Hi folks,
Today is our last day in Hawaii, then we'll be crossing back across to the mainland for a few days in San Diego. We won't be on YouTube today, but we do have a photo tip for you. You can read this article online here.
Lava Tube
If you visit
Hawaii, we highly recommend experiencing a lava tube on the beach. We were lucky enough to go to Black Sand Beach during our Road to Hana tour. This is a unique formation created when lava flows and the surface cools, turning into a hard crust. The middle is still hot and flowing. This creates an empty tube, like a cave.
The one at Black Sand Beach is easily accessible, you just have to duck down a bit to get inside, then it opens up.
Don’t Let Bright Backgrounds Wash Out Your Shot!
As you can see however, it is a bit tricky to get the exposure right. It is dark inside but it opens up to the ocean outside. In smartphone photography, you
can use editing tools to recover detail in the shadows, but there’s nothing you can do for washed out overexposed portions of the picture. So, you need to adjust for the bright background before you take the shot, then fix the shadows by editing later.
Your camera’s fully automatic exposure will capture the photo above. You can see the rocks inside the lava tube clearly but the bright scene outside is completely washed
out.
Instead – you can manually set the exposure to the outside by tapping the screen (iphone) or touch and hold on the screen (Samsung) at a point on the outside scene. (see tutorial video 803 below)
This technique captures a photo where the ocean is properly exposed and the inside of the tube is too dark, but
editing can fix that.
Editing features like HDR, Shadow, and color adjustments can give you some detail in the dark inside. (See video Photos35 below.)
What do you think? Is this a better photo than the first one? Leave a comment at the bottom of the post on our website.
To see more photos or anything else about our life on the Villa Vie Odyssey cruise ship see our website at GeeksOnTour.com/cruising
