 BetterPhoto Member |
Washed Out Sky I need help and I need it quick!! I've been travelling for the last four months and I just got another round of prints back and I'm once again dissappointed. I've only been shooting with an SLR for about 8 months and have one intro photo course under my belt but I feel like I need to take it again. I'm consistantly having a few problems, the first one being the sky seems to always look washed out. I've been taking notes and writing down my settings but that hasn't seemed to help. I've been travelling mostly in SE Asia but I'm heading to Nepal next and I really want to my problems sorted out quick. I have a 28-80 lens (Pentax) and a Sigma 70-300 with macro (I just got this one while on the road....) and a sturdy tripod. When exactly should I be using my polarizing filter? What other filters may help? One last question...Can anybody tell my why the f stop in my viewfinder is often not what I have set on the ring? Sometimes it's off my two or three stops...??! *Any* advice or input is greatly appreciated! Angela
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Ken Pang |
I don't have all the answers, but since by the mere act of answering, more people will see this (Bug in the program that unanswered questions don't get shown by default) and hopefully someone will have the answers. The circular polariser can be used in any situation but is most effective when you are at an angle to the sun - least effective when you are facing directly into it. If the sky is washed out for you, I suggest you try some photos underexposed a couple stops. This may actually render your subject under exposed, but since negative film as a very wide latitude, the printer may be able to get the best of both worlds. Well, there's my amatuerish piece of advice. Hope someone can offer you a better one.
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
The best way to keep your skies from washing out is by using a Graduated Neutral Density Filter (GNDF). They take a little practice but they will solve your problem. Decent GNDF's are expensive. If you don't want to spend the money then another option is to include less sky in your shots. Underexposing the sky to get it to record as Ken suggests is probably not the best way to go. Negative film doesn't handle underexposure as well as it does overexposure and your shots may suffer if the foreground is underexposed. Ken's right. A polarizer is most effective at 90deg angles to the sun. If the sun's in front or you or behind you the polarizers effects will be nominal at best. As far as the f-stops go, I'm not familiar with your camera so I can only guess. My guess would be that what you see in the viewfinder is what your camera is telling you the exposure should be and what's on your aperture ring is what you have it set to. On some cameras that set the aperture for you there is a setting on the lens (often an A for auto) that you must set the lens to in order for the camera to adjust your aperture for you. Taking it off of A is simply overriding the camera's recommendation. Could be why your skies are washed out.
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doug Nelson |
Look at your negatives. Are the skies lacking in detail (blacked out on a negative), or can you see detail, such as clouds? If so, shoot a roll of 100 ASA slide film, metering as you normally do. It might be the printing process and not your metering.
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John A. Lind |
Angela, 1. Ensure you are taking a very good look at the sky when making photographs. I discovered it usually *isn't* the mountain-top deep blue many people expect. This is particularly true in warm humid weather during the afternoon, and even more so nearer the horizon. Cool weather with low humidity creates clearer air and with bluer sky. 2. Watch sun angle and subject illumination. If it's a "cloudless" (or partly cloudy) sky and the subject material is not being directly illuminated by the sun, the required exposure increases and sky will wash out to a more pale blue. I try to keep the sun behind me at about 30-45 degrees to my left or right. Side-lighted with sun at right angles to the camera direction can be up to a stop lower in illumination. You can make the sky a deeper blue in side-lit conditions using a polarizer. Backlighted with the sun in front of the camera between 30 degrees left or right of camera direction can be up to two stops. A polarizer will not help under these conditions, but a graduated neutral density can be used (this works best from a tripod so it can be adjusted correctly). -- John
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