[Pic] Thoroughly blown out highlights

[freeradical]

I took this shot of a cactus and its fruit with the sun directly behind it as a jpeg. I wanted the fruit to "glow".

Would shooting something like this as "raw" picture have given me some room to dial back the sky, or is this simply too much for a digital image?

[M>B>]

Open it in Photoshop or Lightroom and do some of the auto correct tools. Then take it from there!

[jdc]

Photoshop can fix it

[freeradical]

M>B> wrote:
Open it in Photoshop or Lightroom and do some of the auto correct tools. Then take it from there!

I did. It's too far gone to fix.

[M>B>]

Then use jdc's fix!

Except I would shrink the selection and slightly feather it.

[eustacetilley]

It all depends on your camera and your skills.
The old Rule of "Expose for the Shadows - Develop for the Highlights" doesn't really apply here , as you aren't interested so much in the reflection of light, but the transmission of it.
A Polarizing filter may help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizing_...otography)

Some people use HDR:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-dynamic-range_imaging

The problem with HDR is that is so easy to use the technique badly- the result being fake looking images.

A delicate old technique is "Masking": Take two exposures- one with a black cardboard mask cut to match the profile behind what is being imaged, and a second to accurately record the background, and then blend the two.

You're using a Lumix DMC-LX7 at 1/400 of a second. Try 1/200 for the Mask, and 1/1600 for the background. That's an extra 3 stops of range.
After maybe a couple of hundred shots, and a couple of hours in Lightroom, something might develop.

Eustace

[jdc]

That was a 30 second quick mask with some stock clouds I have.

In the olden days I would have shot one photo with the cactus perfect, then another with the sky perfect and composted them.

Need a tripod and the ability to adjust exposure tho...

[bazookaman]

jdc wrote:
In the olden days I would have shot one photo with the cactus perfect, then another with the sky perfect and composted them.

Do you use that in your garden?

[OWC Jamie]

bazookaman wrote:
[quote=jdc]
In the olden days I would have shot one photo with the cactus perfect, then another with the sky perfect and composted them.

Do you use that in your garden?
LOL
but a composite is what I would have tried

[DRR]

Yes, shooting RAW will enable you to recover highlights and lift shadow detail much better than a jpeg will. If you expect to have difficult shots like this, by all means shoot RAW.

Or as eustace mentioned, take multiple shots, exposing for different elements of the photograph. If you do this you can merge to HDR (be subtle) or combine the two exposures manually and do exposure blending, which is much more time consuming and I'll even say, easier to do wrong than HDR.

Lastly, it helps to have it as correct as possible in camera. Try a circular polarizer next time.