Preventing sky blowout in pics

[Canuck]

Hi all,
I have taken some pics and even with the Canon 16-35 L glass I was shooting at around sunset and to get the area I wanted correct, it blew out the sky in respect to the area I was looking for.
I have a pic example I'll send to CDS and he can post it if he would be so kind. I have to figure out how to post pics to the net. I have messed with brightness and contrast and the lot. I know nothing beats taking it right the first time! I have found that taking pics around sunset makes for some really cool effects! This also can make for some really difficult shots, though. These makre for some wildly interesting pics though. I have some I took in Chania, Crete, Greece that show this well too and are perfect, and that one was a 35mm shot! I have to find that one again.

As always I appreciate the input...

Cheers from England,
Canuck

[iwatkins]

As always, many options:

1. Shot it correctly in the first place. For sunsets, this is very hard to do with just camera and lense because the difference between the brightest and darkest parts is huge. So, take a look at a filter system that allows you to run graduated neutral density filters. These allow you to place the ND portion over the sky and the clear portion over the ground/foreground. Using the right ND this should reduce the difference between the lightest and darkest parts into a range where you get a good overall picture. I use the Cokin P filter system (http://www.cokin.fr/ico1-p1.html) with various ND and other grads (http://www.cokin.fr/ico3-p6-8.html).

2. Do it all digitally. Shoot by metering for the brightest part of the shot. Once you have the image on the 'puter you should be able to select the dark parts and selectively lighten them without affecting the bright (properly exposed) parts. This can be fiddly and time consuming.

3. Bracket. Shoot two shots, one exposed for the sky and then shoot the same shot but exposed for the ground. Combine them digitally on the 'puter so that the two images are merged so that the sky image only shows the sky part and the ground image only shows the ground part. If that makes sense :). Again, lots of fiddling about but I find gives a better effect than option 2. Example of this here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=17950#98096)

Cheers

Ian

[hodad66]

If you shoot raw & expose for the sky you can try the 2 stop adjustment in Canon viewer utility save both versions & use this technique in PS

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml

[robertwgross]

This is not the perfect solution for everything, but using a graduated neutral density filter can do the trick, like Ian stated. If you have a fairly even horizon line, then this works easily. If the horizon line is not even, then it gets a lot more complicated.

---Bob Gross---

[slin100]

I don't know what the shooting conditions were, other than it was sunset, but another possibility would have been to add more light to the foreground with a flash and/or reflectors.

Or, if it was possible, recompose to eliminate the sky from the frame.

[openspace]

Check out Fred Miranda's article on the "digital gradual filter" technique....

http://www.fredmiranda.com/article_2/