Blown out sky

I purchased a Canon 24mm f2.8 pancake and now with the weather being more like spring, took it outside to play around with it a bit. Had this flowering bush in the backyard. But the sky is quite blown out. What can I do the avoid this in the future? It is a JPEG straight out of the camera. Thanks in advance for any insights.

duckster wrote in post #18848777
I purchased a Canon 24mm f2.8 pancake and now with the weather being more like spring, took it outside to play around with it a bit. Had this flowering bush in the backyard. But the sky is quite blown out. What can I do the avoid this in the future? It is a JPEG straight out of the camera. Thanks in advance for any insights.

Shoot in raw and bracket exposures so you can keep the best one, or blend.

Thanks. I have never shot in raw or done in post processing of RAW images (hobby photographer to the max!). I might have to try that next, just to experiment.

If you want it in a single shot, there are a few things you can do.
1. Make sure that the sun is to your back.
2. Expose for the sky and use fill flash for the foreground.
3. Invest in a graduated neutral density filter, something like this.
4. Sometimes a polarizing filter can help.
5. Expose for the sky and let the flowers fall where they will
6. Shoot raw, expose for the sky, and pull the shadows in post processing.

duckster wrote in post #18848784
I have never shot in raw or done . . . post processing of RAW images

Me neither. My camera (Canon G15) is simpler than yours, but it has a feature called DR Correction, which reduces dynamic range. The choices are Off, Auto, –200%, and –400%. Moving from left to right in this list yields progressively more damping of the brightest areas. It's very useful in strong sunlight. The default is Auto. A DSLR, being more sophisticated, ought to have something similar.

Even a rather primitive PP program can darken highlights in a jpg. The in-camera feature has the advantage of letting you use exposure, shutter speed, and ISO that accommodate more of the darker parts of a scene without blowing out the lightest parts so there's nothing to work with there.

duckster wrote in post #18848784
Thanks. I have never shot in raw or done in post processing of RAW images (hobby photographer to the max!). I might have to try that next, just to experiment.

I resisted shooting raw for some years; I thought it meant learning to use Photoshop with incredible complexity. Processing raw is actually quite simple, or at least can be as simple or complex as you want. There are many programs available that can process and make adjustments to raw data, turning them into images. I use one called Photo Ninja but there are many others, and many are free or inexpensive and quite easy to use. Ironically Photoshop is not one of them; it doesn't process raws but allows you to edit processed raws in an endless variety of ways. Even Photos, which comes built in to Macs, does an OK job of processing and adjusting raws (just ask Tom Reichner ). Shooting raw and processing the data into adjusted and enhanced images gives you far greater flexibility in creating much better images than you'll get from straight-out-of-camera jpegs.

The easiest way to get pics with better skies is to wait until the sky is better. Take the pic again when the sky is blue. As another poster pointed out, it helps to have the sun behind you so it lights the bush better.

Full sun might look great, but sometimes flower pics look better when under a cloud or the sun is less intense. You just have to try it and see what you like.

I would not fool around with raw files and editing. It can be a lot of work and the result can look phony.

The HDR technique is worth trying too, but if the sky is white, it won't get much prettier with HDR.

Pippan wrote in post #18848859
.... Processing raw is actually quite simple, or at least can be as simple or complex as you want. There are many programs available that can process and make adjustments to raw data, turning them into images.

The simplest is DPP that comes with the camera. Canon's DPP reads the camera settings and by default delivers what the in camera jpeg would have been. However, as the begining point is a raw, you can adjust the photo easily.

Pippan wrote in post #18848859
...Ironically Photoshop is not one of them; it doesn't process raws but allows you to edit processed raws in an endless variety of ways. ....

This is not entirely true. True that the photoshop app itself does not process the raw file, it has Camera Raw embedded as part of the package. If you open photoshop and then open a raw file, it comes up in camera raw allowing for adjustments. When you are ready for the next step. you simple click "Open Image" and the processed raw is placed on the PS workspace.

As a workable compromise, next time under expose by a stop. The flowers will come in dark, but using lightroom you can use then use the shadows to bring that stop back up in post. You can also use the Highlights slider to bring the highlights down some as well. Doing so will likely muddy the shot a bit, so then bring your "whites"back up.... giving the image some dynamics.

It may not be perfect, but even with your jpeg these adjustments a bit. Just under expose a bit to reign in the highlights.

For the "perfect" shot, bracketing multiple shots is the only real way to do it. It's a lot more work.... so try the easy route first.

I have a Mac and so download most of my photos to the computer. Mojave does seem to have more editing options as far as sliders and such. I have not really messed around with it, basically just using the crop function when necessary.

You'll need more than that if you want to recover images with deep dynamic range. If you shoot raw you can use the free software from Canon to recover the images.

I have the same blown-out sky problem with a lot of the landscape photos I take. I've used most of the remedies suggested so far, with varying degrees of success. What I've learned to do (if the composition allows it - a big if with a lot of landscapes , but I think the OP's photo does,) is to compose the photo in a way to show as little of the sky as possible.