midtones.
Applied a sharpening routine...
Local dodge and burn.
Back to Lr.
Crop.
Apply some noise reduction.

I could do marginally better, but it would take hours. I only worked on the bear, did nothing to improve the water or other background items.


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