Shooting sky's

[Duncan16]

Hi

I am thinking of starting to get some shots of the wonderful winter sky's that are out at the moment
however I have never done that type of shots before?? when the sky's bright, orange,reds etc, how can you shot into them, with no blown images?

any help would be great, basic would be even better I have a 450d with a 17-85 lens. so any help please.

 

[markmullen]

You'll need graduated ND filters if you want to retain definition in your foreground as well as the sky, otherwise you'll end up with your foreground silhouetted if you simply expose for the sky. There are other ways to do it with HDR and exposure blending but IMO it is far better to get it right in camera, also moving subjects makes exposure blending more troublesome.

 

[gnirtS]

Or usually just apply an ND Grad in lightroom.

 

[canon_togger]

Or usually just apply an ND Grad in lightroom.

No.
If the sky is blown then the lighroom nd grad cant bring the detail back.
It will only work if there is some detail captured by the camera, which is best achieved by using nd grads in front of the lens. Or shooting multiple exposures and blending.

 

[markmullen]

No.
If the sky is blown then the lighroom nd grad cant bring the detail back.
It will only work if there is some detail captured by the camera, which is best achieved by using nd grads in front of the lens. Or shooting multiple exposures and blending.

As Marie says, you can't bring back something which hasn't been recorded.

 

[Guy-Richardson]

Mark has said it in a nut shell. A camera can only capture a certain amount of detail in the highlights and shadows so capturing one image of a scene (especially into the sun) isn't enough so that's why ND grads and 'exposure blending' is used. I personally use the latter as ND grads can be a nuisance infield and very expensive. Have a look online for exposure blending tutorials for a better understanding.

Hope you get some great images!