Bright Sun sand and sea with bird.

[martycon]

The bird subject looks reasonably OK to me for colour and exposure, but the sand and BG is too blue for my liking. I made a separate layer for the bird and BG and adjustment layers of levels, saturation, and brightness for both. The results of these was posted today as Masked Lapwing. I tried haze reduction, and also tried auto this and auto that, and only auto levels was of benefit but still not looking right to me. I suspect that there is a simple solution which escapes me. The attached image has been adjusted in RAW to increase temperature from 4000 to 4300, highlights and whites reduced, blacks made black, and shadows reduced, but is still lacking. Help please.

PA300220 ed 01 res.jpg

[nardes]

Hi Marty

In PS CC I added a Levels Adjustment Layer and using the grey point dropper, tried to find a mid-grey tone in the image to set the WB.

Here is the result.

Cheers

Dennis

[Glenda]

I think 4300 is still very cool for sand. I used the white balance dropper in ACR on a similar area to Dennis and got a similar result. Also an auto curves adjustment setting black and white point was similar.

[martycon]

Thank you for the help and demonstration Dennis. You have reminded me that there is a similar facility in PS Elements, click on white gray or black, I tried it and the results are a bit erratic, but eventually I got a similar result to you. The subject and sand now look ok, but should I be concerned that the sea is not a nice clear blue? Probably not as it is a bird shot, and not a seascape.
regards marty

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for your commenrs Glenda, I had hoped to keep the sea looking a bit blue, but in reality I recon the sea is well overexposed and beyond redemption.
cheers marty

[Glenda]

If your camera clock is accurate and you shot these at around 12.55 and exposed for the bird I think you're just going to have to accept the ocean will be blown. I certainly don't mind it as is for the background to the shot.

[martycon]

Thanks Glenda, and for your reassurance that the BG aint too bad as is. Discussion on this thread has been informative and thought provoking. One such thought is to try a wide exposure bracketing, and combine best exposure of both, but then again, it would be easier to chose a better time of day to make the exposure.
cheers marty.

[William W]

“Bright Sun sand and sea with bird.” . . .

The bird subject looks reasonably OK to me for colour and exposure . . .

I suspect that there is a simple solution which escapes me.

The attached image has been adjusted in RAW to increase temperature from 4000 to 4300,

Please consider these few following points:

1. If your camera’s time and date stamp is correct (1255hrs 30^th May 2017) and you made the image near where you reside (QLD), then it occurs to me that the title of the thread is a misnomer: the image appears not to be “bright sun…” because there is no evidence of “hard shadows”.

2. From (1) above, one logical conclusion is that the sky was in fact overcast, in which case the typical Colour Temperature, around Midday near the Tropics would be about 11,000°K

3. If (1) and (2) above are accurate assumptions, then, the typical, EV of the illumination on the Subject would be about EV = 12~13, yielding an exposure of approximately F/5.6~F/8 @ 1/ISO @ ISO, which, at ISO 800 would equate to: a ’correct’ exposure of between F/5.6 @ 1/800s @ ISO 100 to F/8 @ 1/800s @ ISO800

4. Assuming that we are basically on the correct line thinking thus far and if the EXIF reports correctly that the shot was pulled at F/8 @ 1/1250s @ ISO800 then we can conclude that the image is probably at the least ⅔Stop underexposed, possibly (probably) more.

5. When a shot is made underexposed in Open Shade or Cloud Cover, the blue cast is typically exacerbated.

***

In summary I think that:

1. You are underexposed by at least 1 stop

2. Your CT is way out, try setting 10,000K and then adjust the Tint

addressing the question of simple solutions . . .

3. What was the Colour Temperature function that was set in camera?

4. (If EXIF reports correctly) Why did you use Spot Metering?

5. What did you spot meter on?

6. If that is a full frame crop, then the Spot Metering is in the centre of the frame (on sand), so why was there no Exposure Compensation applied?

WW

[martycon]

William, I like your forensic approach. You ask many pertinent questions. Some need more thought, and others experiment, so I will reply in more detail soon. Thank you for your insightful reply.
cheers marty.

[William W]

OK ...

[martycon]

William, I was suprised to see no shadows, so my light statement was wrong. Perhaps a "high bright overcast" would have been more accurate. Either way, it is agreed the subject bird is under exposed up to one stop. I think this results in a very overexposed BG which is my concern. Summary 3 :- WB was set to auto so no specific info there. S4 :- I hope to expose the subject correctly. S5 :- The bird. S6 :- with spot on bird subject, I part depress the shutter button to hold the exposure and focus. Then recompose and make the exposure with full press. Since posting I have had reasonable ressults using the colour correction tool in ACR. Your further advice will be appreciated.
regards marty.