Overcast Day - Sky Blown Out - Help

[dinanm3atl]

Was doing an engagement shoot today but we went to one of my favorite "Urban Exploration" areas of the city. I snapped this quick photo and while I love every part about it the sky is terrible in my eyes.

So what to do for next time? Take two shots? three shots? Merge them together when I get home? CPL filter?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3302/3189704458_787c83eb81_b.jpg

[JDM EJ1 95]

id just take 2 shots.. one focusing on exposing the sky better and then the same photo you took and overlay the sky from the first shot into the second one.. thats what i do.

oh and i love the picture but the power pole with transformers and lines are distracting me for some reason..

[JDM EJ1 95]

ok i edited it in PS .. got some of the sky back.. it looks a little better. and got rid of the pole..

10 min of work

i left in some of the power lines but u get the idea. a lot can be fixed in PS

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/8401/3189704458787c83eb81b1mc0.jpg
Shot at 2009-01-11

[dinanm3atl]

Yes I can clone. Didn't do it just to show what I meant about the sky :)

What did you do? Shadow/Highlight tool but just took it farther than I did?

Thanks!

[Titus213]

Shadow/highlight tool and really push the Highlight sliders. You also might want to just mask the building - nice straight lines - and just work on the sky separately.

[F4 Cyborg]

That is one of those times when a polarizing filter would have come in very handy.

[reefman23]

How does this look?

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c247/reefman23/POTN%20pictures/_.jpg

Jesse

[dinanm3atl]

That is one of those times when a polarizing filter would have come in very handy.

That is what I was thinking...


Reef - That is highlights at 100%? I was thinking of trying that.

[reefman23]

That is what I was thinking...


Reef - That is highlights at 100%? I was thinking of trying that.

That is actually 100% recovery... a touch of vignetting too.

Jesse

[lonelyjew]

Here's my quick and very sloppy attempt.

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w148/superlonelyjew/darkskycopy.jpg

I selected the sky, desaturated it, darkened it a good deal and upped contrast. I then selected the inverse(building lot, etc.) and upped the contrast a good deal and darkened it a tad. I didn't desaturate it since it was a color photo but, I almost always prefer monochrome for these types of pictures. Not sure if it was the look you were going for. Obviously the sky has lost a lot of dynamic range so it doesn't really look natural. Your best bet would be to merge pictures probably, two would probably be fine.

What city is that in? I do a bit of urbex in Detroit. A word of advice, stay away from schools. At least here in Detroit they are well patrolled, I've got a court date on Thursday for my last outing..

edit*
I forgot to mention, if you have software that'll allow you to distort the image I think you could also make it better by stretching the top and mid left side to straighten out the pillars.

[dinanm3atl]

Atlanta.

I don't know what you mean by distort image? I know it is already a little bit distorted and the columns are leaning. No program that I know of that I have to bring it back...

[lonelyjew]

Photoshop can, I really don't know any other editing software. It can be tricky, this was my first real attempt at it.

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w148/superlonelyjew/Exploration/IMG_2673BWX.jpg

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w148/superlonelyjew/Exploration/bwbarscopy.jpg

[dinanm3atl]

Cool...

How in photoshop?

[Titus213]

Filter>Distort>Lens Correction?

Edit>Transform>Skew?

[lonelyjew]

You hit ctrl+t(probably command t on a mac) to start transforming - I think you need to backup the original or at least have 2 layers for it to start. You then right click to access the different ways to transform. Distort is the easiest to play with, you can pick any of the eight points to stretch(I'd try to explain it but it's easier to just see what it does by playing with it), you can then do adjustments with warp but that's a lot trickier.

[dinanm3atl]

Cool.

Thanks!

[Bill Boehme]

Was doing an engagement shoot today but we went to one of my favorite "Urban Exploration" areas of the city. I snapped this quick photo and while I love every part about it the sky is terrible in my eyes.

So what to do for next time? Take two shots? three shots? Merge them together when I get home? CPL filter?



Nothing in Photoshop will ever be as satisfying as getting what you want in the camera itself. It certainly would not be very difficult to paste in a blue sky with a few puffy clouds, but then the lighting in the rest of the image will never look quite right and the soft shadows will simply be a dead giveaway.

The sky actually is not blown out anywhere unless you fixed it before posting and I think that the dreary sky does wonders in defining a mood for the derelict building setting (even though this is not what you were wanting, I think that it has a lot of possibilities -- just maybe not for an engagement shoot).

Rather than boosting contrast and other similar things in Photoshop, I think that a scene such as this needs to emphasize the diffuse low light conditions by emphasizing only the clouds, but decreasing the contrast in the rest of the image. With that thought in mind and for your amusement, I have attached a different approach to editing the image. I have also added some haziness to the background area to further accentuate the dreariness of the occasion -- certainly not material for an engagement shoot unless you are very adventurous.

That is one of those times when a polarizing filter would have come in very handy.

I never would have guessed that a polarizing filter would be useful in this situation, but then I don't use polarizers very much. What will the filter do in this situation?

333602

[Titus213]

I've been trying to figure out that polarizer too. I don't think it would do anything since it works over the whole image.

Perhaps something could have been done with an ND gradient to reduce the sky a bit.

[dinanm3atl]

Thanks for the last bit of help.

Engagement shoot that wanted something different ;) NO standard kissing, no lovey stuff and no STANDARD photos.

So downtown we went ;)

[F4 Cyborg]

I never would have guessed that a polarizing filter would be useful in this situation, but then I don't use polarizers very much. What will the filter do in this situation?

On a DSLR it is one of the few that I use. Try one next time you go to Alaska.
They have some info here.
www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/polarizers.shtml (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/polarizers.shtml)

[F4 Cyborg]

Yes they do work over the entire image. Tripods are a great wonder. If the filter is going to be a bit much for part of the shot. One with filter, one without filter. Layers in PS. The light and shadows will still be in the same areas so the will match sky to ground. Kinda of like using a graduating filter's. For landscape photography I'd never leave home without one.

[dinanm3atl]

Yes they do work over the entire image. Tripods are a great wonder. If the filter is going to be a bit much for part of the shot. One with filter, one without filter. Layers in PS. The light and shadows will still be in the same areas so the will match sky to ground. Kinda of like using a graduating filter's. For landscape photography I'd never leave home without one.

That is what I was thinking. Get a sweet sky pic and then work on the building. Combine for the win :)

[Bill Boehme]

I read the article and it didn't tell me anything that I wasn't aware of 40 years ago when I used a polarizer much more than I do now. However, there was nothing in the article that indicated a use for a polarizer in diffuse lighting situations which is the situation in the image with the overcast sky. My impression based on some misstatements by the author is that he only has a passing knowledge about polarizing filters.

[F4 Cyborg]

Reflectively speaking you might have missed something.

[dinanm3atl]

About to take a turn to negative town here...

[Titus213]

I would have thought that the idea was to darken the sky while leaving the building alone. A polarizer would work on both, especially with the tones involved, if it worked at all in that light.

[Bill Boehme]

About to take a turn to negative town here...

Not to worry .. I don't think that anybody's feathers are ruffled up. I didn't mean to dis anybody (well maybe the luminous landscapes guy got dissed a bit). I guess that I'll stop before I dis Scott Kelby too. :oops:

[Bill Boehme]

Reflectively speaking you might have missed something.

I'll reflect on that for a while.

[dinanm3atl]

I would have thought that the idea was to darken the sky while leaving the building alone. A polarizer would work on both, especially with the tones involved, if it worked at all in that light.

You use the polarizer to get the sky. Shot 1.

Remove it and get the building as I shot it.

Combine for the win!!!

[Titus213]

OK, how about exposing for the sky in #1 and exposing for the building in #2?

[Bill Boehme]

You use the polarizer to get the sky. Shot 1.

Remove it and get the building as I shot it.

Combine for the win!!!

I guess that would be OK, but two shots at different exposure without any filter would be easier to set up (just do a bracket shot). Also, it would probably be easier with a GND filter since it is easier to adjust to do everything in a single shot or at least easier to remove it if you want to do a second shot without a filter.

[dinanm3atl]

Next time I will try bracketing and end up with 5 photos. See what i can make work :)

[lonelyjew]

I'm confused, what would the polarizer do on a cloudy day? Wouldn't it just act like a neutral density filter? If that's the case wouldn't it be easier to bracket the photo like dinanm said he would?

[JDM EJ1 95]

Yes I can clone. Didn't do it just to show what I meant about the sky :)

What did you do? Shadow/Highlight tool but just took it farther than I did?

Thanks!



honestly all i did was copied the background layer.. played with brightness/contrast and used a soft eraser to get the building back to the standard background exposure.


its not a HUGE diff.. btu its someting that is quick and helps out.

[Bill Boehme]

I'm confused, what would the polarizer do on a cloudy day? Wouldn't it just act like a neutral density filter? If that's the case wouldn't it be easier to bracket the photo like dinanm said he would?

I think that is exactly the point that Dave (Titus213) and I were making -- no need to mess with a polarizing filter.

[Titus213]

There appears to be no shadows of any consequence in the image which says very diffused light.

Here's a real quick and dirty from the original image. Certainly the full size image would render a much more pleasing shot if care is taken the mask accurately.

[F4 Cyborg]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3525/3194108385_99aea9f05d_o.jpg

[JDM EJ1 95]

im sorry i cant get into that^ looks soo unnatural.

[F4 Cyborg]

ah old buildings and early morning light don't always go hand in hand.

[tienm23]

Here's my take, I google imaged a nicer sky and added to your image and adjusted saturation and removed the utility pole.

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/6196/3189704458787c83eb81b35aq0.jpg

sky file

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/4722/cloudybluesky13523384ux5.jpg

[dinanm3atl]

Very nice!