great8hiker

How does one get a blue sky in photos? When I take a picture of sky the color blue always seems washed out. Using a SONY DSC-HX80 camera.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Nice shot

great8hiker

Thanks. I just wish the sky looked the way my eyes saw it.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

There are a few ways to get blue skies:
1. Shoot with the sun at your back.
2. Use a circular polarizing filter. In this case the sun has to be 90 degrees to either side of your subject for this to work.
3. Expose for the sky. If you do this you will lose detail in the other elements of your photo (as you can see in your example)
4. Use a tripod and take multiple (at least 3) exposures for the sky, for midtones, for shadows and then (using post-processing software) combine them into a single image (HDR).

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Proper exposure will do it. Your image is over exposed, probably caused by shooting in AUTO mode with such a dark foreground. You need to become the photographer rather than letting your camera do what it wants to do.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

In addition to the other suggestions you can always use a photo editor, you can select the blue color and adjust the hue, saturation and luminance. This often gets a better "blue."

Linary Loc: UK

This is one of those occasions when a jpeg can be usefully processed further by a programme such as Lightroom. I downloaded you photo and brought out the buried colours just by adding vibrance, haze removal and a dash of clarity. I have no idea what colour the sky should be (I was not there) but my enhanced version shows a darker blue sky with a slightly orange tint in the clouds. (I can post the results if you so wish).

I did not do anything tricky, the colours are all in the image, they just need to be brought out.

Revet Loc: Fairview Park, Ohio

This was done in Lightroom by lowering the bluel Luminosity and increasing the blue saturation. The trees were brought out by increasing the shadows. The highlights were dropped a little also which darkens the sky. You can also do this with the graduated filter in LR if you want to leave the rest of the photo alone.

Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

A circular polarizer will have some effect to darken the sky at less than a 90 degree angle but the effect progressively lessens as the angle decreases.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I think most of the problem is haze and a lot of that can be cut through in PP. The appearance of the sky is affected by haze and tour elevation. My photos at Crater Lake had such a deep blue sky that it looked artificial to me. And normally I don't remember what the sky actually looked like, most of the time, since it's not my main subject. So I don't have a real baseline to be able to figure out what color to bring it to in PP.

MtnMan Loc: ID

Or reduce luminosity in Lightroom.

Spirit Vision Photography Loc: Behind a Camera.

Polarizing filter.

(Download)


(Download)

Beercat Loc: Central Coast of California

1. Use a CP and take your shot in the morning or late afternoon to get more angle from the sun. During the winter many areas already have the sun down lower in the sky all day which makes the CP usable all day long or at least later in the morning and earlier in the afternoon. You can over use a CP ... look at the subject, does it already have an uneven blue from left to right? If it does then the CP can be pushed a bit more but if the blue is even you should be careful not to force the CP as it will look strange.
2. Shot HDR with in camera or in PP by using several different exposures of the same setting, meaning it's best to use a tripod.
3. When your exposure is correct the blue will come out
4. moving your black slider to increase gain will bring out the colors, not talking about the shadows, the black slider. If you try and draw the shadows out you will introduce grain.
5. If you try and take a single shot the camera is not capable of the such a huge dynamic range thus the HDR mode

I always say get in right in the camera and then do just a tad of PP to enhance, you do not want to use PP to fix a shot that was not taken correctly.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Where was the graveyard? Little Big Horn?

Spirit Vision Photography Loc: Behind a Camera.

The High Lonesome of Oregon state.