unfortunate problem i can't resolve...

[Anarchist86ed]

Not so much a technical but photographic one. I'm taking as many fall photo's as I can. when I take a picture of a tree full of bright colored leaves I have to use a slower shutter speed since anything above is0 50 is grainorama. The tree becomes lit but the sky in the background turns from blue to bright white. So, I can illuminate the trees but white out the sky. these are not the professional looking results I expect. I've been reading the books and haven't found anything useful. and i've tyed every setting. other then waiting for the sun to be in the right direction which time wise I can not wait for. ist here a solution to this i'm not aware of?

[elgenper]

Well, as you say yourself, a photographic problem much older than digital...
Anyway, that kind of pic taken on an overcast day is almost doomed from the start. The only thing would be to use a lens long enough, and a tree suitably situated, to get a background without any sky.
A clear, blue sky about 90 degrees away from the sun should work, if you measure the sky itself and then open up about 1/2 stop. The tree should be sunlit.
In the latter case, a pola filter should help a lot to give you "professional looking results", but it would not be strictly necessary.

[dicky109]

If there is a fairly even transition between the trees & sky, you can try using a graduated ND filter to darken just the sky. The other alternative is in Photoshop or whatever program you use, to select the sky & darken it only, or replace the sky entirely pasting in a sky from another shot. In either case, no perfect answer.

Good luck

[rlr1999]

Another possibility is to use a tripod and shoot two pictures. One exposed for the sky, the other for the foilage. Then combine the pictures in an editing program.

[Anarchist86ed]

eh cutting and pasting wasn't the solution i hoped for. but i appreciate it. i even consulted my instructor and he couldn't give me any advise. This problem sucks booty... it makes my pictures look totally amateurish. well, more so anyway :)

[Anarchist86ed]

http://us.f1f.yahoofs.com/bc/3f78cc87_e84f/bc/Photo+Albums/whitesky.jpg?bfY7Hl_AiuPq.Rl3

i don't know if that link will work...

[nomel]

If you had an extremely bright flash, you could use it as a fill flash. Maybe get a bright lamp? heheh.

[MiG82]

"it makes my pictures look totally amateurish"
Amateur = crap?
Hmm, why would a bunch of people that are hopeless at something form clubs?

[Anarchist86ed]

i didn't mean the cutting and pasting i meant the whiting out sky problem.....

i'm training to be a professional not a hobbyist. professionals cant make mistakes. not if you wanna sell em that is...

[yallcome]

Anarchist86ed wrote:
i didn't mean the cutting and pasting i meant the whiting out sky problem.....

i'm training to be a professional not a hobbyist. professionals cant make mistakes. not if you wanna sell em that is...


Haha -- if you're a pro, then you can cut and paste ANYTHING to make it work the way you want.

[GordonSBuck]

Use a combination of polarizing filter and timing (with respect to sun). The polarizing filter will also help to reduce glare and glint off the leaves as well as generally increase color saturation.

Shoot in RAW mode and learn to post process a single shot to yield two images: one with good sky and one with good trees. Combine those two images to get the best of each -- there are many techniques for doing this.

[msvadi]

As dicky109 says, you can try graduated ND filter. It's half "dark" (ND filter), half clear and there is smooth transition between dark and clear parts. You can control sky exposure this way.


Sometimes, if the contrast between bright and dark is not too strong you can do the following. Point the camera so that half of the frame is the tree and other half is sky. Lock the exposure (see AE lock in the camera manual), recompose and shoot. It might work in some cases, but, usually, it won't.


I learned about the following solution somewhere on the web. Instead of combining two separate pictures I usually underexpose the picture so the highlights won't be blown out. So, in the case of tree/sky you will have to set exposure from the sky (again, using the exposure lock). Of course, you will get the tree extremely dark. But it's not a problem, because the data is preserved, as opposed to overexposed highlights, where the data is actually lost. Then, in photoshop use masking to brighten the tree and leave the sky the way it was.

That's what I did with the shot below:

The contrast between the swan, little bits of sky and the background was just too strong. I set the exposure from the swan. Naturally, the tree and the background were very dark . In photoshop I duplicated the background layer. Then I increased the brightness of the top layer, so that the tree was bright enough. Then, with "eraser tool" I erased the portions of the top layer to "reveal" the swan the way it was originally. At the last step I created a mask (using select/color range) to show the little pieces of sky from the bottom layer.


http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/data/500/302tree-swan-1-ps2.jpg?1483


before photoshop:

http://msvadi.webspace4free.biz/CRW_2549.jpg


I'm not sure if it's better then taking two shots of the same scene. My problem with the second approach is that two shots cannot be identical even if you are extremely careful and use a tripod. A little bit of wind is enough to make two shots differ a lot from each other.

[paul162brown]

Anarchist86ed

I agree with a previous post that, sometimes you need to "cheat" to get a perfect result when the conditions are not ideal and this sometimes means merging two shots together in Photoshop or similar. However, the problem you face is not a new one. It just goes to show that a lot of the time, particularly with landscape type shots, you simply need good light to take a good picture. This is sometimes best either early in the morning or in the evening just as the sun is setting when the light levels are not too bright and have a warmer glow with less of an exposure difference between what is needed for trees and land etc and what is needed for the sky. In addition, sometimes the sky is just plain boring which in some cases prevents you getting a decent shot without considering some kind of post shooting manipulation in Photoshop. Many pro landscape photographers (especially film based ones) will only shoot when the light is right and the sky has some interest so you may just have to resign yourself to being patient and wait for the right opportunity when the conditions are right to get "that great shot" that will sell. I would recommend a few early mornings or some well timed evening shoots to get the type of shot you are trying to get.

Paul