cloudy days

I have the Olympus C720. Can anyone please advise on what are the best
settings to picture cloudy days? I am having problem with washed out
pictures and very white skies.

--
Beck
My new Blog... very unfinished and barely started.
http://latenightbreakfast.blogspot.com

Cloudy days tend to be better for digital cameras. We don't have the dynamic
range of film cameras Overcast skies shorten the dynamic range of our
subjects. I like to shoot RAW and convert to PSD in 16 bit mode. This way I
can take a flat image and expand it to fill the histogram. I trust my
camera's meter most of the time and it does well on cloudy days. If you are
usually washed out and missing any detail in a cloudy sky I would try
setting your camera to underexpose by a stop and see if that is better.
Might take more or less than a stop.


"Beck" wrote in message
...
I have the Olympus C720. Can anyone please advise on what are the best
settings to picture cloudy days? I am having problem with washed out
pictures and very white skies.

--
Beck
My new Blog... very unfinished and barely started.
http://latenightbreakfast.blogspot.com

"Gene Palmiter" wrote in message
news:h36be.3768$yc.1248@trnddc04...
Cloudy days tend to be better for digital cameras. We don't have the
dynamic
range of film cameras Overcast skies shorten the dynamic range of our
subjects. I like to shoot RAW and convert to PSD in 16 bit mode. This way
I
can take a flat image and expand it to fill the histogram. I trust my
camera's meter most of the time and it does well on cloudy days. If you
are
usually washed out and missing any detail in a cloudy sky I would try
setting your camera to underexpose by a stop and see if that is better.
Might take more or less than a stop.

Sorry Gene, that whooshed over me. I don;t really know about the technical
aspects of cameras.

Beck wrote:
I have the Olympus C720. Can anyone please advise on what are the best
settings to picture cloudy days? I am having problem with washed out
pictures and very white skies.


Probably the only way to handle white skys is merging 2 exposures in an
editor later. 'Washed out' implies low contrast though which is the
opposite problem. Increase the contrast (may be possible to adjust in
the camera settings?) and you blow the sky even worse.

With RAW format that I assume you don't have, one can take advantage of
overexposing then darkening in post processing to bring out contrast &
cure the muddies but that doesn't help when the sky is too bright
without 2 exposures/layers.

So basically there is no easy answer. Avoid getting the sky & take
advantage of shooting things that look good in soft light like people,
flowers, whatever is normally too contrasty.

"paul" wrote in message
...
Beck wrote:
I have the Olympus C720. Can anyone please advise on what are the best
settings to picture cloudy days? I am having problem with washed out
pictures and very white skies.


Probably the only way to handle white skys is merging 2 exposures in an
editor later. 'Washed out' implies low contrast though which is the
opposite problem. Increase the contrast (may be possible to adjust in the
camera settings?) and you blow the sky even worse.

With RAW format that I assume you don't have, one can take advantage of
overexposing then darkening in post processing to bring out contrast &
cure the muddies but that doesn't help when the sky is too bright without
2 exposures/layers.

So basically there is no easy answer. Avoid getting the sky & take
advantage of shooting things that look good in soft light like people,
flowers, whatever is normally too contrasty.

Thankyou Paul. You are correct, I do not have RAW facility on my camera.
I guess I just need to practice and learn lots.

"Beck" wrote in message
...
I have the Olympus C720. Can anyone please advise on what are the best
settings to picture cloudy days? I am having problem with washed out
pictures and very white skies.

--
Beck
My new Blog... very unfinished and barely started.
http://latenightbreakfast.blogspot.com
Ultra Violet light gets very strong when sunlight filters through the clouds
and produces those grey' overcast days. I've found a polarising filter to be
most helpful in colouring the sky on such days. Also a 'UV' filter can help
although I don't advocate their continued use.

Douglas

This problem certainly predates digital. The problem is not in the
dynamic range of the film or the digital sensor- it is a problem with
dynamic range of print medium. It was very hard to correct this problem
in the film days. It is much easier to correct with digital.

There are two choices- many editors can piecewise edit the response
curve, rounding off bottom or top (highlight or shadow details) of the
curve.

The other approach is to keep on file a number of stock sky images with
good clouds and such. Then put one of these stock skies behind the
image, select the bland sky, delete, and the stock sky shows through.

In message h36be.3768$yc.1248@trnddc04,
"Gene Palmiter" wrote:

Cloudy days tend to be better for digital cameras. We don't have the dynamic
range of film cameras Overcast skies shorten the dynamic range of our
subjects. I like to shoot RAW and convert to PSD in 16 bit mode. This way I
can take a flat image and expand it to fill the histogram. I trust my
camera's meter most of the time and it does well on cloudy days. If you are
usually washed out and missing any detail in a cloudy sky I would try
setting your camera to underexpose by a stop and see if that is better.
Might take more or less than a stop.

The same concept applies in reflections off of glass with a white
background or polished white plexiglass; I have photographed such
reflections with +3 stops EC in RAW mode, without blowing highlights,
and was able to expand the images back to normal contrast.
--


John P Sheehy

In message h36be.3768$yc.1248@trnddc04,
"Gene Palmiter" wrote:

Cloudy days tend to be better for digital cameras. We don't have the dynamic
range of film cameras Overcast skies shorten the dynamic range of our
subjects. I like to shoot RAW and convert to PSD in 16 bit mode. This way I
can take a flat image and expand it to fill the histogram. I trust my
camera's meter most of the time and it does well on cloudy days. If you are
usually washed out and missing any detail in a cloudy sky I would try
setting your camera to underexpose by a stop and see if that is better.
Might take more or less than a stop.

The same concept applies in reflections off of glass with a white
background or polished white plexiglass; I have photographed such
reflections with +3 stops EC in RAW mode, without blowing highlights,
and was able to expand the images back to normal contrast.
--


John P Sheehy