bright white sky but dark subject

I

iron maiden

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iron
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hi all i went to heathrow some time back and took photos of aircraft when it was very cloudy,

i was using evaluative metering,
and my AF point is single point AF,

but my sky was bright white and my aircraft was dark,

why is this what am i doing wrong,


any help i will be very gratful,

iron
 
The camera is trying to meter so as not to completely blow the sky. You'd need to use spot metering with that centre focus point on the plane so that exposes correctly, but chances are the sky will then be blown.
 
paul,

thank you for your reply,
is there away around this without the sky being blown
 
Ideal answer is to wait until weather is better, and shoot from a position where the sun is behind you and fully lighting the subject. But if you have a relatively dark subject in a bright, glare filled sky ( those clouds are acting like big light diffusers), the camera simply can't exposure for bright and dark areas properly in one frame. How about taking a shot of an empty sky, properly exposed, then using post processing to drop a well exposed aircraft into the decent background?
 
I've been having similar problems shooting birds with a bright but cloudy sky. Even spot metering causes major blown out areas so it's down to PP and masks. I check out to see whether it's worth going out and if not I do some macro or indoor work instead.
 
acetone said:
This what fill flash is for, the camera will expose for the sky and the flash will light up the subject.
Click to expand...

Fill flash for a flying air craft? :D

The trick is just over expose and blow the sky, i mean you are there to photograph the planes, so that to me take priority. Just dial it up 2 stops or there about and then check LCD.
 
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acetone said:
This what fill flash is for, the camera will expose for the sky and the flash will light up the subject.
Click to expand...


That'll be one mahoosive flash gun! :thinking:
 
Wonder how big the batteries would be for that one, and whether it'll make the camera a tad heavy with a Sigma 150-500 OS lol :thinking:

I've used a 580 EX II to fill in but it's only good for a few metres. Helpful for short(ish) wildlife shots though.
 
ha ha, just seen the fill flash comment, inverse square law and all that, that must be some flash lol,
 
And pilots were moaning when a couple of numpties were shining laser pointers at aircraft. They're going to have conniptions if someone fires a flash bright enough to provide fill lighting at that range. :)
 
iron maiden said:
paul,

thank you for your reply,
is there away around this without the sky being blown
Click to expand...

Sadly, no.

The only solution is go back when the light is better. I would say go for the first or last couple of hours of daylight as a starting point on a day where there is not a huge amount of cloud.

Find a position on the perimeter where you have the sun behind you or over one shoulder to give you some good lighting on the aircraft. The subject will the be about the same brightness as the sky and you are onto a winner.
 
what about put camera on a tripod expose one for the plane and expose one for the sky then put them together in photoshop
 
lol really should read all the posts before replying but as long as the info gets there thats all that matters
 
When you are shooting against a bright overcast sky the sky is your light source. It's like a giant softbox, and it's not likely to be easy if you are shooting straight into the light that is also illuminating your subject. So firstly I'd try to find better lighting conditions or a better shooting angle.

Failing that my approach would be to shoot raw and set a manual exposure using spot metering to set the exposure for the brightest area of the sky at the edge of clipping, which is +3 on the meter with my Canon bodies. Other brands may have a different threshold for clipping. That way I would capture as much detail for the subject as possible without destroying the sky. Then I'd use Lightroom to adjust the tonal balance to try to make a more aesthetic shot.

20120318_170839_000.jpg


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If the subject really is a dark silhouette then I can't see me bothering.

Just found another example. This one didn't require (IMO) any adjustment to the tones in Lightroom, but again it was metered manually for the brightest areas of the sky against which I expected the bird to appear....

20120318_180002_000.jpg


With this example and the others the brightest areas aren't actually looking close to blown because now that I am using Lightroom 4 it seems to hold back the highlights by default rather more than Lightroom 3 used to. Shooting in manual puts me in control and personally I think that metering for the bright background and locking the exposure is far easier than trying to spot meter off a smallish subject or riding the EC dial in an autoexposure mode as the subject moves and twists against a varying background. Another thing that might help - If the sky is not totally flat, but has bright and darker areas then try to frame the subject against the darker parts of the sky rather than the brightest ones. This will reduce the contrast between the subject and the backlight and make it easier to expose and process.

One more - processed in Lightroom 3 and showing properly how the slightly blown sky can easily be recovered from the raw file and everything else put nicely into place....

20110130_141114_000.jpg
 
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