Still learning the light, so I guess I have a question.
Discussion
5 replies
Posted by David Redding on August 23, 2006 at 7:49 PM
I have seen a few if not a lot of images with a great dark sky, but they still have amazing colour in the fore/midground. Everytime I try for a nasty looking sky, of coarse the clouds are blocking out the sun and the light that is available to light up the frame causes bland, washed out colours for me with a loss of great detail.
How are these others pulling off the combo of dark nasty skies with great colour? Is this something some one can tell you or is it something you have to learn through experience?
David, the first thing that comes to mind is a graduated neutral density filter (sometimes referred to as "GND"). Alternatively you can merge multiple exposures made at different values.
Guy
Posted by David Redding on August 23, 2006 at 8:33 PM
Thanks for the reply Guy,
I do have one 3 stop soft GND a Cokin with the P holder, and I have tried the blending as well. Thats not really the problem I think (sorry, not the best at convaying my thoughts with the use of a keyboard).
A good example of what Im getting at is a recent post by Ian Flindt (title:Sizewell Beach, Suffolk, UK). It looks to me that the queality of light that would make it through that cloud cover wouldnt be the best to show off the colours like it does in Mr Flindt'd exposure. It seems to me that every time I try a shot like this my work lacks the contrast and colour snap that I have seen in others work.
Hope I did a better job this time
Posted by Frank Winters on August 24, 2006 at 9:31 AM
Hi David,
You mean this one correct?:http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/ic.cgi?a=vp&pr=53270&b=up&st=0&la=1&ph=0&sid=32651&u=32651
Its a longish exposure (2.5 seconds) at F22 (which in my experience helps with saturation) and I think the light is pretty good on the boats. At the sea shore you sometimes get dark areas in the sky with light kind of streaming around the clouds. Maybe there was plenty of light on the boats even tho the sky in the frame was nice and nasty.
I read in a post some time ago -- someone giving advice said that photography outside the studio was about finding the best conditions and then getting the shot. I think of that comment all the time (can't remeber who said it tho.)
Maybe Mr. Flindt can chime in with some more detail?
Guy
Posted by Grace Blair on August 24, 2006 at 11:06 AM
Are you using Photoshop to bring out the colors? If you shoot in RAW and have checked your histogram then the PS RAW converter is a great help in bringing to the screen/print the image as you saw it with your eyes. It also allows you to process an image in different ways, once to bring out saturations in the foreground and a second to bring out the sky colors and then you can easily combine these images in PS to produce a final image which has the best of the 2.
Discussion
5 repliesHow are these others pulling off the combo of dark nasty skies with great colour? Is this something some one can tell you or is it something you have to learn through experience?
Thanks in advance for any help
David
Guy
I do have one 3 stop soft GND a Cokin with the P holder, and I have tried the blending as well. Thats not really the problem I think (sorry, not the best at convaying my thoughts with the use of a keyboard).
A good example of what Im getting at is a recent post by Ian Flindt (title:Sizewell Beach, Suffolk, UK). It looks to me that the queality of light that would make it through that cloud cover wouldnt be the best to show off the colours like it does in Mr Flindt'd exposure. It seems to me that every time I try a shot like this my work lacks the contrast and colour snap that I have seen in others work.
Hope I did a better job this time
You mean this one correct?:http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/ic.cgi?a=vp&pr=53270&b=up&st=0&la=1&ph=0&sid=32651&u=32651
Its a longish exposure (2.5 seconds) at F22 (which in my experience helps with saturation) and I think the light is pretty good on the boats. At the sea shore you sometimes get dark areas in the sky with light kind of streaming around the clouds. Maybe there was plenty of light on the boats even tho the sky in the frame was nice and nasty.
I read in a post some time ago -- someone giving advice said that photography outside the studio was about finding the best conditions and then getting the shot. I think of that comment all the time (can't remeber who said it tho.)
Cheers,
Frank
Guy