How can I avoid or recover sunlit grass highlights that turn beige in RAW processing?
Asked 9/1/2016
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When I photograph outdoor scenes with grass in both deep shadow and direct sun, the bright sunlit grass can clip. In post-processing, lowering highlights sometimes brings those areas back as flat beige/brown patches instead of natural green. What’s the best way to handle this? Specifically: should I expose differently to protect the highlights, use HDR or fill light for high-contrast scenes, or is there a good way to recover clipped grass color in RAW processing?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
2
The high dynamic range is problematic for cameras (the human eye can handle more, so it seems fine when you look at it).
Aside from the option of expensive professional cameras (which give a bit more dynamic range - there is a reason for the price), you can
- reduce exposure during the shot, so that the brightest areas do not get washed out. This will result in the shot looking too dark at first, but that is easy to correct in post processing. Of course, there is a limit for that too. I would try to set the exposure correction to -1 or -2 for a try. Worst case, the darkest areas start showing color noise in the processing, but with ISO 100 that's a long way to go.
- HDR (high dynamic range) is certainly a solution, but requires some more processing, and either a camera that supports it, or a tripod and very unmoving subjects. Take three or even five shots over a wide range of exposure adjustments, like -4/-1/+2, or -6/-4/-2/0/+2, and combine them in LR or similar. HDRs can look unnatural if the processing is overdone, but contrary to many people's thinking, this is not implicit of HDR - it is a choice in the processing. A well done HDR looks perfectly natural.
- the simplest way (and probably the poorest result, but the only option after the fact) is to correct the color of the blown out grass, by either selecting the color you want and then mono-chroming it and bleeding the target color into it (could look unnatural), or cloning the good-looking grass slowly over all the blown out grass - depending on the amount and form, this could work very well, or very poor.
Originally by user46784. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user46784
9y ago
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If the grass is truly clipped, there often isn’t real color left to recover—once channels saturate, highlight recovery may produce dull beige/brown tones. The best fix is prevention: expose for the highlights so they don’t blow out, even if the image looks a bit dark initially. Try negative exposure compensation (about -1 to -2 EV) at low ISO, then lift shadows in post.
For scenes with more dynamic range than your camera can hold, use HDR/bracketing, or reduce contrast in the scene with fill flash or a reflector if practical. Better dynamic range from some cameras can help, but it won’t eliminate the issue.
In post, different RAW converters may recover highlights and color differently, so it can be worth testing a few. But if the highlight is fully blown, software can only do so much. In that case, it’s usually better to keep the area bright but controlled rather than forcing aggressive recovery that creates unnatural color.
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