shooting a sky

[gurokevin]

Hey everyone,

This may have been talked about before and if it has I am sorry for bringing it up again. But I would like to know the best way to shoot the sky? Every time i am trying to shoot clouds in the sky all of my pictures come out very over exposed. I have put it on numerous settings but cant find the right setting to shoot. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[OsmosisStudios]

Are you JUST shooting sky, or are you worried about shooting a landscape and getting the sky properly exposed as well?

[Palladius]

It's one of those perennial problems, from what I've gathered. I'm still quite new to this, but as far as I know there's two solutions: old school and new school.

Old school is to use a graduated filter on your lens, which darkens the top half of your shot and leaves the bottom normal, with a gradient between the two halves that can be smooth or sharp.

New school is using a program like photoshop to do High Dynamic Range (HDR). You take about 5 shots from an identical position, each at a different exposure, with one end of the range exposing the highlights correctly and the other the shadows. Then photoshop magic will merge them all together for you.

[windrider86]

I still use a filter on my lens.
But even using a program such as photoshop if your skies and/or clouds are totally overexposed you cant fix them. The details are gone.
What time of day are you doing this? Are you aiming towards the sun?
Where are you setting your white balnce, iso and exposure?

[gurokevin]

Last time I went out it was around 5pm. And yes I was aiming in the suns direction at the time. Sometimes I do not. Either way, they are all over exposed. My WB was set on auto last time, but I have also changed it back and forth to different settings. ISO last time was around 400 and shutter at around 1/125. I have played with the every setting I can imagine and still no go. Keep in mind I am just learning.

I was just shooting the sky the last time, but do like to shoot the landscape as well.

Kevin

[windrider86]

Dont aim at the sun or even in its direction. It will kill your exposure every time.
Lower your iso to 100, that will help. I do like to use the cloud setting for wb a lot.
Do you have an exposure slider on your camera? Can you lower the settings to meet your needs?
Sometimes it takes awhile to find that perfect setting, dont get frusterated

[steve7july]

i find using a circular polarising filter helps to bring out the colour in the sky even on a dull day you could also try auto bracketing your exposure, be patient keep trying different settings its the only way to learn.

[pfje photography]

Originally Posted by steve7july

i find using a circular polarising filter helps to bring out the colour in the sky even on a dull day you could also try auto bracketing your exposure, be patient keep trying different settings its the only way to learn.

I second that!