Clear sky

[Tajemi]

Hi, I love photographs of people with a lovely blue sky in the background, but I am having a bit of trouble getting my sky right. It's hard to get the correct exposure on the subject without getting a nice looking sky... The subject is generally underexposed and the sky is nice, or the subject looks good but the sky is over exposed. Is there a filter or something that I should be using?

Thank you

[justin_ing]

CPL or LPL filter will make your skies just a little "bluer"

[kevingeary]

No. Study dynamic range. You're asking the camera to capture something it doesn't have the capability to capture.

You can't expose for both the bright sky and the subject.

If you want to achieve this, you need to expose for the sky (actually slightly underexpose it) and then light the subject with a flash.

[i speak in math]

This ^

The sensor can only capture so much in the range from bright to dark at one time. Sensors are improving every year at increasing this range, but are not able to capture the full range of light just yet. The sky is just too bright so if you get the exposure on the sky right, you can't keep detail in the dark shadows. Or if you shoot so you can see the detail in the shadows, then the sky is too bright and turns white.

Lets say a normal scene has darks at 0 and bright whites at 10. So we have a scale, 1-10 for brightness. Now, a camera can only capture 7 of those. So, either 0-6 or 3-10, or something in between, depending on where you want to expose for.

Basically, you need to decrease the brightness range of the scene somehow. You can either make the sky darker (hard to do) or increase the brightness of the dark subjects (much easier). We need to change the scene from 1-10, into 2-8, so the camera can record everything properly.

*A polarizing filter can help darken the sky a bit, if you are at a good angle (best 90 degrees from the sun). To a lesser extent, something like a graduated neutral density filter can be used to darken the sky, but subjects overlapping into the sky will be unevenly darkened as well.

*A flash/strobe can be used to lighten the subjects to get their brightness closer to the brightness of the sky. To a lesser extent, reflectors can be used to lighten subjects, but not as effectively as a strobe can.

Either of these devices changes the dynamic range of the scene, allowing the camera a better chance of capturing it.

[aprillove20]

It's nice to have a bit darker sky..yes, bluer it should be. This emphasizes the subject more.

[Tajemi]

Thank you all so much Your help I am glad it's not just me...

I have had times where I have used the built in flash, but that can totally change the pic, I think I need to invest in a better one