Grey skies- washed out

Took some photos at the local track meet yesterday. Flat, grey sky conditions. Set the WB to cloudy. It seems that some of the photos have a washed out or overblown sky appearance. Wondering what I should do to make these better?

IMAGE LINK: https://troybracker.sm​ugmug.com/2018-Track/i-47BjjTx/A

duckster wrote in post #18606585
Took some photos at the local track meet yesterday. Flat, grey sky conditions. Set the WB to cloudy. It seems that some of the photos have a washed out or overblown sky appearance. Wondering what I should do to make these better?

One option would be to apply a neutral density filter in ACR. I did a screen capture of the ACR application to show what I did and the second image is the result. Hope this helps.
The ND filter icon is shown in blue at the top of the screen capture in case you are unfamiliar with it.

Thank you for that information. I am probably going to have to learn some post processing. I just take pictures for me, mostly my daughter and her track team and have only been doing it for less than a year. I currently do really do any post processing besides a little cropping and trying to straighten the photos where possible. Thank you for the example!

duckster wrote in post #18606590
Thank you for that information. I am probably going to have to learn some post processing. I just take pictures for me, mostly my daughter and her track team and have only been doing it for less than a year. I currently do really do any post processing besides a little cropping and trying to straighten the photos where possible. Thank you for the example!

You can purchase a GND (graduated neutral density) filter for your lens. Might be difficult to work with shooting sports though.

Otherwise, overcast skies can often provide good light for subjects on the ground, but white is white and they usually end up like your OP.

Edit,caffeine kicking in, neutral density would just make the sky grey.

What about a CPL.?

I have not used a CPL before. I have read a bit about them but maybe that would help. T&F is a long enough event that many times you have several different weather/lighting conditions through the day.

Lots of empty space in that image! You could crop right down into the trees.
You could shoot tighter.
You could find a angle where a horizontal format would work.

Thank you, good points. I did have some horizontal shots that are a little better

I agree with PhotoGuy. The rule for dynamic sports photos is "shoot tight and crop tighter". If you had done that there would not be much if any sky in the photo to worry about. Another thing to think about is backgrounds. For nice clean shots, you need to be aware of them and seek the cleanest backgrounds you can find.

Jethr0 wrote in post #18606598
What about a CPL.?

Shouldn't help with the sky, the overcast conditions scatter the light all over the place so you can't fix it with a polarizer. A polarizer can be used on a gray day to cut out the reflections off other objects, helping the colors to come through.

I'd agree to shoot tighter here, while a wider shot can be good at times, I see no reason for it here. Also, one thing that will help with the skies is a correct exposure, to me this is a fair bit overexposed.

Thanks. I have not tried to decrease the exposure in the camera at the time of shooting. Will have to try to more observant of that next time. As far as background, I will keep trying to compose them better/tighter. Background doesn't have much choice as there are only certain areas from which spectators can watch/take photos

I think a combination of PhotoGuy's and Colorblinded's comments will get you on the right track. My first observation (and mentioned by Colorblinded) was that the exposure of the overall photo is quite hot (as evidenced by the very bright areas of skin on the runners). I think that a little more control of exposure will go a long way toward retaining a little color in the sky in the future (if you even want sky in a photo such as this).

Best Regards,
Mark

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I appreciate the feedback.

This one came from a meet yesterday, much more sun (for a change)

IMAGE LINK: https://troybracker.sm​ugmug.com/2018-Track/i-qr7wRm2/A

duckster wrote in post #18609372
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I appreciate the feedback.

This one came from a meet yesterday, much more sun (for a change)

IMAGE LINK: https://troybracker.sm​ugmug.com/2018-Track/i-qr7wRm2/A

Much better. I like the bus in the background. Not so much the dude in the hat.

Yep, the dude in the hat is the starter, so he is in about any picture from the start or finish...!