New guy, need some comments

Have had my camera for about 4 days now. I read a short book on exposure but didn't retain much of it.

I took this today. It was cloudy and rained earlier. 28mm, f/8, 1/60, iso400. It was shot in aV mode.

I did a little bit of post in lightroom but I don't feel like it is very sharp. If I suck, feel free to tell me. This is my first visit into photography.

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Welcome to POTN and nice first post. It is unfortunate the sky is completely blown out, or it was just a bad weather day. A graduated or polarizing filter may have helped the sky. Really like the concept and love the colors on the tree, though it might be slightly over saturated for my tastes compared to the rest of the photo.

ImCBParker wrote in post #11158369
Welcome to POTN and nice first post. It is unfortunate the sky is completely blown out, or it was just a bad weather day. A graduated or polarizing filter may have helped the sky. Really like the concept and love the colors on the tree, though it might be slightly over saturated for my tastes compared to the rest of the photo.

Thanks. I don't have any filters and yea, the weather was crap. The sun was behind the clouds and there was complete cloud cover. I tried for 10-15 minutes to sort out the sky but I couldn't figure it out. I've also never used lightroom so I'm still learning that too.

The tree is pretty close to what it looked like to my eye. I didn't worry about the greens behind it or bringing out the mini barn since the tree was the focal point and there is where I wanted the eyes to be. Any thoughts on sharpness?

Sharpness seems fine, tough to tell with the size of it. f/8 seems about right, however at 1/60th the wind can wind can certainly impact the sharpness.

ImCBParker wrote in post #11158914
Sharpness seems fine, tough to tell with the size of it. f/8 seems about right, however at 1/60th the wind can wind can certainly impact the sharpness.

there was a little bit of wind here and there, good idea. i took another picture of some other trees that turned out awesome although the composition could be a little better according to my wife. the other picture is extremely sharp since there were few leaves/branches involved so i think that is was is biasing my eyes to think this is soft.

anyone have thoughts on how i might darken the sky a bit?

You can mess with Layers and darken the sky. If you are good in photoshop you an also try rendering clouds, or layering in a different set of clouds.

If you shot this RAW (and if you want to make adjustments you should always shoot RAW) then you'll be able to adjust the sky in the Adobe Raw converter (ARC) by either applying a graduated filter in post processing or by "painting the blown out sky back into some shape.

If you did not shoot RAW then may be with some masking with a gradient will bring the sky back a bit... But that method is inferior to the RAW processing. So: Always Shoot RAW...

vk2gwk wrote in post #11159550
If you shot this RAW (and if you want to make adjustments you should always shoot RAW) then you'll be able to adjust the sky in the Adobe Raw converter (ARC) by either applying a graduated filter in post processing or by "painting the blown out sky back into some shape.

If you did not shoot RAW then may be with some masking with a gradient will bring the sky back a bit... But that method is inferior to the RAW processing. So: Always Shoot RAW...

It is in RAW so I have some options. A coworker has mentioned that if the sky blew out completely white like it has, that there likely won't be any information about the sky in the capture. I'll tinker if I get some free time today.

If you're dealing with poor weather conditions, expose somewhere between the highlights and the shadows. For example, you could underexpose the landscape and slightly over-expose the sky and fix the underexposure in lightroom/photoshop and properly expose the overexposure.

If you're getting blow-outs like this, chances are it can't be salvaged. I wouldn't generate clouds from PS - it's cheesey. I'd re-attempt this shoot and underexpose the ground, slightly overexpose the sky, and see what you can' take away from the shoot then.

circusofcrows wrote in post #11164837
If you're dealing with poor weather conditions, expose somewhere between the highlights and the shadows. For example, you could underexpose the landscape and slightly over-expose the sky and fix the underexposure in lightroom/photoshop and properly expose the overexposure.

If you're getting blow-outs like this, chances are it can't be salvaged. I wouldn't generate clouds from PS - it's cheesey. I'd re-attempt this shoot and underexpose the ground, slightly overexpose the sky, and see what you can' take away from the shoot then.

thanks for the thoughts.

i'll see if i can get back over there sometime this week. im also going to borrow the book on exposure again from my coworker and see if i can get more to stick this time. that will help with situations like this.

use lightroom burn tool at the sky..