help! sun problem on the glacier

[Hazel Grant]

Just returned from an Alaska cruise and took several photos of the Sawyer Glacier. Unfortunately, the sun was facing us directly the whole time. In a wider shot you could see the sun shining directly at the camera. One shot I did capturing that sun turned out like a black and white. I did a little post PS work, but am not sure if the photos are salvagable as anything I'd like to put on the wall.

Any ideas?

Nikon D40x, 1/40 , f 18, iso 100, lens: 18-135mm. focal length 80 mm. no flash. used a polarizer filter.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Hazel,
Always tough exposure when faciing the sun! You may want to try and do a pseudo HDR......combining multiple exposures of the same image.....to see if that can bring up more details in the shadow areas......being that dark though.....it may bring up too much noise.....but worth exploring. Let's see what others chime in.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Hazel, I ran lot of controls on this to see if I could improve it somewhat.
Easy to bring out detail on the left rock by selecting it and applying S/H
I cropped a bit off the top since it was hazy and not offering alot to the image.
I played with levels and curves to give more contrast and separation between the elements in the image.
I even went so far as to warm it up a bit using a Nik filter.(Bril & Warmth)
I also darkened that light bit of ice in the water...


I just noticed with all my tweaking I made the bright areas on the rt rock and ice in water a bit brighter than I feel they should be...

[Robert Amoruso]

Hazel,

You got yourself a good record of your sighting, but your lighting conditions just are not working for you.

In such cases I make these images, store them as a record of my trip and hope for better light next time.

[Joe Senzatimore]

I think Roman's HDR idea might work.

[Hazel Grant]

Thanks. I'll give the HDR a try. Dave, thanks for your work. the ice part is clearer.
Don't know when there will be another trip there, so I was so hoping for good shots, but the sun....oh, well,

Thanks again for the input. I'll work on it.

[David Stephens]

Well, you were lucky to get sun on your cruise, just at the wrong time. The glaciers really show off best with an overcast sky. I hope the rest of your trip resulted in some great images.