Please help with Blue Skys!

[sideeffects]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/burnblue/1339709516/
**This is not my photo**

Hi all I have a question for all you seasoned photographers out there!

How on earth do you get a sky to look like the one in the picture I have posted a link to above? Is it all post processing? Is it filters? Is it both (I'm assuming its this option)?

If post processing is the key does anyone know a link on good tutorials on the subject? or does anyone want to explain how its done :P

Thanks alot everyone!

[Nathan deGargoyle]

Circular polariser?

[mr_hello88]

well..i think it should be post processing...maybe u can try this web site..its very good.and its contain a lot of video to teach u.

http://www.photoanswers.co.uk/

[RexK_Cozumel]

Do you mean a sky like this?


No filters needed just knowing a little about lighting. You need to be sure that the sun is not high up in the sky otherwise you will get a washed out greyish/white looking sky. be sure the sun is low and ideally at your back but you can still get a blue sky if you are shooting straight into the sun if the sun is low enough. Anyways to really make the blue pop just bump the saturation a bit and it will really turn blue if you had a good sky to begin with.

[Nicole]

Circular polarizing filter seems pretty likely given the details in the clouds too though. So unless you have a good sky to begin with as Rex said and you actually have something lighting up the foreground (like the sun behind you), a circular polarizer would go a long ways towards getting this look.

[netbymatt]

A circular polarizer will help get you there. Here's a link to some images I took when I was learning to use mine.

http://digital-photography-school.co...262#post111262

The thread contains several examples of what the filter can do.

[ruehara]

It looks like either a circular polariser or a graduated filter has been used. Looking at the shadows I would say that the sun was fairly high (as in midday) and behind cloud.

However I would also suggest that the photo depends quite heavily on post-processing as the ground around the bikes looks awfully like an HDR effect.

[jiminyClickit]

Choosing your sky is one answer: good weather, early morning, no filters, just Sun over left shoulder.

[Transistor]

Shooting at the right time will certainly help.

It can be done in P.S, just create a transparent layer with a black to transparent gradient from the sky to the ground (black section over the sky), and set the mode to "soft light". If that's not enough, just duplicate the layer and adjust opacities until you get the look you want.

[Elmo]

Do not forget the possible use of both PL and GRAD. PS will not work unless you have something to work with.