Trouble shooting grey skies (D80)
Discussion
Hi - these are recent pics of a trip to the snowy mountains in NSW. I chose these not because they are good, but they show quite well the problem i seem to have setting my D80 up for cloudy days. I can get teh landscape colours roughly as i see them, but i always seem to get too much 'highlight' in the skies. I shoot RAW and have the Nikkor 200mm VR lens.
How do i set the camera up to better consider the sky. There can be a lot of texture and contrast in grey skies and i feel that it should not affect teh colours of the remainder of the shot. Getting a good sky on days like this remains my biggest challenge. Any assistance gratefully received.
How do i set the camera up to better consider the sky. There can be a lot of texture and contrast in grey skies and i feel that it should not affect teh colours of the remainder of the shot. Getting a good sky on days like this remains my biggest challenge. Any assistance gratefully received.
Edited by Buffalo on Saturday 29th March 11:13
your camera is trying to expose for the whole scene so you end up getting the sky washed out as its typically going to be exposing to bring the darker levels into view.
A quick and very easy option is to get a dradient nd4 or 8 filter, this will make the sky effecively 2 or 4 stops darker than the ground.
Another option is to set your camera to expose to -1/3rd, -2/3rd or even -1ev which will bring more detail back into the sky whilst not making the ground too under exposed. Its always going to be a compromise but a grad filter is a cheap effective way of solving it
A quick and very easy option is to get a dradient nd4 or 8 filter, this will make the sky effecively 2 or 4 stops darker than the ground.
Another option is to set your camera to expose to -1/3rd, -2/3rd or even -1ev which will bring more detail back into the sky whilst not making the ground too under exposed. Its always going to be a compromise but a grad filter is a cheap effective way of solving it
Thanks guys.
I'm at work now, but will try and remember to send the photo later.
I was wondering if there is any way of setting the camera up better, apart from a the use of a grad filter..? Perhaps spot metering or something? I do try and get my settings right in the field as much as possible. Aperture is the only processing software I have, so I don't rely too much on sorting it out afterwards.
If possible i would like to get it most of the way there on the camera; any hints/tips on how to consider things like ISO, WB & metering on days like that would be good too...
Cheers
I'm at work now, but will try and remember to send the photo later.
I was wondering if there is any way of setting the camera up better, apart from a the use of a grad filter..? Perhaps spot metering or something? I do try and get my settings right in the field as much as possible. Aperture is the only processing software I have, so I don't rely too much on sorting it out afterwards.
If possible i would like to get it most of the way there on the camera; any hints/tips on how to consider things like ISO, WB & metering on days like that would be good too...
Cheers
Edited by Buffalo on Saturday 29th March 21:40
if you had a -2ev grad filter that should take care of teh sky well enough, spot onto the area you want and let the grad take care of the sky
try just spotting on different areas and looking at the histogram, you could spot on the sky but then the ground (on the scapes you posted) would be dark. I'm sure some of the moer seasoned landscapers will be here soon enough to give you their knowledge, even something as simple as a polorisor can really help as you can filter to get the detail in the clouds and the TTL take care of the rest
try just spotting on different areas and looking at the histogram, you could spot on the sky but then the ground (on the scapes you posted) would be dark. I'm sure some of the moer seasoned landscapers will be here soon enough to give you their knowledge, even something as simple as a polorisor can really help as you can filter to get the detail in the clouds and the TTL take care of the rest
It is possible that the range of brightnesses in the scene is just too great for a single exposure to record. I'm not sure exactly how many stops the average sensor can capture, but it might not be enough to get detail in both the highlights and shadows.
If this is the case you have three options:
• Decrease the exposure to capture the highlight detail and loose shadow information.
• Use a graduated filter to bring the sky down to something manageable.
• Take two different exposures and merge using Photoshop or an HDR application.
You may be able to process a RAW file to produce a result similar to the last option, but not always.
If this is the case you have three options:
• Decrease the exposure to capture the highlight detail and loose shadow information.
• Use a graduated filter to bring the sky down to something manageable.
• Take two different exposures and merge using Photoshop or an HDR application.
You may be able to process a RAW file to produce a result similar to the last option, but not always.
In some cases a polariser may help -will increase contrast between cloud and sky at least, whilst really you need to be using a grad or photoshop. My prefered method is too shoot RAW and bracket, and manually merge the darker sky onto the light ground image. Takes a bit of practise to get it right though!
Bob_Defly said:
Viper_Larry said:
Maybe HDR might solve the issue for existing shots? Email me the RAW image and I'll run it through Photomatix
You'll be able to tweak it a bit, but an HDR from one exposure won't rescue blown out highlights...I tried this last year with a shot from my back garden. First image is the 0 compenstaion original, second is an HDR image produced from a single RAW, the 3rd image is an HDR generated from the original 3 exposures from the camera. There is a difference, but not huge, mainly in the clouds
Edited by Viper_Larry on Sunday 6th April 11:04
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