Blown out sky!

[Fate]

Hey all, recently ive been doing some landscape photography, and when there are little clouds in the sky i get a very white, blown out sky. I was wondering if there is something you can do to prevent this or at least reduce the brightness of it. Im sure it has something to do with metering or something

Thanks in advance for your help!

Dave

 

[bigfatbadger]

You have a few options: -

Set your camera to bracket and underexpose for a stop or so and then do this: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml (assuming your using digital)

Get yourself some ND grad filters.

Shoot one shot in RAW, then using something like RAWShooter, adjust the exposure compensation to save one jpeg for your sky, one for your ground
and then blend them together as above.

Any help?

 

[duncanp]

^ thats all i whould reccomend the best thing would be to get an ND grad for no hassle...

 

[Torus34]

If you're using B&W, use a K2, Y2 or orange filter.

 

[Arch]

Polarizers are cheeper than grads, you can sometimes get away with using a polarizer and underexposing the shot........ then bring out the detail and brightness of the forground in ps without having to use two different exposures.
But if you want a really dramatic contrast, then the two layer method works well.

 

[Fate]

Thanks for all the advise guys.. much appreciated