How do I get blue skies?

[jenniferho]

Hi Everyone,

This is my first Forum post, and I'm really excited to be part of the DPS Forum community. I'm a very new dSLR user, and though I am LOVING my camera, I'm having trouble making it do what I want it to do. I own an Nikon D40, and for this quesiton, I was using a 35mm prime 1.8f Nikkor lens.

So today my husband and I visited Austin, TX, and we were taking pictures around a park area near the Capital building. It was around dusk (5PM ish) where the sun was starting to set, but the skies were blue and the patchy clouds were turning pinkish. I was trying to take a picture with my husband in the foreground, but still capture the blue skies/pink clouds in the background. However, what I found was whenever I focused on my husband, it caused the sky to washout and be completely white. When I focused on the skies in the background, it came out blue/pink like I wanted, but my husband in the foreground was blurry and dark. I tried shooting in manual mode, sport mode, and landscape mode, and most of the time it washed out the sky and made it completely white.

Is this happening becuase I'm using a prime lens, and it's trying to bokeh? How do other people do it -- I've seen pictures before where the person in front is bright and in focuse while the background still shows blue skies and white clouds?

Should I have used my polarizing filter in this situation? I didn't think to use it becuase it was starting to get dark.

Any advice would be VERY much appreciated. Thank you so much in advance!!!!

And Happy New Year everyone!
-Jennifer

[IABoomer]

You'd have to meter for the sky then use some fill flash to bring your husband into proper exposure. The camera isn't as sensitive as your eye, and thus can't render the difference between the highlights (sky) and shadows (husband).

http://www.digital-photography-schoo...ing-fill-flash

[Jim Poor]

IABoomer has it right. The difference in exposure between the sky and the person in the foreground is too great for the camera to be able to capture both.

Absent a flash, reflector or other means of adding light to the foreground subject, you could always combine two images. One of the properly exposed foreground, and one of the properly exposed background. Given that the sky is "totally blown" when the human is properly exposed, separating and masking should be a snap.

On another note, "bokeh" is not a verb, has nothing to do with exposure,* and has everything to do with the quality of the out of focus areas of background elements (often highlights) in an image.

*aside from the fact that aperture effects bokeh as well as exposure, but in short, bokeh isn't an exposure thing.

Originally Posted by Jim Poor

IABoomer has it right. The difference in exposure between the sky and the person in the foreground is too great for the camera to be able to capture both.

Absent a flash, reflector or other means of adding light to the foreground subject, you could always combine two images. One of the properly exposed foreground, and one of the properly exposed background. Given that the sky is "totally blown" when the human is properly exposed, separating and masking should be a snap.

On another note, "bokeh" is not a verb, has nothing to do with exposure,* and has everything to do with the quality of the out of focus areas of background elements (often highlights) in an image.

*aside from the fact that aperture effects bokeh as well as exposure, but in short, bokeh isn't an exposure thing.

I'd bokeh the hell of that photo to get the right ambient exposure for the conditions.

[PnwGuy]

Jennifer, you would probably greatly benefit by reading the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. That's the book that got me shooting in manual mode, metering for specific situations and making me feel like I at least half understood what the heck it was that I was doing. And you'll be surprised at how easy it actually is. Well, the concept anyway. Mastering it is the ongoing challenge.

Like the others said, you would have definitely needed some fill light on your husband in that situation. If you metered for the sky he'd be dark. Metering for him blew out the sky. The only option in that situation was to light him, or go down a couple of extra stops and get a nice silhouette shot.

Not to keep yappnig here, but a couple of other tricks for the sky...underexpose a stop or so to get rich blue skies. Also depending upon the part of the world you live in, face north when shooting a blue sky as it will be naturally a richer blue.

[faeriegodess612]

The guys above have pretty much answered your question,...I'm wondering though,...you said you visited Austin. So does that mean you live somewhere in Texas, or are you just there for holiday or something? I'm asking because my husband and I live about an hour north of there, and I've actually been to the capital building in Austin.

Stupid me though, I shot in Auto, when I wish I wouldve at least shot in Program. ( I just got my DSLR around Christmas. ) All my photos were kinda washed out on color because of the Auto WB setting. I shot in RAW, but its been a pain fixing them.

[jenniferho]

@IABoomer That makes a lot of sense, Thank you! The link to the fill-flash page was very helpful.

@Jim Poor That’s interesting that I can combine the two images; I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks for correcting my use of “bokeh.” My mistake.

@PnwGuy Thanks for the book recommendation! Face north, huh? I’ll remember that!

@faeriegodess612 Actually I live in Phoenix, Arizona, but we were visiting family in Houston for the holidays. My husband and I took a day trip to Austin. I completely know what you mean; I’ve only recently learned not to use the Auto WB, and it makes a difference.