help needed with blown out sky

hi all ,
can you tell me how to meter so i dont get blown out sky like in the pics below , i always have trouble with my skies , is it to do with what metering mode i have it in all help much appreciated any advice and i will shoot outside as its still bright, cheers


manual 1/160sec f5.6 iso 200

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Common "problem" we all have to deal with. To get the sky, you would need to meter for the sky - IMO. The issue then is that the foreground will likely be too dark, right? Then to lighten the foreground, you'd then need a flash fill or some fill lighting. did you by any chance try to use PP to bring the level of the sky down?? Just a thought.

hi cody ,
not used pp yet , did meter for sky then as you said the cat was really dark , what about a graduated nd filter , been reading up on them , might try one and see if it helps.
cheers.
dave

Looking at the exif, you did use the flash, so if you meter for the sky and fill in with flash you should get more detail in the sky.

I don't think an ND grad will help you in this instance because your cat cuts too big a lump above the horizon line. Therefore, with a GND filter, the upper half of the cat will be darker than the lower.

I would expose for the sky, and then bring up the details and highlights of the cat in PP.

I don't think a filter would be helpful as for the reasons already noted, the cat just takes up too much of the picture.

cheers everyone , will give pp a go

Meter for the sky and use fill flash. If you need to bring up the cat in PP you can cut it out and lighten it separately from the background.

(whew - I was spot on for once...Guess I've actually learned something over the last 2 years!)