Having problems with the sky - need help

[DrGizmondo]

Hay all long time fan and reader of DPS, but this is my first post in the forum. I am having a real problem when it comes to taking photographs that have lots of sky in them, no matter what settings I use I always end up with the sky been extremely blown out. Its now getting to the stage where I'm getting increasingly frustrated. Im using a Nikon D80 with a Nikor 18 - 55mm lens and usually shoot in aperture priority mode with a polarising filter.

If anyone can tell me where I am going wrong and how i can get everything exposed correctly that would be great.

[dcclark]

I bet that your meter is exposing for whatever land (or other subject) is in your photo. The sky tends to be very bright, so almost everything else (land, people, statues, etc.) tend to be darker. If your meter decides to expose for them, then the sky will get blown out.

Do you have any samples, with exposure data? That may also help.

[DrGizmondo]

Thanks for the quick reply cclark, below is an image I took a couple of weeks ago of my local church, as you can from the link (for some reason I cant embed it) the sky is realy messed up

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21455233@N08/3730570796/


Also here is the data:

Aperture: f/22
Shutter Speed: 0.6s
Exposure Bias: 0EV
ISO: 100

I know that this is a very high aperture, but if it was lower the church was very dark.

[dcclark]

Yup, that's what I was thinking -- your scene has a HUGE dynamic range. The building is dark (and no real light is showing on it, just indirect light), while the sky is very bright. For the building to be exposed properly, you need a longer shutter speed (to get enough light in) -- but then the bright sky blows out, as you've noticed. A shutter speed of 6/10 second is very long, especially for the middle of the day, but anything shorter and the building will look too dark.

This is a perfect case for either doing an HDR (expose once for the building, once for the sky), or just photoshopping in a better sky (not too hard to do, with such a well-defined subject).

As a technical note, adjusting the aperture (in aperture-priority mode, as you've mentioned) should NOT change the overall exposure -- your camera's job is to choose the shutter speed so that you get the "right" exposure (according to its meter) no matter which aperture you choose, unless you've got it so extreme that there is no shutter speed fast or slow enough to get the "right" exposure. In this case, going to f/10 or so would probably result in a shutter speed around 1/200 second, which would be just fine.

Good luck!

[navcom]

Couple things for you...

First, it appears you were shooting in the middle of the day with the sun not very far from the top of your building. It's near impossible to control that much contrast with a camera. Either the sky or the building is going to be exposed improperly.

Also, unfortunately mid-day light is very harsh and contrasts are much harder to control. Most landscape photographers (including urban) prefer to shoot either early or late in the day closer to the setting/rising sun to get better light. That will help immensely.

Of course, this isn't always practical, but it is one of the many reasons a newbies photos don't look like that professional one you see in the gallery. When I started selling landscape photography, I was approached by a reseller who told me that one of my photos wouldn't be included SPECIFICALLY because it was taken in mid-day sun...they just tossed it out completely. I realized then and there that time of day was very important.

Second...while I'm not a huge fan of HDR images, this is a good candidate for this technique. Another option would be to expose more for the sky and "bring up" the exposure on the building in post-processing, such as Photoshop. But unless you are careful it will degrade your image quality.

Finally, I would tend to stay away from such small apertures. At f/22, your image quality will suffer with most lenses. It will usually soften quite a bit. For landscape work, I stick with f/8-13...and will push to 16 if I really need the DOF. I've used f/22, but it's extremely rare.

Hope that helps!

Edit: oops...I see dcclark and I had the same thoughts!

[DrGizmondo]

Thanks navcom thats cleared things up a great deal