filters: NM sky

[Pepper04]

anyone used filters when shooting the sky in new mexico? or even anywhere else? im looking for any suggestions on the topic.

 

[danalec99]

Hi Pepper04,

I'm moving this thread to the General Q&A section where you are likely to get more responses to your query.

Welcome to TPF!!

 

[Torus34]

Are you shooting color or B&W? Film or digital?

 

[sobolik]

The sky usually presents the problem of the lighting intensity being quite different than the non sky portion of the scene. I have read as much as 5 stops, but it can vary a lot.
The result of this is that some thing has to suffer. Film just can't preserve detail with excessive ranges from bright to dark. Digitals ability to handle it? I never looked into it.
If you expose via metering the sky - the non sky area will be dark and detail will be lost in the darkness. If you expose via metering the non sky portion - the sky will suffer and be too bright washing out details. If you only take a photo of the sunset sky with say a bird flying the bird will suffer. Hence the use of filters.
Do web searches to learn more, but Neutral density filters let you tone down the intensity of a part of the scene so that the entire scene is more or less the same intensity value. This preserves details in all parts of the scene. That is why overcast day pics look so nice. The intensity throughout is even. ND filters are worth it!
I avoid adding color to a sky via filters as it is tricky to pull off without looking fake.
B&W film uses different filters to accentuate sky "stuff"