Blown out sky
- Thread starter ElCapone
- Start date
Without examples the advice is only going to be generic but I'll give it a bash!
Are you getting the foreground exposed properly?
If you are then the recommended routes would appear to be either take exposures for the foreground, any detail you wish to capture and the sky and combine them in your editing. Or, use a graduated filter to hold some of the light from the sky back. You can use ND filters (neutral density) which come in various strenghts depending on how bad the problem is, or a grey grad which does more or less the same and adds a grey tint to the sky.
Example of a grey grad.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3013/2365042068_24ca3c299e.jpg
Are you getting the foreground exposed properly?
If you are then the recommended routes would appear to be either take exposures for the foreground, any detail you wish to capture and the sky and combine them in your editing. Or, use a graduated filter to hold some of the light from the sky back. You can use ND filters (neutral density) which come in various strenghts depending on how bad the problem is, or a grey grad which does more or less the same and adds a grey tint to the sky.
Example of a grey grad.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3013/2365042068_24ca3c299e.jpg
specialman
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Expose for the sky and then work from there. Use your histogram to avoid too much burn-out or alternatively, spot meter from the highlight.
Also, set your camera's contrast/colour saturation to NORMAL or LANDSCAPE and this should give you a better tonal range. If the camera is set to VIVID or HIGH CONTRAST then it'll just exaggerate the tonal range and that's when highlights become burnt out.
I always expose for the highlight when shooting RAW and then I can adjust to bring out the shadow and mid-tone detail. Was taught this from day one at university: expose from the highlight so you have ALL the information in and then you can develop and print from the shadow to reveal the detail in dark areas.
Photoshop and RAW editng software makes this easy.
If there's a few stops difference between the highlight and the mid tones (sky and foreground) then a grey/ND grad filter helps to bring them back into balance like this
Also, set your camera's contrast/colour saturation to NORMAL or LANDSCAPE and this should give you a better tonal range. If the camera is set to VIVID or HIGH CONTRAST then it'll just exaggerate the tonal range and that's when highlights become burnt out.
I always expose for the highlight when shooting RAW and then I can adjust to bring out the shadow and mid-tone detail. Was taught this from day one at university: expose from the highlight so you have ALL the information in and then you can develop and print from the shadow to reveal the detail in dark areas.
Photoshop and RAW editng software makes this easy.
If there's a few stops difference between the highlight and the mid tones (sky and foreground) then a grey/ND grad filter helps to bring them back into balance like this