Over exposure on sunny days :(

[Gronygroovy]

Can anyone give me any tips for taking pictures on sunny days please? Even if its just a general setting for Manual that would help I tend to do centre weighted metering and aim at the sky if possible to get the sky expsed right, am I wrong there because I have to bring the light up in PS after and that sort of defeats the object in my eyes.

Any help or pointers would be helpful thanks

I use a Nikon D90 and aperture mode most of the time.

[wulf]

Tip 1: move to a different position so that you don't have bright sky in the background

Tip 2: if that doesn't work, try using your flash to increase the amount of light on the subjects to balance it with the sky.

Wulf

[dcclark]

Wulf's got it!

The main thing to remember is that our (wonderfully human) eyes WAY outperform a camera's sensor... scenes that look normally lit to us, may be way outside of the camera's dynamic range. A lot of the trick is just getting used to when your camera is going to get confused, recognizing that, and then recomposing, using fill-flash, or perhaps using exposure compensation.

Over the years, I've started to see things differently just in everyday life -- I find myself thinking "wow, the light is really harsh today..." when it's bright, sunny, and blue-skied. You'll get there too.

[Gronygroovy]

Hmm, im a bit bad at explaining myself Thanks for the tips guys, but I will put an example on here, can u tell me what to do to get the exposure right please? Btw, the sky was a rich deep blue!

#I tried the matrix metering too..similar results....


Oh and I would like to beable to take this picture KEEPING the sky blue if thats possible? :S

[digirebelva]

Use a GND filter, that will help to keep the sky from blowing out, or with a bit more work you could take 2 shots exposing one for the sky 1 for the subject then merge the 2 together with masks...personally the GND filter would be easier

[Gronygroovy]

Awww, I was hoping there was some magical combination that would let me without the use of filters Sigh, things seemed SO simple with a compact lol Keep the ideas coming please!

Thank you!

[OsmosisStudios]

The example you posted is about a stop and two-thirds over exposed. What is the EXIF data for it?

[wulf]

Looks like 1/60s, f/10 and ISO not given. Assuming ISO was as low as possible, the options would be a narrower aperture or a faster shutter speed. I'd go for the latter as there doesn't appear to be anything that would benefit from motion blur.

That might or might not be enough to get the sky looking a rich blue; the colours of the wall and hedge would become richer but then start getting too dark. It might be a "recompose" scene instead.

Wulf

[Gronygroovy]

thank you all again for the replies I was trying to use that as an example as a lot of my shots lately are over exposed.... I will try all of the above mentioned and see how my shots go.

<3

Greg

[james-dolan]

You could try a polarizor filter, or even turn down the EV levels. Be sure to keep checking on your camera's on board histogram for clipping. If you have no clipping then you can use digital editing to lighten/darken your images where needed.