You know how loads of you guys on here manage to take beautiful photographs of the sky where it has some sort of effect which makes it appear different to ordinary photos? How do you do it? I've tried taking photos of the sky on the 'landscape' setting on my camera but it doesn't seem to be making a difference, please help!
AS far as in camera effect goes, a polarizing lens filter can really bring out the blues and whites of the clouds. In editing simple things such as messing with the contrast, exposure, and offset can really change the look of a sky. There's a lot of settings you can tweak to get color changes such as vibrance, saturation, etc. sometimes what I do to get a neat effect is fade the photo to black and white. Which will leave some color but also starts to get the B&W look as well, then mess with the settings mentioned. Sometimes works really well. Hope this helped some. ( :
What effects exactly are you talking about? Do you have a setting on your camera for vibrancy? If you shoot in RAW you might be able to edit it and make it more vibrant on the camera itself.
Most definitely. Looks like they just made the photo more vibrant. Play with the settings its fun ( : Also yeah agree with Annie. The hell with the presets. Go manual. It gives you full control of every aspect. Me camera never leaves the manual setting.
Keep playing until you do :) because you WILL! I guarantee it! You'll probably have heaps of useless black shots and wahsed out shots too but you will eventually get the one you want. Try it :)
@wolfe Right okay I will then. :) And haha well when I first got my DSLR in October, I was fiddling with it and musta put some setting on it that meant I couldn't use my auto setting anyway, it got fixed early this year but up until then I'd had to pretty much always use manual haha!
@indiannie_jones Okay, I guess it's just a matter of time haha! Thanks Annie! :)
An affordable start to better skies is definitley a polarizing filter. You will richen your skies and bring out definition in the clouds before tweaking any settings in your camera. Like any other outdoor/landscape photograph, you'll get a much more dramatic scene in the morning and late afternoon/evening when the sun isn't bleaching out the environment. A lens hood is also a cheap fix. This will eliminate lens flare and keep stray light of the sensor, also richening the colors.
I use pse and there are some presets that you can use to blue up the skies, but the others are right, you can get a decent filter for $25 or less that will make a huge difference, but mostly, just play around with settings, and I have a bunch of presets on my camera, but rarely take it off of the manual setting. Experimentation is the best I think.
@lala_land your welcome, again the one hing that works for me was just shooting several shots using different settings, from changing white balance to fstops and shutter speeds, then the trick becomes trying to remember what is what when you dont have the option of taking 50 shots of the same subject....that would be one of the main reasons I take very few pics of people, I prefer stationery objects that do not complain about the flash or various retakes.
I agree with Annie. Go manual. I also use a polarizing filter.
Everything else I leave up to nature. The sky looks extra beautiful right around sunrise and sunset :) Oh, and it's sometimes better to boost up the contrast. :)
When I take photos of the sky I just try playing with the different shutter speeds and setting but the only I change I make on my photo's is usually a little cropping. But that is the way I prefer them.
Folks are right.. if you own a point and shot, put it on manual and start shooting. The time of day will make a difference too. Shoot thru trees, into the sun, clouds... get a tripod and take a picture, change the setting, take a picture, change the setting...
The filter idea is GREAT but if it's a little point and shot camera, you'll have to figure out how to "shoot" thru the lens, it's made to screw/click on most lens of DSLR or 35MM camera...
KEEP PLAYING!
Right, thanks guys! I'll take that all on board, thanks for your help! And @celticmystyc I do have a DSLR lol and I've got a tripod too but not had much chance to use it outdoors yet, thanks for your help. :)
You could definitely get these shots without editing. I would do as Teresa suggested and fool around with different shutter speeds and apertures. The beauty of digital is that you can play around and take tons of pictures without wasting money and you know immediately if you got the shot you want. Definitely go manual, and a polarizing filter will help to bring more vibrancy to sky shots. And if you bump up the contrast just a tad, that can do a lot as well. Minimal editing all the way. I can't wait to see what you capture!! =D
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Just to show you what I mean, I wanna be able to make my shots have these kinda awesome affects such as the two above.
@wolfe Will I be able to do that kinda thing following what you said? Thanks for the advice! I'll give it a go! :)
@indiannie_jones Aha I usually do! But I can't even seem to get the kinda effect I'm after on that! :(
@indiannie_jones Okay, I guess it's just a matter of time haha! Thanks Annie! :)
On the subject of filters - graduated filters a excellent and almost purpose made for landscape photography and dramatic skylines.
http://www.great-landscape-photography.com/graduated-filters.html
My skies always get washed out in the summer - guess a lens hood is the way to go.
Everything else I leave up to nature. The sky looks extra beautiful right around sunrise and sunset :) Oh, and it's sometimes better to boost up the contrast. :)
The filter idea is GREAT but if it's a little point and shot camera, you'll have to figure out how to "shoot" thru the lens, it's made to screw/click on most lens of DSLR or 35MM camera...
KEEP PLAYING!