Getting pissed off

[Scott™]

Basically im really starting to get frustrated whilst taking pictures atm. Everytime i take a snap the sky/sun ruins it. Went out shooting tonight after the sun had gone down behind the trees and left a very blue sky. But all i get every time is a white sky, and if i take a picture of a building and theres sky in it then the picture is normal ruined.

What am i doing wrong, ive i adjust the AV or TV then it just darkens the image and the white remains. Is there anyway around solving this without a filter? Because i dont think my camera fits them.

A stupid digi camera would get better results atm. Rant over! lol.

 

[Ian]

What camera do you use? In many respects a cameraphone can cope with high dynamic range situations, such as what you're describing, better than a high end dslr.

A few solutions are:

- Take photos without the sun/sky in shot
- Take photos at dusk and dawn when the range is smaller
- Use a graduated filter if possible
- Those three dreaded letters.. HDR

Not sure why you're getting a white sky when the sun has already gone down, unless it's still lighting the sky.. any examples?

 

[Scott™]

Here mate, not shooting into the sun and it was below the trees leaving a lovely deep blue color about 8.30pm.

 

[Andy.]

Sounds like you are not metering correctly. If you want a decent exposure of the sky, then meter off the sky, if you want the foreground, then you will blow out the sky. As most of the picture above is of the foreground, with little sky, the camera will have automatically calculated the exposure based on that.

If you want a sunset with something in the foreground, you are best off using a manual exposure, with some fill in flash ideally. Just play with shutter times in the manual mode and see how it affects the colours you get in the sky.

Ian has some good advise on what you can do. It comes down to camera limitations to a certain extent, but you have to know how to work around them.

 

[Ian]

Aye, what Andy says tbh. Looking at that photo the sky is still bright, at least a couple of stops brighter than the foreground; it forces you into a choice between the two.

 

[Scott™]

I find if i leave it any later then the forground will be too dark lol. I have a cannon powershot SX10 IS so not a proper camera as such. Its a good learning block for me tho. Thanks for the help mind.

 

[Ian]

If the powershot allows you to do this, fill your viewfinder with foreground and read what shutter speed/aperture/ISO combination it gives you and then do the same for the sky and then you can figure out how many stops difference there is, eg:

1/5th, f/8, ISO 100 foreground
1/20th, f/8, ISO 100 sky

makes the sky two stops brighter.

If it gets later and it's making your foreground underexposed then set your camera up on a tripod or flat surface and leave the shutter open for longer. It'll probably be a much better balance.

 

[Scott™]

What you mean two stops brighter mate?

 

[vibrio]

What you mean two stops brighter mate?

a stop refers the difference in light being let in.

if you have a meter reading and you reduce the light by one stop you are letting half the amount of light in. this can be done either by reducing the aperture or increasing the shutter speed.

metter reading 1/100s f8
one stop less 1/200s f8 or 1/100s f11
one stop more 1/50s f8 or 1/100s f5.6

 

[Scott™]

Ok thanks for explaining that. I shall give it a whirl.