Hong Kong at night

[Mike Farley]

You can merge exposures with layers - it's a bit more effort than using a HDR appliction (and doesn't solve any alignment/ghosting issues), but it does allow recovering detail without losing contrast.

I don't know precisely how it would work in Photoshop/PS9, and it's not a perfect solution, but basically what I do is:

1) get things ok in Lightroom, then export three files with different exposures (e.g. -3.5 +0.5 +4.5)
2) create an image with three layers, the middle exposure being the base.
3) for the two extremes create a layer mask with opacity based on brightness (inverted for the overexposed one)
4) adjust the layer merge modes and layer opacity until it looks reasonable.
5) save results and import back to Lightroom for any further tweaks.

Not sure how well that makes sense? Again, I don't have PS so can't easily check terminology/etc.

I see that Peter got in ahead of me with an alternative suggestion. There are always different ways to use Photoshop to get similar results, so you have a couple of options to try. Both should work fine in Elements.

[Rose]

Many thanks Mike, I can see that I'm going to have to knuckle down and grips to with layers... I'm certainly no technophobe and am sure I will learn it easily but I just find the language a bit impenetrable ! I learn best from doing and am very impatient when it comes to reading instructions... I'm not one f those people who devour the manual when I get a new bit of kit !

[Simon Clarkson]

What's not to like in that photo! Its stunning. I like the original posted.

I took a photo of the City from the O2 Arena during the 2012 Games and I had the same problem with the lights. I took mine in RAW also and at various shutter speeds and apertures but I still couldn't get it right. As previously mentioned I'd have been better off shooting earlier in the evening.

Kind Regards
Simon

[davidc]

I have a similar problem with night scenes in raw - the "back of the camera" jpg renders it the way I want to see it but the RAW files just have this weird effect that, try as I might, I can't fix and get it looking how I want.

Hard to describe, I might need to post examples. But this thread is very informative. Like holding the shift key to align layers

[Simon Clarkson]

From what I've been told previously, the bulbs used in sign lighting is not suited to a cameras sensor. Ill post my City scene in a new thread and you can see I had the same problem.

Kind regards

[Mike Farley]

From what I've been told previously, the bulbs used in sign lighting is not suited to a cameras sensor. Ill post my City scene in a new thread and you can see I had the same problem.

Kind regards

Simon

I suspect that the issue is more to do with the dynamic range which the sensor is capable of recording rather than the method of illumination used for the signs. Those lights are very bright and the difference between them and the rest of the scene can easily be a dozen stops or more, which is at the limit of what current sensors can achieve. There are similar problems with the moon, where a correct exposure is around f/8 @ 1/250 at 100 ISO, so it is almost impossible to take in a single capture a night scene which includes the moon without burning it out. Next time you are shooting at night, it is worthwhile taking a spot meter reading from the lights and taking one shot at that setting and another for the rest of the scene. You can then combine them using one of the methods previously described in this thread.