Compensating for an over-exposed sky?

S

sbryan

Well-known member
I'm shooting with a Canon G9 here in France. I don't have a tripod, but I may acquire a cheap one here soon and leave it behind.

My shots have over-exposed skies. The built-in ND filter doesn't seem to help much.

I've figured out how to setup AEB at -2 & +2, but it's difficult to use with lots of movement and without a tripod. Shooting in RAW, creating a -2 and +2 image later and merging in Photoshop HDR doesn't produce the greatest of results.

I've tried morning sun and evening light -- the light has always been harsh.

Is there something I'm not doing to compensate for over-exposed skies?
 
I usually meter the sky and shoot one stop faster. It makes for a pretty decent balance between sky and everything else.
 
If everything else fails, you can always try a graduated neutral density filter. It may be tricky with a G9, but you can give it a shot.
 
Are you after blue sky? There is a difference between over exposed sky and sky that is just plain white. Because of the curvature of the atmosphere, it acts like a prism with sunlight. The blue part of the spectrum is bent just about 90 degrees. Try this: Extend your thumb and forefinger at right angles to each other. Point your thumb or your finger at the sun. The other will be pointing at the polarized portion of the sky. With your finger, for example, pointing at the sun, rotate your wrist back and forth and look at the sky where your thumb is pointing. You will see a band of deeper blue and as you look more towards the horizon away from either side of the polarized band, the sky will look lighter and lighter. I don't know if I am explaining this well or not. Let me know If I'm not. Let's say you are facing East and the sun has been up for a half hour or so ...... the deepest blue part of the sky will be a band going from North, up overhead and down to the South. If you get the sky in your shot to the North or the South, it will be blue. If the sun is overhead, pointing your finger at it, you thumb, as you rotate it around, will be pointing at the polarized portion of the sky which is, of course, all around the horizon. A lot of folks take shots and don't know why sometimes the sky looks like a great blue and others it looks stark white. The above is why.

Maybe none of this has anything to do with what you are talking about though. :)

Larry
 
The graduated ND filter is about the only thing you can do... otherwise expose an acceptable value between the sky and land... and then accept the fact that you'll be photoshopping all your pictures.

That's the hardest thing about photography... dynamic range. That's why there's HDR imaging, bracketing, graduated ND filters, shooting RAW... etc. etc. Proper exposure is harder then proper focus.

You can always shoot 1-1.5 stops darker if you want the sky... and then fix in post... but I would ONLY do that if you deem the sky of equal importance then the people and/or landscape.

If you have a couple shots that you really really like... save for a blown sky... I'd just replace the sky in post. Some "purists" say that's a fake photo... but I've done it a few times for friend's pics and they never noticed. It's not nearly as crazy as it sounds, and I'll bet that some of the best photographs you've seen... where you noticed how great the sky looked... had a new sky in post.

:-)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top