Sky 'whiting out'

[jenic]

Not sure of the technical term but i have problems with sky 'whiting out'.

I understand you can take bracketed shots and HDR them but I have also been told a CPL will make the sky as it should be.

Anyway, below are 4 pictures, each taken at a different position of the CPL, the sun was to my side, almost at a 90 degree angle. None of them however have exposed the sky well, any tips people can give me?

 

[capturedbyjames]

ND grad filters might sort you out.

I adjust a lot of my skies in Photoshop though.

these were sorted in PS: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2768/4208320273_abc65ab759.jpg & http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4208315701_a05e55a54a.jpg

 

[Revels]

The term is 'blown out' and simply it's because there is too much light..

Lower aperture, faster shutter, fiddle with the exposure a bit..

 

[jenic]

ND grad filters might sort you out.

I adjust a lot of my skies in Photoshop though.

these were sorted in PS: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2768/4208320273_abc65ab759.jpg & http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4208315701_a05e55a54a.jpg

Keep planning to get some ND filters to try out. Will try that.

The term is 'blown out' and simply it's because there is too much light..

Lower aperture, faster shutter, fiddle with the exposure a bit..

I messed with the exposure a bit, took loads of the same thing trying to just get the sky right. Will try again with a lower aperture.

 

[capturedbyjames]

Another way - take two shots. One metered for the sky, another for the foreground. Takes a bit of playing with spot metering though, which can be tricky to master.

 

[capturedbyjames]

Obviously then you have to stitch them together PP.

 

[Ian]

As above, sometimes the dynamic range of the scene is too wide for the camera's sensor. The main ways to capture it are with a CPL which helps boost the skies contrast, but ultimately can only bring it back so far; or with graduated neutral density filters. These can be different strengths and/or stacked to give the correct combination to reduce the dynamic range of the scene.

With your photos the snow has turned grey because you're underexposing to try and bring the sky back from overexposure. If you took two shots or used a ND grad you could have white snow and a nice blue sky. I'm actually surprised that the sky was that much brighter than the snow though tbh..

Hope that makes sense? The recent landscape photos on my Flickr were taken with grads, but they were coloured rather than neutral.

Edit: Oh and if you have Lightroom or a program like that, you can mimic a grad ND with a tool, as long as the sky hasn't completely blown out.

 

[planetx]

shoot in RAW, you will gain 2 extra stops all being well