Landscape Skies

[Mishman64]

I have taken a number of pictures of golf courses and see that in order to gain the detail in the landscape, I burn out the sky to be white. I made sure I picked a partly sunny day in order to gain the additional personality of hte clouds, so I know they ar ethere. I did shoot in RAW to allow max editing options. I assume I can address this in Photoshop with Layers, or soemthing else, but am not sure how to. Any direction would be appreciated or suggestions.

Thanks you

[chris-p]

Hi Mishman, welcome to the forum

How burned out are the skies. If you've completely burned them out, there isn't anything you can do other than replace it with another sky.

If exposing for the sky leaves the landscape too dark you have 3 options... you can use HDR, you can exposure blend or you can use an ND grad filter to balance the exposure in camera. For HDR you'll need a tripod. You might be able to get away with exposure blending without.

[GeoffWessex]

As you've noticed, Mishman64, if you expose for the sky you'll have very dark foreground; if you expose for the foreground you'll get a white monotone sky. Your camera's exposure meter is always trying to get the equivalent of a mid-grey exposure, whether the subject is black, white or something else. If you point your camera at the general scene containing both light and dark areas, you'll get a fairly wishy-washy kind of exposure where neither the sky nor the foreground are properly exposed.

As this is the "Photoshop Technique" corner of the Forum, I'm assuming you want some kind of method to rectify the problem. Well, frankly, there isn't..... if details are not recorded on the original image, so software in the world can put it in for you. However, you can go some way to repairing the shot Try this method..... Duplicate your background layer. Set the Dup to Overlay mode. Ctrl-D to set colours to default. Go to the Gradient Tool. Run the tool over the central part of the image, start a little above the horizon, finish a little below it. You should find (after a few efforts) whatever details there are - but of course that's not as good as recording them in camera.

As chris-p says, it's HDR, blending of two exposures in editing software or an ND Grad. I try to go the ND Grad way most of the time..... I use the square system from Cokin and usually keep a 2-stop ND Grad at the ready. Cokin, it has to be said, are not the finest quality around (I think that distinction belongs to Lee Filters) but they're ok and a reasonable price. You need an adaptor ring (for the front of your lens) and a filter holder and the filter itself - usually a square or rectangular 'gel' or plastic.

Bear in mind that there are three main strengths, giving 1, 2 or 3 stops of difference between the dark and clear areas of the filter, and then you can get different 'hardness' of gradient (the transition between dark and clear). However, you can get away with just one ND Grad to start with - a 2-stop, medium hard.
How to make an exposure with an ND Grad? Without filter, get an exposure reading from the sky (or lighter area of the scene), then one of the darker foreground. See how many stops they are apart and select the appropriate strength of filter..... in practice, the 2-stop filter will work in most cases. Then put the filter on and shoot as normal. If the shutter speed is forced up to more than hand-holdable, you need tripod or some other camera support.

A good photography book should have information about how the filters work.

[AndyStevens]

I'd go with Geoff's last paragraph and would suggest getting some ND grads - getting the shot right in camera is more satisfying for me than creating HDR images.. But that's only opinion....

[neil_ross]

As above nd for all future ones but for the ones you've taken you might be able to lower the exposure using the grad tool in ACR.

I would try selecting the gradient tool in ACR, lower the exposure by a few stops and increase the blacks and contrast a little.