Please, why is sky washed out?
 

Celcius wrote:
Hi everyone!

Why is the sky washed out while my wife with a point and shoot gets blue
skys?
It seems to me the sky was quite blue when I took this photo:
http://celestart.com/images/publiques/15.jpg

Any ideas? Recommendations?

Thanks,

Marcel

If you really want to take a 'perfect' shot you need to do some
homework on why blowouts happen on digital cameras. The sensor in your
digital camera is not capable of recording very small changes in light
intensities and color at the edges of the dynamic range of the camera
or in other words at the edges of the histogram that you see for the
image while playing it back (press the display button to get the
histogram). You should be able to see where your camera started to
loose information, which you may read as histogram going beyond the top
limit of the graph.
Since the problem is inherent to the way digitization of light happens,
there is no (current) way in your camera to fix the issue. Using a
polarizer dose fix the issue a bit but still the cmos sensor is not
capable of detecting small changes in light intensity of very bright
objects or of the shadows.

Solution: Since you have PS CS2 (evident from the exif data from the
posted file). I would suggest you to do the following.

1. Use a tripod to take pictures.
2. Shoot raw (captures more data)
3. Turn down the exposure so low that when you take the picture you can
only see the details of the sky and the rest stays underexposed.
4. Keep incrementing the exposure in steps (you need at least two or
three pictures of the same subject) and taking pictures at each step
until the most of the picture is over exposed and only shadow areas are
visible.
5. Load the images into CS2.
6. From the file menu, open the 'Merge to HDR' tool. HDR = High
Dynamic Range
7. Experiment with the tool until you get the desired range. (HDR merge
takes a long time - lot of number crunching internally)
8. Save your peace of art.

You may look for HDR over the internet to get more details on how it
works. There are better HDR merge tools available in the market but
since you haven't used it ever you'll be glad you did.

Here is a link I found:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tut...amic-range.htm

PS. Clouds do move very quickly, and so does the moon :)

Please, why is sky washed out?
 

"Celcius" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone!

Why is the sky washed out

Because it is over-exposed . . .
Because the tree in the middle is mostly shaded . . .
Because you shot the photo during the middle of the day.

You'd have achieved the same results with almost any camera, film or digital
at that moment on automatic settings shooting the same scene.

Next time, take the photo when the sun is at a low angle and shining on the
front of the house and you will get a blue sky because the tree and front of
the house will be much brighter in relation to the blue sky than in your
image.

But that's just the easy way. Of course, it won't work completely unless the
front of the house is pointed generally to the east or west.

You can also try polarizers, photoshop, combining multiple exposures and a
bunch of other stuff.

Eric Miller

Please, why is sky washed out?
 

On Wed, 7 Jun 2006 09:22:04 -0400, "Celcius"
wrote:

Hi everyone!

Why is the sky washed out while my wife with a point and shoot gets blue
skys?
It seems to me the sky was quite blue when I took this photo:
http://celestart.com/images/publiques/15.jpg

Any ideas? Recommendations?

Thanks,

Marcel

You could use a polarizer, shoot RAW, underexpose, meter on the sky,
meter on the tree, resort to manual exposure, change the white
balance, diddle in Photoshop...

Bunch of crap.

Take the shot again when the sky is not so white.

Fred


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Please, why is sky washed out?
 

wrote in message
...
On Wed, 7 Jun 2006 09:22:04 -0400, "Celcius"
wrote:

Hi everyone!

Why is the sky washed out while my wife with a point and shoot gets blue
skys?
It seems to me the sky was quite blue when I took this photo:
http://celestart.com/images/publiques/15.jpg

Any ideas? Recommendations?

Thanks,

Marcel

You could use a polarizer, shoot RAW, underexpose, meter on the sky,
meter on the tree, resort to manual exposure, change the white
balance, diddle in Photoshop...

Bunch of crap.

Take the shot again when the sky is not so white.

Fred

Thanks Fred,
You've given me hope ;-)))))
Best regards,
Marcel

Please, why is sky washed out?
 

"Celcius" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone!

Why is the sky washed out while my wife with a point and shoot gets blue
skys?
It seems to me the sky was quite blue when I took this photo:
http://celestart.com/images/publiques/15.jpg

Any ideas? Recommendations?

Thanks,

Marcel


Thank you everyone!
I pasted all your comments to a Word document and will try these in the
following days. This exchange proved to me that photography is not that
simple. But the way I look at it, it makes it all the more interesting.
Best regards,
Marcel

Please, why is sky washed out?
 

The solution in a situation where the subject was dark on a sunny, clear day
was to use a polarizer filter and dial in -1 of exposure (under expose by
one stop). Using RAW too would have helped as the sky was still not as blue
as I wanted.
John

"Celcius" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone!

Why is the sky washed out while my wife with a point and shoot gets blue
skys?
It seems to me the sky was quite blue when I took this photo:
http://celestart.com/images/publiques/15.jpg

Any ideas? Recommendations?

Thanks,

Marcel

Please, why is sky washed out?
 

"King Sardon" :

A polarizing filter will help little with a hazy sky, and the picture
shows a hazy sky.

Not likely. A hazy sky has no polarized light. It's scattered!

The filter to consider is either the graduated filter, or a Tiffin Ultra
Contrast #5, depending on how much you can stand the fakey graduated thing.

Please, why is sky washed out?
 

On Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:48:16 GMT, "JohnR66" wrote:

The solution in a situation where the subject was dark on a sunny, clear day
was to use a polarizer filter and dial in -1 of exposure (under expose by
one stop). Using RAW too would have helped as the sky was still not as blue
as I wanted.
John

"Celcius" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone!

Why is the sky washed out while my wife with a point and shoot gets blue
skys?
It seems to me the sky was quite blue when I took this photo:
http://celestart.com/images/publiques/15.jpg

Any ideas? Recommendations?

Thanks,

Marcel



You say your wife's point and shoot camera gets blue sky.
Why not just use her camera? Is the DSLR really worth all
the extra effort?
Jack Mac

Please, why is sky washed out?
 

Jack Mac wrote:
You say your wife's point and shoot camera gets blue sky.
Why not just use her camera? Is the DSLR really worth all
the extra effort?
Yes, it is worth it.

Scott

Please, why is sky washed out?
 

On Wed, 7 Jun 2006 19:36:30 -0500, "2" wrote:

"King Sardon" :

A polarizing filter will help little with a hazy sky, and the picture
shows a hazy sky.

Not likely. A hazy sky has no polarized light. It's scattered!

Correct.

KS