Help please with blown out skies

My biggest issue when photographing during the day is getting this blown out sky. How can I overcome this and still get the subject properly exposed? I know my camera can't meter both the sky and the subject so can I do this in post processing?

Not if you have no data to work with. Look at your histogram. If there is a stack on the right side, there is no data to bring back.
A Graduated ND filter will help a great deal.
www.photographytalk.com/photography-arti...tral-density-filters
Also, it is better to expose for the bright area (sky) because then there is often data in the darker areas unless they are completely "black" (stacked on the left side of the histogram.

You can also use bracketing and combine your shots in PP.
www.photographytalk.com/photography-arti...cketing-aeb-function

A polarizing filter may also help reduce the glare and enhance the sky. "Search" the forums for info on this.

So when in doubt I should expose for the bright area...ie: the sky.

I guess I should also buy some filters. Thanks.

Wait, I just thought of it...if I expose for the sky...wouldn't my subject be too dark? Although I guess that would depend on the amount of light that is falling on the subject correct?

transform567 wrote: So when in doubt I should expose for the bright area...ie: the sky.

I guess I should also buy some filters. Thanks.

Wait, I just thought of it...if I expose for the sky...wouldn't my subject be too dark? Although I guess that would depend on the amount of light that is falling on the subject correct?

Use a flash if your subject comes up too dark.

There are some really old guidelines that tell you to put the sun behind you. Shooting into the sun puts the subject in shadow often times and you are dealing with both refracted light as well as reflected.

chasrich wrote:

There are some really old guidelines that tell you to put the sun behind you. Shooting into the sun puts the subject in shadow often times and you are dealing with both refracted light as well as reflected.

Even if the sun behind me, if it's still high in the sky, wouldn't the sky still be blown out? (if I don't expose for the sky)

chasrich wrote:

There are some really old guidelines that tell you to put the sun behind you. Shooting into the sun puts the subject in shadow often times and you are dealing with both refracted light as well as reflected.

That is what I was thinking. The sun behind you is best if you include the sky. And ND filters help and don't add a color to it.

It will be less bright. The graduated ND filter can cut down on the exposure in upper half of the frame. That would help.

Why can't your camera measure the sky? Most digi cameras have more than one way to measure exposure. Try measuring the sky as well as the subject then split the difference. Mostly go experiment and see what works best in lots of different conditions.

Nikonjan wrote:

chasrich wrote:

There are some really old guidelines that tell you to put the sun behind you. Shooting into the sun puts the subject in shadow often times and you are dealing with both refracted light as well as reflected.

That is what I was thinking. The sun behind you is best if you include the sky. And ND filters help and don't add a color to it.

What filters add color?....besides the typical color filters like red or green. I mean does a polarizing filter add color?

Here is an extreme example of shooting into the sun...

Of course you can always "clone" in a sky from another shot...

transform567 wrote:

Nikonjan wrote:

chasrich wrote:

There are some really old guidelines that tell you to put the sun behind you. Shooting into the sun puts the subject in shadow often times and you are dealing with both refracted light as well as reflected.

That is what I was thinking. The sun behind you is best if you include the sky. And ND filters help and don't add a color to it.

What filters add color?....besides the typical color filters like red or green. I mean does a polarizing filter add color?

The polarizer does not "add color" but reduces glare.
I have both a grey and a blue ND Grad filter.

Shoot Raw,use centerweight metering exposing for the foreground.Set your camera for 5 steps bracketing until you can gauge the -ev setting.The amount of -ev is dependant of the sky[clouds] brightness,start at -1ev,with the 5 or 7 step brackets at .3 you should get pretty close to the correct exposure.If the sky is blown your Raw converter will correct it,the foreground might be dark which can
be easily correct.I uses this technique shooting cloud filled landscapes in hot sun plus it`s the same for those white birds.
Hope this helps

Here is an eg...
original file ...untouch...



exposure compensation and highlight protection.....



shadow protection.....


That`s the beauty of Raw,this was done in Nikon ViewNX2 which is free,I think it will work only for Nikon images.

From my perspective, you have three choices:

1) As mentioned above, use a half gradient neutral density filter;

2) Assuming you are shooting RAW, within the RAW converter first process the image focusing on the highlights (don't worry if the shadows are black with no detail); then save the image as a TIFF file. Second, process the image focusing on the shadows (don't worry if the sky is blown out and has no detail); save as a TIFF file. Then, combine the two TIFF images in Photoshop using layers and masking.

3) Shoot the image as HDR and process using HDR software (Photomatix Pro, HDR Efex Pro, HDR Darkroom, among others). For an easy way to tell when you have a high dynamic range or high contrast scene and thus need to shoot as an HDR image, use the following: if you are shooting into the sun, its high contrast and use HDR; if the sun is behind you, you don't need to use HDR; if the sun is on your side, you can shoot it either way. This is a rough rule of thumb which I use and have been pleased with the results. One last note, I personally do not care for burn out spots which can occur when shoting directly into the sun; rather, I always try to use clouds, mountains, plants, etc. to block the full sun. Clouds are my first choice. Other photographers have no problem with sun burnout and I've seen many great pro and amateur images with it.