Exposing for the Mid Tones

 5D Mk IV, EF 16-35 f/4 L IS, 1.6 sec, 19mm at f/13
Lee 6 Stop ND filter
Convict Lake, Eastern Sierra

I am always trying to expose for the mid tones, while holding back the histogram from clipping the highlights. This was a pretty bright scene late morning at Convict lake, also very windy. I used the Lee six stop ND filter here to hold back some of the light and allow for the longer exposure on the waves, giving a little motion effect and allowing for some blur on the wave caps.  I used the mid tones on the mountain to expose the image in live view, then pressed AE lock and refocused on the foreground. At f/13, this gave me enough depth of field to make this image work. 

 

 final histogram

I still needed to pull shadows and highlights in lightroom, but by keeping my histogram in check I was able to pull the needed detail in post and get the most dynamic range out of this scene as I could. Finally I cropped it to a 4:3 aspect ratio, that I like for portrait orientation landscapes.

Ross

Images In Light