Recently someone asked be how to prevent blown out highlights. Especially if your shooting INTO Sunlight. I really don't have a right or wrong answer, but I told hime what I do: I expose for the Sun.
The reason being I don't want blown highlights. Once the highlights are blown out, all information is lost and CAN NOT be recovered. I can however, recover information in an image that is UNDER EXPOSED.
So here is a RAW image taken with my camera. The image below that is processed in photoshop to recover the underexposed information in the lighthouse. I will not go into details, but my method involves the extensive use of masking, and blending.
Now, I realize that I have just about added an entirely new sky, howver I also have a third version with the original sky that is not blown out because I exposed for the sky, rather than the building.
In this age of digital imaging, some of the film techniques for handling this situation, are unnecessary when you use photoshop.
Any questions?
