RMNP and blue skies

So on a short vacation to RMNP in Colorado. Have been doing a few short hikes. Took some photos with my DSLR and my iPhone 11.

Seemed to get much better blue skies with the iPhone. Here are two photos of the same meadow, what can I do better with my DSLR shots?

Later in the trip I did try to expose more for the sky, which gave me better blue skies but then some of the landscape features were too dark.

The top photo is from the iPhone, the bottom from my 7D II. I know that the iPhone does some digital HDR on the shots but I need to get better with my DSLR

Give the content at https://www.itsjustlig​ht.com …oiding-overexposed-skies/ a read. Also, do you know what white balance you used? Auto?

I would also suspect that the iPhone photo was done at a time when there was relatively little haze (note distinct shadows lower left) and the 7DII photo had some haze and perhaps the sun was high in the sky. In RMNP the sun is 66 deg above the horizon at 1:08 PM often accentuating a hazy sky. If the clock is set on your camera, check the EXIF for your shooting time.

Thanks for the information.

The WB was set to auto. The photos were taken within about 15 minutes of each other in the same mountain meadow.

And thank you for the article link. A good read for me.

duckster wrote in post #19104548
Thanks for the information.

The WB was set to auto. The photos were taken within about 15 minutes of each other in the same mountain meadow.

Could be something as simple as one picture done while facing north, the other while facing south. If you shoot RAW, you might go into something like DPP and adjust the color balance and style and see what happens.

If you don't have one, and landscape photography is going to be a common thing for you, consider investing in a circular polarizer filter.

I phones crank up the saturation a notch. If you created a picture style in your camera with enhanced saturation and cranked up sharpness your DSLR would produce jpegs closer to your iphone

John from PA wrote in post #19104646
Could be something as simple as one picture done while facing north, the other while facing south.

It isn't, though. The whole upper picture is more saturated than the lower, not just the sky. This difference is very noticeable in the grass. And the two skylines show only a small change (yards, not miles) in camera location.

Yes, they were taken fairly close together in terms of location and time.

Yes, it is the in-camera HDR and in-camera processing on the phone. To do that with a DSLR you either need to have that feature, or bracket using a tripod and then use software to combine the images. Then you also need to post-process the images.

While you can get better results with a DSLR, the extra effort, especially with how good phone cameras are now, is not worth it for a lot of people.

ejenner wrote in post #19105895
Yes, it is the in-camera HDR and in-camera processing on the phone. To do that with a DSLR you either need to have that feature, or bracket using a tripod and then use software to combine the images. Then you also need to post-process the images.

While you can get better results with a DSLR, the extra effort, especially with how good phone cameras are now, is not worth it for a lot of people.

In most iPhones, you can disable the HDR, assuming it got enabled at some point in time. See https://www.iphonelife​.com …phone-cameras-hdr-setting

The 7DII which the OP seems to have used, has HDR capability.

I have not tried to do HDR with my DSLR cameras, I am a hobbyist and that starts to get deeper on the technical side that my skill level will take me! I did find that I can expose for the sky and get much of the blue and clouds back but then get too dark on the pine trees in some cases.

IMAGE LINK: https://troybracker.sm​ugmug.com …2020/n-n7GgSs/i-tknqcnn/A

duckster wrote in post #19106115
I have not tried to do HDR with my DSLR cameras, I am a hobbyist and that starts to get deeper on the technical side that my skill level will take me!

I’m sorry to say that if you truly feel that way, with a 7DII, then most of the help we could provide would be of little use.

Not to say that I would not learn, just that it exceeds my current post processing skills.

John, your processing of that photo looks so much better. That is what I have envisioned in my mind!

Currently my PP (limited) is with Photos on my iMac.

My approach to this would conceptually be to

• expose based upon spotmeter reading the sky, to get best saturation of color, then
  
• in post processinging adjust Shadow control in the + direction to brighten up the underexposed
  

• Expose for shadow areas to be captured with sufficient light to expose those areas 'at inherent brightness'
  
• in post processing pull back the sky to be reduced in brightness (less bright than as captured)
  

Thank you for those suggestions! I will try that, even at home with some landscape/sky shots.