Burnt out skies.

AnimalRights

There was a thread kinda about this a few weeks back but I cannot find it.
I am starting to get into shooting some outside shots now of buildings and the like but have not got a clue about the sky issues.
I have Lightroom 1.4 and DPP, can I learn to fix skies with them or do I need to get my hands on PS?



Also I wanted to try and make the picture old looking, grainy or donno just more, not happy with the picture at all, I know that getting into this type of shot is harder than what I normally photograph so....

iamnothim

in light room 2 there's an nd-grad filter effect that lets you underexpose skys very effectively. You could try dodge & burn manually

ThOnda

Only thing is to get camera with bigger dynamic range, like film camera. And to create different exposures in RAW processor and blend them together later.

challengemaster

If you blow out the sky in the orig pic, theres not much you can do with it after that tbh.

Multiple exposures is the only thing i can think of.

Dades

Isn't a circular polarizer supposed to assist with blown out skies?

I hope so - I just feckin' bought one!

gloobag

Dades wrote: »

Isn't a circular polarizer supposed to assist with blown out skies?

I hope so - I just feckin' bought one!

No, a polarizer will increase color saturation in your sky. Also reduces glare from reflective surfaces.

You need an ND grad filter to avoid blowing out your sky.

stcstc

well you really need a set of ND grads

so you can use the right strength based on your meter readings

Morrisseeee

If you have CS3 (or even the trial version) try its Shadow/Highlight option, I think its just before the Exposure option, mess around with the settings it gives you & see if something can be saved, otherwise blown means blown, ie. gone !

dakar

My understanding of the situation is basically that if it aint there, you can't get it back.

In other words you need to ensure that if you want detail in your skies you need to expose for it.

You can do this by:
1) Taking a series of bracketed exposures and blending them.
2) Take one shot which is correctly exposed for the sky, in other words, expose for the highlights and try and bring the rest up later in PP (may not always yield great results)
3) try and manipulate the light before it hits your sensor by using graduated filters, cutting back on the light from the sky by 2 or 3 stops to compensate for the sensor's lack of range.

The amazing thing is that all of this is to try and produce a shot which the human eye perceives as 'right', when in daily life the eye sorts out, exposure, white balance etc. automatically. What a feat of engineering!:)

AnimalRights

AAHH! Ok, doesn't sound much fun so will prob not concentrate too much on the skies in future.

nilhg

First of all, is the original shot in RAW, if it is you have more hope of salvaging it.

Open it in LR and push the recovery slider all the way up to 100, then decrease the exposure slider until the you get the sky looking its best, dont worry about the rest at this stage. Is the shot worth persevering with at that stage?

It's a good idea to get used to taking the odd look at the histogram when you are shooting, Irish skies can change very fast.

AnimalRights

Raw yes, will have a mess around and see what happens.

AnCatDubh

here's that thread - some great advice in there.

TelePaul

I always find it much better to meter for the sky and then dodge the foreground.

CabanSail

Blow the Sky & concentrate on the rest of the image.

Then go to your collection of Skies that you have taken at various times & pick the one that suits to scene.

Drop that in as a layer. Match it to the other part. Job done.

AnimalRights

Never done a layer in me life/
This Sky thing is complicated/