Where's the blue sky?

[TexKen]

I've often wondered what makes the sky appear so vibrantly blue on some photos but not others. In this case - why does the sky appear totally white? It WAS blue... I swear. I figure some non-optimal combination of my settings. Any ideas? Thanks.

http://www.lentzfamily.com/photo/img_4098_edited-1sm.jpg

[Titus213]

No color left because it was overexposed. You exposed for the lovely young lady in the foreground who is much darker than the sky behind her.

I was going to tell you the histogram would indicate this as would the blinkies on the lcd, but alas, you have a Powershot Pro1 and I don't know if it does that stuff for you...

[Livinthalife]

Oh yeah, I think we all know this lol

The sky got over exposed. A lot of people take multiple images with different setting to properly expose for the subject then sky (similar to HDR). sometimes people just get lucky when it's evening, and the sky just lights up perfect. try a UV or polarizer. I hear those are good for the skies.

[TexKen]

Ahhhh ok - makes sense. So what would be the correct way to meter for this? If I got the sky right, she would have been underexposed I assume...

[Stavhp]

errr...how's about exposing the sky and using fill flash? that normally works, also, i dontr know if owershots can have fliters but look into polariers, it will give you nice sky shoots!

[jrjphoto]

Ahhhh ok - makes sense. So what would be the correct way to meter for this? If I got the sky right, she would have been underexposed I assume...

That's right. There is no happy medium here. Even a polarizer or UV filter in this instance would not affect the sky in any important way. The best thing to do is save your outdoor portraiture for early morning or in the evening just before dusk.

Here's an example of a morning beach wedding photo shoot with a polarizer and the sun at my back:

http://images6.fotki.com/v93/photos/8/849015/3791884/michelleflowers-vi.jpg