Need some landscape help

[kalmkidd]

ok im starting to go crazy with landscape photography.. i mean no matter what i do.. my skys always look like the pic below. hell even if i shoot in full auto i get this. i dont know wtf im doing wrong.. is there a way to edit it? every pic i take thats landscape and has sky the sky is just a HORRIBLE WHITE.. and being a mainly portrait guy i really have no idea when it comes to this. thanks

what type of settings should i use when doing these pics? what mode should i shoot in?

 

[Taylor510ce]

Thats because the scene has too wide of a dynamic range. Look up HDR or High Dynamic Range photography. You can also use things like graduated ND filters ( although they typically work best when there is a nice fairly even horizon line ) or even a polarizing filter might help to a small degree.

In your case, HDR is probably the best bet. Also, learn to use exposure compensation on your camera and shoot in RAW mode. You probably could have underexposed a stop or two ( and might even be able to recover some of the lost highlights using photoshop if you shot in RAW )

 

[XCountryGuy]

It's due to the disparity in exposure. The land requires several stops more than a bright sky. As a test, put your camera on center weighted metering. Meter the sky, then meter the foliage. If you have a fairly level horizon, you can use an ND Grad filter. Often I will just take two exposures and then composite them in PS.

 

[XCountryGuy]

Oops... looks like taylor and I posted at the same time with similar info.

 

[Blake.Oney]

I tried editing it, but it is just blown. The detail is gone. Usually if it's just bright you can add a levels layer mask in PS and adjust the mids until you get sky detail and then hit ctrl-i and just mask the sky in at a darker, more detailed level. With this photo that doesn't work because the sky is blown completely. When I adjust the couple darker spots on the edges get some more detail, but the center just stays the same. Try metering off the sky and then adjusting from there when you're taking the photo.

Edit: Or as stated above get a few different exposures and make an HDR.

 

[kalmkidd]

I tried editing it, but it is just blown. The detail is gone. Usually if it's just bright you can add a levels layer mask in PS and adjust the mids until you get sky detail and then hit ctrl-i and just mask the sky in at a darker, more detailed level. With this photo that doesn't work because the sky is blown completely. When I adjust the couple darker spots on the edges get some more detail, but the center just stays the same. Try metering off the sky and then adjusting from there when you're taking the photo.

Edit: Or as stated above get a few different exposures and make an HDR.

yea i always shoot in raw im just very new to landscape. so hdr is the best bet with shots like this huh? i also edited well in raw and took a few stops and it still had big blown spots. Maybe ill toss on a ND filter just to see how it turns out. if not ill just hdr for now on. thanks guys.

 

[kalmkidd]

Thats because the scene has too wide of a dynamic range. Look up HDR or High Dynamic Range photography. You can also use things like graduated ND filters ( although they typically work best when there is a nice fairly even horizon line ) or even a polarizing filter might help to a small degree.

In your case, HDR is probably the best bet. Also, learn to use exposure compensation on your camera and shoot in RAW mode. You probably could have underexposed a stop or two ( and might even be able to recover some of the lost highlights using photoshop if you shot in RAW )

believe it or not i had a cpl filter on at this shot lol. the sky was just way to white compared to the shade where i was low in the trees. ill take a few tomorrow and hdr merge them and see result ill also try a shot with a ND filter. thanks bro. thankfully i live only about 10mins from this mountain.

 

[Taylor510ce]

Unless its a graduated ND filter, it won't help. Graduated would leave the lower half of the picture lighter and gradually get darker towards the top so it helps balance it out a little more.

 

[Blake.Oney]

Try doing the graduated filter to the RAW file. That may work, but if not when you go out to shoot either do an HDR or meter off the sky and adjust it from there. In RAW the the rest of the photo can afford to be a little underexposed to make the sky right because you can fix it.

 

[kalmkidd]

Try doing the graduated filter to the RAW file. That may work, but if not when you go out to shoot either do an HDR or meter off the sky and adjust it from there. In RAW the the rest of the photo can afford to be a little underexposed to make the sky right because you can fix it.

yea i hear you. im gonna hit it tomorrow and do a hdr.

 

[Overread]

My advice is to get up earlier in the morning or head out later in the evening - at those times not only can the light be a bit more interesting colour wise, it is also softer and easier to work with.
Also when shooting do learn to use your histogram to review shots - big white areas blinking shows that you've got overexposure in those areas and you can use this info to see if you do need to adjust your exposure or take a second shot for HDR purposes.

A graduated ND filter can help things, but as pointed out above its best used where you have a clear line of changing lighting - in the shot above it would have been a pain as you have trees pushing into the bright skyline area.

 

[cyngus]

yah if your shooting landscapes there is literally no reason to not shoot multiple exposures.. you can bracket the shots.. to make it easier.. ill always bracket.. and if the sky doesnt look as i want it to. i'll just stitch in a new one