landscape photography

jkopp · May 16, 2008

i'm currently shooting my exterior landscape photos on program mode, iso 200. on nice, sunny, blue-skied days i'm getting a more "gray" sky than blue.

any suggestions on how i can "Blue" up the sky without post editing?

i use an xt with a tokina 12-24mm with no filter. i also sometime use my 50mm 1.4 with no filter.

do i need filters? if so, what kind?

JimmyO · May 16, 2008

Not sure but i think a polarizing filter would help. Again, i dont know much about this at all.

MarcusM · May 16, 2008

it would be easiest to see what's happening if you posted an example.

goodoneian · May 17, 2008

my skies get washed out sometimes if i'm directly facing the sun. that could be your issue?

LaFoto · May 17, 2008

You get blue blue skies when the sun is directly behind you. The further you turn towards the sun, the whiter they will get (this can be seen with one's own eyes, too). A polarising filter will help you still get blue skies when the sun is at 45° to your left and right (or even a little less than that, but they work best with the sun on either the one or the other SIDE of you). Photographing into the light will give you white skies, though. Unless, of course, the sun is low and the sky is orange and not blue

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Mav · May 17, 2008

You might just need to dial in some negative exposure compensation. The sky is the first thing that gets blown out during the day by the matrix metering on cameras. Usually if you back the exposure off a bit the sky will remain blue and not get blown out. If you want to lighten the other areas up later, you usually can without it being a problem.