Need Help Fixing Overexposure In RAW

[MBCook]

Hi guys. Haven't been around in a while but I could really use some help. I took a picture today of my white puppy carrying a Starbucks iced drink container around outside and it was very cute. The problem is that it was quite sunny. Now when she was in the shade the shots were easy, but the best shot happened when she was about 30% in the shade and 70% in the sun. The shade part is exposed pretty well, but the part in the sun she is mostly solid white on her back and head. She is WAY over exposed.

Now I know I have to be able to fix this. It doesn't have to be perfect and I'm willing to work on it for quite a while. The picture was taken with my Digital Rebel XT, and it's in RAW mode so the detail should still be there by adjusting the exposure when converting the RAW file.

I have Photoshop CS 2.

Now if the whole photo was overexposed, I'd know what to do. Same with an underexposure. But being part of one and part of the other, I don't know how to fix it. I did a quick try at merging two copies (converted with different exposures) but the colors don't match on the dog (the part that was overexposed has a serious grey tint compared to the correctly exposed part).

There has got to be a guide or some such.

I've attached a tiny version so you know what I'm working with.

[JTL]

Hi guys. Haven't been around in a while but I could really use some help. I took a picture today of my white puppy carrying a Starbucks iced drink container around outside and it was very cute. The problem is that it was quite sunny. Now when she was in the shade the shots were easy, but the best shot happened when she was about 30% in the shade and 70% in the sun. The shade part is exposed pretty well, but the part in the sun she is mostly solid white on her back and head. She is WAY over exposed.

Now I know I have to be able to fix this. It doesn't have to be perfect and I'm willing to work on it for quite a while. The picture was taken with my Digital Rebel XT, and it's in RAW mode so the detail should still be there by adjusting the exposure when converting the RAW file.

I have Photoshop CS 2.

Now if the whole photo was overexposed, I'd know what to do. Same with an underexposure. But being part of one and part of the other, I don't know how to fix it. I did a quick try at merging two copies (converted with different exposures) but the colors don't match on the dog (the part that was overexposed has a serious grey tint compared to the correctly exposed part).

There has got to be a guide or some such.

I've attached a tiny version so you know what I'm working with.Once the highlights are blown, they're blown...there's no recovering the detail via RAW or by any means. When you have very bright light and light colored or reflective surfaces, with the XT it helps to use partial metering and meter for the brightest object. The default evaluative metering will almost always blow out the whites in a situation like that...

[MBCook]

I was afraid you'd say that. The XT is very good with the exposure. The problem here was that I was following her and taking shots pretty fast keeping the shutter half-clicked (because she was at the same distance) and she moved from the shade to the sun and that's right when the picture was taken. I have shots from a second or two later when she is in full sun that are exposed pretty well, but by then she was shaking the container all over the place and the shots were blurry because of it (should have gone to ISO 200 to double the shutter speed, or Aperture Priority mode to keep the aperture wide open).

[Glenn Kennedy]

Yup. I have been digital for about 3 years and have had film cameras for a lonnnggg time before that. I still sometimes forget to compensate for the limited range of digital cameras. I try to remember to spot meter on the bright bit and then twiddle with the image in curves. I don't believe that a "no PP" shot is automatically better than one you've tweaked. There are limits, of course. But with a typical 3-minute attention span, I rarely PP too much.

[Rhys]

Here are two photos. The first with the burnt-out roof is what the XT thought it should do. The second is converted from RAW with my own adjustments. It's the same photo - I shot JPEG + RAW. Note how the blown-out roof is now a lot better. Sure I could touch up the rest a little but the basics are there now.