Machinery show: All my photos that I took on a bright sunny day in AV mode seemed to be blown out, especially the sky. I went back today and shot in Auto mode and the sky was blue.

Testie Loc: Armidale NSW Australia

All my photos that I took on a bright sunny day in AV mode seemed to be blown out, especially the sky. I went back today and shot in Auto mode and the sky was blue. What am I doing wrong?
Canon 650D with Canon 50mm 1.8

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rpavich Loc: West Virginia

You aren't doing anything wrong; the sky is just a LOT brighter than other parts of your image and your camera did the best it could in each situation...the plow and brown dirt...and the horses in the second shot.

The camera can't do it all...the dynamic range is too great for it to "shoe-horn" it all into one exposure.

Unfortunately, I can't help you with any auto modes...I don't use them so I wouldn't know what to change.

Your camera made two different decisions about exposure base on what was in the frame at the time.

If you want to know how I'd shoot these, you can ask but I'll let others who shoot in AV and auto mode answer first.

CEJ Loc: Cresson,Pa

You and the camera are not doing anything wrong. early morning, later evening is the best time to shoot, as the afternoon sun tends to wash out a photo. try a set of neutral density filters in the afternoon. I use my filters from my 35mm film camera, a kite will run you about 20.00 on Amazon. hope this helps.

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

A graduated filter works well for these situations...

Some articles on using it -
http://digital-photography-school.com/the-basics-of-using-nd-grads-to-improve-your-landscapes/

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2012/04/15/nd-grad-filters-what-every-photographer-should-know/

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/tips-and-solution/filters-landscape-photography

More articles can be found via "Google"

Hope this helps...

ND Grad Filter
ND Grad Filter...

R.G. Loc: Scotland

If you're getting blown skies noticeably more often when not in auto mode, I'd be inclined to suspect the metering. If it's set to, say, centre weighted, and the centre of the capture is predominantly or exclusively below the horizon, the sky will not feature significantly in the camera's exposure calculations. The area of the shot at or around the centre of the frame will be properly exposed but the sky will most likely be blown. Another likely candidate would be spot metering.

In this day and age of post processing, the big no-no is blown highlights. Under-exposed or a little over-exposed can be fixed in PP, but blown highlights are gone for good. I used to use centre weighted metering but found that it was too easy to get blown highlights, so I changed back to matrix metering, which gives the best protection from blown highlights.

Having said that, another possibility is careful use of the histogram (and blinkies if your camera has that feature).

gdwsr Loc: Northern California

Same as what the others said but to suggest what happened in these: It looks like on the plow one that the camera exposed for the dirt and for the horses in the other. Let's assume that the rust on the disks is the same shade as the shaded part of the horses. The horses are well exposed while the disks are way underexposed so the sky was better exposed in that one.

Look at the exposure data to better understand what the camera decided.

Meives Loc: FORT LAUDERDALE

[quote=Testie]I have the data, but not the answer. David

Testie Loc: Armidale NSW Australia

Thanks everybody for you valuable input. Looks like a set of graduated filters could be on the shopping list. As I shot a lot of car shows and to limit the "ugly" backgrounds I try to get down low which means pointing the camera at the sky. I have found that a "blown out sky" is very hard to change (PSE13) so anything I can do to improve the initial photo .......
This site has helped me so much but so much more to learn.
Thanks again all.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

Testie wrote:

Thanks everybody for you valuable input. Looks like a set of graduated filters could be on the shopping list. As I shot a lot of car shows and to limit the "ugly" backgrounds I try to get down low which means pointing the camera at the sky. I have found that a "blown out sky" is very hard to change (PSE13) so anything I can do to improve the initial photo .......
This site has helped me so much but so much more to learn.
Thanks again all.

While a GF would help in this case but it would be best if could avoid backlit scenes in general especially if you use auto setting. The range between bright and dark is very wide and the camera does a lot of averaging which is the best it can do

The good news and I hope you don't take offense but with a little massaging the picture was salvageable. Simply trying to show you that post processing and possibly learning how to shoot this in manual mode and lessen the range.

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Testie Loc: Armidale NSW Australia

pithydoug wrote:

While a GF would help in this case but it would be best if could avoid backlit scenes in general especially if you use auto setting. The range between bright and dark is very wide and the camera does a lot of averaging which is the best it can do

The good news and I hope you don't take offense but with a little massaging the picture was salvageable. Simply trying to show you that post processing and possibly learning how to shoot this in manual mode and lessen the range.

Thanks, no offence and I do appreciate you input. I had not thought about cropping to eliminate the sky but I will next time.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

Testie wrote:

Thanks, no offence and I do appreciate you input. I had not thought about cropping to eliminate the sky but I will next time.

Not that it makes much difference but I did a little bit more than crop. Please note that when areas in a photo get blown out bright, you can do just so much. I simply made it less bright in the top area but with that you get a hint of gray. The pixels are just not there.

In general you now understand backlit and things need to be done differently. In this situation, if I had a choice, I would try to move if possible. If you could not change the direction , move closer or zoom closer such that more horse and less sky. In essence spend just a little more time studying the scene before pulling the trigger..... if possible.

Testie Loc: Armidale NSW Australia

Thanks Doug?, the horses were mowing a field of oats and they were only stopping occasionally. I had only one area where I could safely stand. I did miss the other changes you made,what program do you use? I have just change to PE13 and am shooting in RAW / jpg to try to get some better results but as you said maybe better composition before I click the shutter.
Col

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

Testie wrote:

Thanks Doug?, the horses were mowing a field of oats and they were only stopping occasionally. I had only one area where I could safely stand. I did miss the other changes you made,what program do you use? I have just change to PE13 and am shooting in RAW / jpg to try to get some better results but as you said maybe better composition before I click the shutter.
Col

Composition is something we all continuously tweak and that is what photography is all about. :) I use lightroom 5.6. There are zillions of videos on youtube etc. showing you the how.

It may have already been suggested but to repeat, Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Exposure" in an outstanding read to nail down the basics and it may be available down under. :) :)

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Testie wrote:

Thanks everybody for you valuable input. Looks like a set of graduated filters could be on the shopping list. As I shot a lot of car shows and to limit the "ugly" backgrounds I try to get down low which means pointing the camera at the sky. I have found that a "blown out sky" is very hard to change (PSE13) so anything I can do to improve the initial photo .......
This site has helped me so much but so much more to learn.
Thanks again all.

Just remember; a graduated filter is a "straight line" graduation...you will have a noticable "line of exposure" from one area to the next and with the irregular shape of cars...it might not be a good thing.

If it were me, and I HAD to get the sky in each shot as you said, I'd expose for the sky and add some fill flash to the cars.

On a more basic level, there are many ways to even out these sorts of things:

1.) Learn to frame the sky out.

2.) Wait to shoot until the sky is the same relative brightness as the cars

3.) Expose for the bright part and add light to the dark part to even them out.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

rpavich wrote:

Just remember; a graduated filter is a "strai... (show quote)

#3 would imply that you are shooting raw although you may be able to do a little with jpg. The rationale - you can't recover much if anything from blown out whites. On the other hand, there are a lot of details in the shadows which can be pulled out in post.