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I just had an email from a reader email the following question asking for help in getting the sky exposed right in his digital images.
I've notice that whenever I take scenery shots or taking shots on days when its sunny with blue skies or when its cloudy and the sky seems very pearl white, the pictures I took tend to be very dark and grainy. I read the manual and they suggested adjusting the white balance and change the settings, which I did but the results are the same. Sometimes the pictures are brilliant but most of the time its either very grainy or both grainy and dark. The manual said that the (digital) camera will have trouble adjusting when the subject is predominantly of one or two colours, which explains the predominant of blue in sky or ocean shots.
I am very frustrated as I have missed many opportunities to take beautify scenes involving blue skies. I end up taking a few hundred shots and hope that may be one or two will turn out the way I see it. I wonder if you know of any other ways around this?
This is a problem that many users of compact digital cameras have. My personal suggestion was to keep the sun at your back when shooting and to keep experimenting with white balance settings. Check out the two photos below that I took of of the same monument in Lisbon taken within minutes of one another (on my little Canon Powershot A70 to see the difference of shooting into the sun (and composition) can make to the color of the sky in your shots.
In addition to being aware of the sun there are a few other tips worth checking out below in some of the following tutorials and tips from around the web on getting your sky exposed right so that it comes out nice and blue instead of those terrible whites:
- Sky as a part of Photograph - Some good advice on photographing the sky including on the dreaded 'white sky' problem. Tips include recomposing the picture, using a polarizing filter, using a flash and using other filters.
- B+W Polarization Filters - Good tips on how Polarization filters help in a variety of situation.
- Digital Camera Settings and Controls - Some good general tips on exposure and settings that includes some tips on white balance control for different conditions.
- White Sky Solution - A forum discussion on why sky problems with digital cameras with a couple of solutions including the old 'hold your polarized sunglasses in front of the lens' trick - it works!
- Problem with Over Exposure - Another forum on the topic with some good tips including - keep your back to the sun and use metering techniques.
Of course you can always add blue to your sky after taking the photo using a variety of techniques like the one outlined in Luminous Landscape's White Sky Blues.
Feel free to add your own personal tips or suggestions of sites with good tutorials on the topic.
Posted by Darren in our Tips category on January 24, 2005