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What am I doing wrong???

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BeautyExposed

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Okay so I will admit be all means that I am an amateur when it comes to photography so this may be a silly issue I am having but please be understanding!

I am trying to dabble in Landscape photography which is new to me as I generally stick with still life and portraits. Well this past week I have been trying to snap some pictures of the beautiful clouds weve been getting in between storms, everytime I try the sky always comes out dull and overexposed so all the clouds blend in with the sky and it just all looks grayish-blue. If I adjust the shutter the trees and grass end up looking to dark and shadowy but the clouds will show up. And I believe I had the aperature set around 11. Saturation was turned up as well.
This is with my 14-45 lens.

What am I doing wrong??? I see everyone else's photos and the clouds look so dramatic and clear while the landscape does also...

Any advice is appreciated.
--
'Exposing Beauty in Everything'
 
Evidently you are also posting wrong...

:-)

But you are probably not using a circular polarizing filter that makes the sky look so wonderful in other peoples shots. They are expensive ($40-70 depending on what quality and where you buy them) but worth it.

When you screw it on, you then can still rotate it and you look for the darkest blue in the sky while rotating. Then you will have "popping" clouds and skies.
 
What mode do you have the camera in?

Aperture priority with ESP metering works great on Oly cameras.

As Theresa has said try using the exposure compensation.

How much experience do you have in using an SLR? Perhaps it may be helpful to you to look through a few books or even visit the olympus america website and have a look at their tutorials.

Stephen.
--
http://www.notofthisearth.co.uk
http://www.abannforlife.co.uk
 
BeautyExposed said:
Okay so I will admit be all means that I am an amateur when it
comes to photography so this may be a silly issue I am having but
please be understanding!

I am trying to dabble in Landscape photography which is new to me
as I generally stick with still life and portraits. Well this past
week I have been trying to snap some pictures of the beautiful
clouds weve been getting in between storms, everytime I try the sky
always comes out dull and overexposed so all the clouds blend in
with the sky and it just all looks grayish-blue. If I adjust the
shutter the trees and grass end up looking to dark and shadowy but
the clouds will show up. And I believe I had the aperature set
around 11. Saturation was turned up as well.
This is with my 14-45 lens.

What am I doing wrong??? I see everyone else's photos and the
clouds look so dramatic and clear while the landscape does also...

Any advice is appreciated.
Click to expand...
I suspect that you have a combination of things:

1) You might need to set the white balance, either with a preset (sunny/cloudy) or with a custom white balance;

2) Metering on the sky can cause exposure problems. One method is to use spot metering, and AEL to lock the metering on the area you want best exposed, and then recompose the shot.

3) Typically there is so much dynamic range between clouds and land, that for a single shot, you have to choose whether to expose for the clouds (and make the land dark) or expose for the land (and make the clouds blown out). With RAW you have some more lattitude that you can use during editing to bring out this dynamic range, but in really extreme cases, you need to put the camera on a tripod, and shoot it multiple times at different exposure levels. Then in software you can combine the pictures, bringing out shadow detail and/or highlight detail. I haven't started using this technique myself, but here is an article from several years ago that explains the basic premise:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1008&message=11251531
 
to expose correctly for something light (the sky) and something dark (the ground). This can't be done. Their are various ways round it, varying from easy but unstaisfcatory to perfecet but a major hassle. Here is the list, in ascending order of aggro.

1) Underexpose and live with dim ground. I hate this myself.

2) Get a polariser. I dislike polarised shots, bit it largely solves your problem with minimal effort and moderate expense. This works by only accepting light at one angle - the ground wiull stay the same (ish), but the scattered light from the sky, after you adsust the filter, is greatly cut, leaving you with a dark sky.

3) Get a graduated neutral density filter. This makes the top of the picture darker than the bottom. I used these all the time with film, but with digital... Well, if you are frightened of computers, this works.

4) Shoot RAW and add a gradient to the 16bit TIFF file (this is where I started). This is exactly like the graduated filter above, but you can control the results. Shout if you need exact instructions in Photoshop CS2.

5) Shoot RAW and create more than one 16 bitTIFF and fade from one to the other. This is what I do, once you know how to do it it takes seconds, and I'm baffled why so few people do it. Still, so long as people persist in making life hard for themselves it makes me look talented, so great.

6) Shoot multiple images on a tripod and blend them with a program like Photomatix (what a hassle!).
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acam
http://www.pbase.com/acam/
 
I there is too much dynamic range between the sky and ground, I shoot two exposures. One exposed for sky and one for ground, then blend them in photoshop like Louis mentioned above. It really doesn't take much time to do, just use a tripod so your camera position doesn't shift.
--
William
http://www.thereptile.com - my playground
 
The problem is the dynamic range. This is too short for your sensor. So actually there are only 2 real options:
  • Use a graduated neutral density filter, but is no easy to use when your composition doesn't have a straight horizon (mountain area).
  • Make two shots with one time sky properly exposed and one time with the foreground properly exposed (tripod use !!). Finally blend the two pictures together using HDR or some other program (Photomatix, CS2).
When shooting RAW you could consider to take one picture with the sky properly exposed (at least not over exposed). And then make 5 pictures with different exposure compensation from the RAW file. Use than Photomatix to blend the photo's back to one and you will get an stunning picture with a huge dynamic range.

Good luck with it.
--
Surfzeeuw
 
I am posting wrong?? Is there a rule book I missed on the right way to post? lol

Polarizing filter huh, well I will give one a try and see if it helps, thanks.
--
'Exposing Beauty in Everything'
 
Wow, thanks for all the advice everyone, I think it will try two shots next time and paste together.

Loius that photo is BEAUTIFUL and exactly what I'm trying to capture as far as the intensity of the sky and land at the same time. So you didn't not even use a tripod for it? How did you get it? Its perfect!
--
'Exposing Beauty in Everything'
 
about my feeble efforts make it impossible for me to be snippy about pointing out I already TOLD you how to do it :-)

In more detail, sling out the tripod and all the rest of the hobby spoiling gubiins, go to the beach and have a good time. While you are there:

1) Get a good shot, exposing so the sky is not blown out. Ignore the dark stuff for now. I use ESP, inspired guesswork and chimping, but the "formal" way would be to pick hi-spot and meter on the clouds at -.3 EV.

2) Place in raw processor with high saturation and contrast, and expose for foreground water (ignore blown highlights and black areas).

3) Put than in Photoshop and make that the base layer.

4) Back in raw processor, produce a second shot that is correct for the rocks. Export to photoshop.

5) Add your new shot as a layer. Select mask mode, a big brush, and paint roughly over the rocks, erring to the inside, not the outsise (or you'll get a nasty glowing effect, such as HDR provides).

6) Leave mask mode and press delete. Voila - now you have correctly exposed rocks and water.

7) Create a darker shot for the sky. Paste as a layer again, select mask, put a gradient from about 2/3rds of the way up the water to a 1/3 of the way up the sky. Exit mask, press delete, now you have a good sky.

8) The sky layer has darkened your rocks again. Mask, big brush, paint out the area, delete.

9) The highlights on the waves are blown out. Paste on a copy of your "dark" version again, mask, paint over the surf, leave mask mode, delete.

10) Flatten the image, fiddle with the curves and levels, save.

Bosh, done. With practice, six or seven minutes per shot. Single exposure, no HDR, no tripod, just have a good day at the beach and take lots of pictures.

Cheers!
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acam
http://www.pbase.com/acam/
 
Louis:

That's a well-explained process and when I finally get hooked on shooting RAW (I've got a faster Mac now) I will give your steps a try. At 6-7 minutes per photo — more for a newbie, I'm sure — it would be important to only choose your best pics. As well, I'm sure there are many shots with less range that don't need so much help.

The June 2006 Pop Photo (page 41) has an example along the same vein, called "Two Raws Make a Right" but your explanation seems clearer to me.
--
Barry
 
Nice picture. but not with very much contsrats between foreground and sky. And that just thje prooblem which is some cases can not be solved with just one shot, or you have to use filters.

--
Surfzeeuw
 
This is my shot using fotomatix to blend.

One shot taken, derived 5 tiff files with different exposures (+1.0, +0.5, 0, -0.5, -1.0) from the original RAW and than let photomatix do the rest.



--
Surfzeeuw
 
... just one question. Has the photomatixed picture become less sharp or is it just the downsizing that makes it appear not sharp?

Klaus
 
and it works very well for downsized pictures but it is not very useful for big prints because of noise and it destroys details. It is very good at creating eye-popping mid range contrast.

If you want contrast like that on Louis' shot, all you have to do is drag in the left level slider in photoshop.

--
http://photobucket.com/albums/y116/TGooding/
 
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