Creative photography

[rockinorion]

i took a picture of a mountain (EOS XTI) with a snowy top, semi-cloudy sky and a raging river below. The river is completely without detail. the sky and mountain top aren't so bad. This is a recurring issue. I am having a hard time with many of the shots I take where there are both dark and light components in the picture. Seems I can't post it here so what can you suggest?

[bdery]

Hi and welcome!

You can post links to pictures, simply by pasting the URL or even better by clicking the Insert Hyperlink button and pasting the url between the markres.

You can also click Insert Image and paste the url there, but try to avoid pasting links to very large images that way, if possible.

Regarding your problem, as you imply providing an example would help, but I'm guessing that your scene has a wide range of light intensities, and by exposing correctly for the sky and mountain, you overexpose the river.

You could first change your metering system (going from spot to matrix-evaluative, for instance). If your camera offers bracketing, you could use that, or simply apply an EV compensation. That way, you would get a darker sky/mountain, but the river would not be washed out.

The beauty of digital is that you can experiment on the spot, and make adjustments as they are needed. Do not be afraid to change settings on your camera to see their impact on a picture.

I hope this helps.