Is there any way to burn in, or darken the whites using ArcSoft? I've played around a little, but I'm not finding anything? If not on ArcSoft, is there any software that has the capability?

For example:

 

The white areas of that picture are so blown out there's almost no detail to extract - so if you try to darken it you'll just end up with featureless grey.

 

from the looks of it, the white area in the picture is too over exposed to have much detail that you would want to see, this is obviously coming from a photo noob who is buzzed.

 

If you can, start shooting Raw format and use photoshop. Jpegs are hard to salvage

 

Ha ha. Well, you're kind of right. I'm a newbie to this camera, but I don't think my old non-digital rebel would have blown the highlights like that. Yes, I am totally buzzed to have my new camera. Kinda takes the edge off turning 30.



Thanks JJ, I'll try raw.

 

Yeppers, those highlights are blown out. Probably not much detail there to salvage. RAW would give you more exposure latitude, but blown highlights are blown highlights.

 

So, I'm happier with this exposure, taken the same day.



I changed the white balance on the camera to "daylight" rather than auto. Obviously, it's quite a different composition, though,with the sunlight coming from a different angle.

Any suggestions for capturing a shot more like the first one without overdoing the highlights? I'd really appreciate it.

 

Looks good Wndrlst. Keep up the good work.

 

Yeah, get the dog out of that harsh sunlight. That's a pretty contrasty scene, so it's going to be hard to capture detail in both shadows and highlights. Just too much dynamic range there. You can use the cameras exposure compensation to adjust the exposure and save the highlights, but then you'll lose shadow detail. It's be easier just to shoot him in better light, or at least in an area where there's not so much bright light and so much shadow in the same scene.

Try later in the evening when the light is softer.

 

Looking again at the first pic, it looks like the cams meter got fooled, exposing for the background and blowing out the highlights on your dog.

Another technique is to let the camera expose for the BG, then use a little fill flash to light your subject.

The second pic is a lot better, but you can still see how the window light is too bright for the camera to expose properly. At least your subject is pretty well exposed.

 

Thanks for taking the time to give some constructive comments and suggestions.