Help with capturing more detail in the sky

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kerry Jordan on October 6, 2009 at 5:52am

Hi Jas - can you include an example?

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Parler on October 6, 2009 at 9:00am

There are two ways that you can make the sky bluer or richer in color...a basic UV filter and/or a circular polarizer filter. Also you can check your manual that came with the camera to find out how to change your exposure compensation. By lowering the exposure compensation you will get deeper richer colors. Hope this helps!

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Permalink Reply by Jas Mandla on October 6, 2009 at 9:42am

Hi Andrea,

thanks for the tip, I tried lowering the exposure but then alot of detail got missed, will try to put up some pics later to show you what I mean. However, I will invest in a UV filter and a circular polarizer filter.

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Permalink Reply by Staale Sannerud on October 6, 2009 at 3:12pm

A UV filter won't do diddly squat one way or the other. Save your money. A polarizing filter may help, but only in certain conditions. Google up on the usage of it; it is effective on reflected light but this only works for blue skies when shooting at about right-angles to the sun. In the right circumstances it can be stunningly effective though.

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on October 14, 2009 at 7:31pm

Save the money you'd spend on gadgets, like gimicky filters and spend it on education.

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on October 6, 2009 at 12:05pm

You have to do it in the original exposure. You can't add anything to the photograph if it wasn't there in the original exposure. There isn't a filter that will do that and changing the aperture or exposure time, white balance "contrast settings" won't, unless it is used to get you to the correct exposure. Even photographing in RAW won't. In most cases you'll need to photograph at a time of the day when the light is good and can be balanced with the value of the sky or use some type of fill such as an electronic flash or a "fill card". If your intent is to do this professionally you need to get an education. If it was just for fun then it's a lesson learned. The contrast range, scene brightness range, is beyond the ability of the photographic media to capture, whether film or digital.

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Permalink Reply by Staale Sannerud on October 6, 2009 at 3:10pm

First, shoot in RAW instead of JPG. (If you do, the contrast settings and WB settings on the camera are irrelevant, it is all handled in post-production on the PC with no loss of data. But that is not the main point...)

RAW, to put it simply, gives you more data in the bright end of the photo. Quite a bit more than will fit in the histogram on the camera. JPG will clip to pure white past a certain point; RAW will retain detail about one stop or so above that level, depending on the exact camera model.

If that isn't enough, there is no other solution than to add more light to the subject when you shoot, so that the brightness difference between subject and sky is not too big. Simply put, the camera sensor can only gape over so much in terms of contrast before something goes either black black or white white!

Rich blue sky should be somewhere around the middle of the histogram of the finished photo, for what it is worth. (Not necessarily mid-histogram when you shoot, mind you. Different animal. "Expose to the right", and all that.)

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Permalink Reply by George Buchan on October 6, 2009 at 4:11pm

Hello,

Think you need to invest in ND Gradient filters, they will balance out the sky by requcing it by amount of light reaching the sensor. Cokin do an affordable set, I use mine every time I shoot landscape shots.

Alternatively you can use the bracketing mode on your camera (not sure what your using but most DSLRs have this option) you can shoot the correct exposure for the foreground and 1 - 2 stops darker for the sky, then merge them in photoshop.

For shots with models, expose/meter for the sky and use a reflector to brighten up your model, if this doesn't work try off camera flash, there are plenty of Stobist tuturials in YouTube etc.

Hope this helps

George

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Permalink Reply by David on October 9, 2009 at 1:04pm

If a 'blue sky' is washed out this sounds like over-exposure..a polarizer will make a sky look more blue, but without it the sky should still look blue to some extent. Can you post an example?

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Permalink Reply by David on October 9, 2009 at 1:07pm

This was shot on a compact with no filters. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlsmith/1948707089/

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Permalink Reply by Gary Vernon on October 10, 2009 at 3:26am

Hi Jas,
you should be first of all using a grey card to nail the white balance, try not to rely too much on auto..
Try moving the subject around, if the bg is not what you wanted then come back at a different time of day when sun is in a another position. When shooting into the sun, try exposing on the sky and using fill flash and or reflectors to light the subject also a skylight (large reflector) comes in handy if you have a couple of assistants.
ND filters also are useful especially for landscapes and there are the pp NIK filters (PS plugins) for deepening the blue in the sky, but will turn the white clouds blue without a quick dab of the history brush.
Loads of other tools in photoshop for doing this, but ideally it is best done when taking the shot in camera,
Gary..

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Permalink Reply by Matt Needham on October 12, 2009 at 2:49pm

"is there a technique to this without doing it in post production?"

Fill flash. Lot's of great info at Strobist.com

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101balancing-flash-wi...

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